Dano83

I posted a question about two weeks ago about cycling my dads tank. well we finally found some 10% ammonia and it has cycled and just needed a few fish. Anyway my dad went out today without me knowing and bought 8 danios, 6 glowlight tetres, 6 spotted cory cats & 1 rubber lip pleco for his 29 gal tank. Is his tank now over stocked?

FishKing

I don't think he did the right thing. He should have taken it a little slower. Now you maybe at risk for aa small ammonia problem, but since your tank has been cycled it should not be serious.

miker

Frequent water changes - 25% twice a week will help

COBettaCouple

He's definitely overstocked and are you sure it's cycled? That's REALLY fast! We did a 30g in a little under 3 weeks, but used summer heat in Florida to get the tank water very warm and seeded it some too.

What's his current readings for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates?

Dano83

The tank has been set up since Feb 1, 2008 and I seeded the tank with a filter pad & gravel from my tank. The readings are... pH: 7.6, ammonia: 0 PPM, nitrite: 0 ppm & nitrate: 10 ppm.

Blub

COBettaCouple

Cool.. It was seeded, that's the best way.

Well, he's got 46" worth of fish in there, so with the current population I would recommend 25-40% water changes 2x weekly with weekly cleaning and watch the chemistry closely.

travie

If you have great, regular, and routine maintenance, you can handle being overstocked, but don't add anymore fish at this point.

Eagles Fan

I always thought a tank needed to be cycled for a week before adding fish.
But I agree that was way to fast to add that many fish. You want to start with about four fish, then gradually add some every few weeks until you have what you want.

travie

If a person were to cycle their tank with the max good bacteria the tank can hold, wouldn't it be wise to add the right amount of fish to hit that max level? My thinking is if cycling the tank to the max level of bacteria, then only adding a small amount of fish, the extra bacteria would die off from lack of ammonia and nitrites.

COBettaCouple

It's best to add a group of 3 or 4 fish at a time, even if every few days. Measuring how much good bacteria that you have and the exact waste output of every fish is pretty much impossible but even if a tank is fully cycled, too many fish added at once can break the cycle. It also gives you the chance to add fish in an order to give the community the best odds of peaceful cohabitation.

travie

Yeah... I know there is more factors to be considered when adding fish, but theoretically, I would think it would be best to hit the threshold of good bacteria if it could be determined.