New girl

[wildone]

Hi, I'm new to this form and I'm really looking forward to talking and learning from all of you.
I set up my 55 gallon tank a week ago, I am currently growing my plants from bulbs that I put in the tank. 3 water Lilly's 2 water onions. I am cycling the tank with 4 tiger barbs, I know there are those who don't like this method, but I test the water daily. Ammonia is 0.25, no Nitrate our nitrite yet, ph 7.0 temp 79, slightly cloudy. I have 2 whisper 30 60.filters and a bubble strip. So far the fish are happy and very hungry, I'm hoping to have a community tank filed with happy healthy fish in about 6 weeks, (I'll add more fish then) Any input or info is greatly appreciated. Thanx for welcoming me.

 

[Mebbid]

I think the fish in method is just fine as long as the person doing it is attentive enough. My only thought is that the tiger barbs are fairly aggressive fish and you might run into a lot of issues with them bullying other community fish.

This is a good link that I have run into during my travels around the aquarium world and is a useful one to look at when cycling.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

 

[GreenLily]

Welcome! As Mebbid stated, Tiger Barbs are aggressive and fin nippers, I think if you do enough research, you can find the right combination to make it as peaceful as possible. Sounds like you are off to a good start!

 

[wildone]

Thank you so much, that link was very helpful, what I am going to do with the barbs is to give them to my daughter who has a well established tank, I would get some of her water to help seed mine but she had her red tail black shark die as well as a pleco. It's been a month now and she did a 75% wc but I don't want the risk.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA.