jgoodstein

Here's my story:

Wife wins goldfish at carnival (its actually a gold barb) early December:

On way home we pick up 2.5 gallon tank. The guy says it probably won't live but try adding the water treatment then putting the fish in. we do, the fish lives.

two days later wife buys a molly and 5 neon tetras to put in tank. Well teh tetras started to die off one by one and soon enough we were left with only the barb and the molly.

Late December early Jan, i discover Fishlore. I read, read, and read some more. I discover all sorts of things i did wrong. I then go ahead and upgrade to a 29 gallon tank and using biospira transfer the two remaining fish into the tank. I wait a week and add another dose of biospira with 5 cherry barbs. The biospira was added again as a way to allow the filter to accept 5 fish at once. Well All through my water was testing quite awkward. I thought it was the biospira playing tricks on me. Well, I called them and they said no it wasn't. Well Fish soon disappeared and to make a long story shorter I am down to the molly, a pleco, and 1 chery barb.

On a good note for the last five days my water has tested to the level that i feel is sufficient. I guess I'm mostly asking if it indeed is sufficient?

I use the API master test kit here are my results for last nights test:

pH: 7.6 on ph test
High PH: 7.4 ( Some one explain why this is)
nitrate: 10ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
ammonia: 0ppm

So the question is am i now ready to add fish again with out killing all of them?

Now i should be fine with a weekly water change and be able to come into a routine right?

sirdarksol

Seems right to me. 10ppm nitrate with no nitrite or ammonia looks like a completed cycle. (I could be wrong, though. I have been before)
Not sure why the two tests came up different.

Barbrella

Params look good. I would add a few fish at a time, and keep testing. Cherry barbs are normally very hardy so you might want to start there.

That pleco you have, if it's Acanthicus adonis, is going to grow over 3 feet long so I suggest you take it back where you got it.

jgoodstein

The adonis is going to a much larger tank once he reaches 6 inches, I was informed by the LFS that this species of adonis never peaks above 9 inches, if he does we have homes lined up for him even one for if he gets to be 3 feet.

Barbrella

Very important point: Most employees at petstores know close to nothing about any of the fish they sell. If any of them do have a clue, they'll often tell you anything to get you to buy something. We've all been through it and mostly learned the hard way to not ask them questions and to ignore any advice they give.

But if you thought he'd only be 9", why did you line up homes for him at 3 feet? It's nearly impossible to find homes for huge plecos, since everyone wants to dump them. You're lucky if you know someone with an 8' tank.

Planet Catfish doesn't agree with your LFS.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...species_id=277

susitna-flower

Your tank sounds like it is cycled now, you should do a water change before you bring more fish home. A 25 to 50% change every week will keep things good, if you don't over stock the tank.

The next problem you might encounter is introducing your fish too fast to the tank. ONLY get one or two at a time, unless you are getting something like corys that should be purchased at least 3 of the same kind all at once. Less than three corys will stress just because they do that....

What I am trying to get to though is that the process of introducing them to the tank has to be slow....YOUR tank has different water than the store, so you need to float the bag in your tank and add a little (1/2 c. / 15 min) for a couple of hours...this will let your new fish adjust slowly..
Then net them out of the bag and put in your tank. Have the lights off till the next day, and don't feed for 12 hours.

Good Luck with the next round....

angelfish220

I would do everything that susitna-flower said and you will be good

sirdarksol

Important to note that this means the lights are off during the acclimation, as well. Those little bags soak up heat if the lights are on. Then, when you let them out, they get a shock of cold water.

One other thing of note is that it is better to net the fish and release just the fish into the tank. It's just best to get as little water from the petstore as possible into the tank.

jgoodstein

Theres a FW aquarium that i called and spoke to this morning that said they'd be happy to take the pleco once/if he got to big. I called the LFS and talked to them about it as well the manager agreed that they would start posting species names on the tanks and he was going to give me %50 credit on my fish for any confusion that may have occurred.

That was good customer service. I'm going to pick up a dwarf Gourami in the next few days after a water change me thinks.