Jharvey
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hi. I'm brand new to the forum and fish keeping. I have a 10-gallon tank (freshwater, heated to 78, ph 7.4)and After over three days of fish-in cycling I have seen no ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates. Is it just too soon? The fish - 3 small zebra danios - are very active and seem healthy. One does seem to be a bit of a bully and chases the other two.
Background:
Ran the new tank 1 day and got two plants (one with plant wool that I left on) and three guppies who all died within a day. I unfortunately thought the advice at our chain store would be enough... I know better now. I emptied the water, refilled, replanted, added bottled bacteria (have since read that was probably useless but oh well), waited a week and Bought an API master test kit. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates tested at 0. I added a piece of filter (the cloth-like kind) from my sister's established tank to mine and bought 3 small zebra danios. I also bought a plant from the lfs that was growing in a rock and had been living in one of their fish tanks. I have been testing daily and have seen no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. Shouldn't I have seen something by now (3 days)? Or could the the seeded filter, plant wool and/or plant rock have provided enough bacteria to cycle immediately?
How long should I wait to add a couple more danios and a Molly if my daily tests still show no ammonia or nitrites? I'm hoping adding more danios will help calm the aggressive one. Or should I not worry about that? I can't tell if he ever manages to actually nip the other two. They have some good hiding spots with the five plants and a little castle.
FYI, I have a HOB filter that came with the tank and I stuffed in a replacement pack of the biofilter media that goes with different filter kit (aqua something?) just to give the bacteria a better place to grow. This was by recommendation of lfs.
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!
Background:
Ran the new tank 1 day and got two plants (one with plant wool that I left on) and three guppies who all died within a day. I unfortunately thought the advice at our chain store would be enough... I know better now. I emptied the water, refilled, replanted, added bottled bacteria (have since read that was probably useless but oh well), waited a week and Bought an API master test kit. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates tested at 0. I added a piece of filter (the cloth-like kind) from my sister's established tank to mine and bought 3 small zebra danios. I also bought a plant from the lfs that was growing in a rock and had been living in one of their fish tanks. I have been testing daily and have seen no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. Shouldn't I have seen something by now (3 days)? Or could the the seeded filter, plant wool and/or plant rock have provided enough bacteria to cycle immediately?
How long should I wait to add a couple more danios and a Molly if my daily tests still show no ammonia or nitrites? I'm hoping adding more danios will help calm the aggressive one. Or should I not worry about that? I can't tell if he ever manages to actually nip the other two. They have some good hiding spots with the five plants and a little castle.
FYI, I have a HOB filter that came with the tank and I stuffed in a replacement pack of the biofilter media that goes with different filter kit (aqua something?) just to give the bacteria a better place to grow. This was by recommendation of lfs.
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!