abc123d30

ammonia should be 0, nitrite should be 0, nitrate should be around 5 or 10, and pH depends on what fish you have. The ammonia and nitrites are very toxic to your fish, and could very well kill them. Trust me, I've been learning the hard way, my tank is going through a mini cycle and only 1 of my tiger barbs is survivng.

You should be doing about 50% water changes daily and add prime or amquel with each change until you have ammonia-0, and nitrites-0.

Time

nitrate should be at 0 in my tank. Lol but yes 5 or 10 youll be fine. Some have 20 and are fine. ammonia and nitrite should be at 0 for advanced organisms(like fish) to survive.

Lucy

Nitrate shouldn't be at 0 in a cycled tank unless it's heavily planted.

10gallonmadness

Your pH is fine. Most fish will adapt without problems to your pH, mine is 6.4 and I'm doing well. I don't think a pH of 6.5 would really limit you to what fish you could keep pH wise. But if you really wanted to raise your pH you could try crushed shells.

Time

Let me rephrase my post: Nitrate should be at zero in my tank. I wouldn't call my tank heavily planted but nitrate was at 0 last time I checked.

jarrod

well im thinkin of adding some fish to my 10 gal pretty soon, i was thinkin about gettin some guppies, and some neon tetras..i would like to get a small school of each, maybe 4?

then somekind of bottom feder/cleaner.

would that be to many fish?? obviously im not goin to get them all at once. how long should i leave between introductions?? ive herd people adding fish then it ruining their cycle??

thanks, what do you guys recomend?

jdhef

Not sure on the adult sizes of those fish (and too lazy to look it up right now), but I think you would be overstocked. You really shouldn't have more than 10" of adult size fish (for the fish you are considering).

Generally you can add two of three fish wait 10-14 days, then add two or three more wait 10-14 days...until fully stocked.

abc123d30

Is your tank cycled yet?

iloveengl

I agree with jdhef that 4 gups and 4 neons would be too much. Once your ammonia and nitrite = 0, then you could add your fish at about 2 per week.

You could do 2 male guppies (or two female) and two honey dwarf gouramis in your 10g if you plant (real or fake) heavily. You could add a mystery snail to clean the tank or perhaps a cory cat (though I don't know much at all about cories) or an Oto.

Or you could do two male (or two female) gups & a VERY pretty school of 6 neon tetras. Then you could also toss in some shrimp if you'd like something to clean the bottom.

* * *Though you have to be a bit more careful when stocking a smaller tank, you can easily have a very pretty and entertaining little tank if you do it thoughtfully. The more plants (real or fake) that you have of varying lengths, the happier your fish will be and the more you will see them swimming around having a good time.

jarrod

[quote=iloveengl;667300]

Or you could do two male (or two female) gups & a VERY pretty school of 6 neon tetras. Then you could also toss in some shrimp if you'd like something to clean the bottom.
[quote]


i like that idea..after my tank is cycled, ill be probably start doin that..

is there a reason why either 2 male or 2 female gups, and not one of each?


the LFS had some dwarf puffers, **** did they look cool..i wish i had a bigger tank sometimes..lol

iloveengl

Yes -- if you have only one female and one male, your male will literally exhaust/stress the female to death. You really need a harem (1 male & at least 3 females) of guppies & you don't have room for a harem of gups in your tank if you want anything else.

I have a 55g with harems of mollies, guppies, and platties. I like it a lot. They're so colorful and active. I've heard some people on the forum say they have problems with their male guppies, but Iv'e kept mine in groups of 2-4 and they always got along like buddies (though, I only had that many males when I didn't have females).

jarrod

well woke up to a surprise this morning..

i turned the light on and only saw 2 fish, but on further inspection i could my air opening cofin( see pic on first page) had closed on one of my long fin tetras trapin it half in half out under the lid..

first thing i thaught was, oh no..dead. well i opened the lid and he swap away..dont know how long he was there but he wasnt movin at all when i saw him traped..

all seems to be good now..

jarrod

hey, how do you think a kuhli loach would do in 10gal..? i saw one at the lfs and was kinda neat..


are they good with other tropical fish..? how muchdo they add tot he bio load, are they a good bottom cleaner??

jarrod

well i think my tank is finally cycled..so ive been addin a couple fish..

heres a new pic..

Attached Images

DSC03251.JPG (143.7 KB, 34 views)

jarrod

well tank is up an running, and as far as i can tell its finally finished its cycle, and the DG's seemed to have takin the center rock/cave as their pad.(male hangs out inside alot recently, and the female seem to stay around the ouside of it..)i think i gotta buy another cave like thing for her.. kida looks like shes homeless..
everyone seems to be gettin along..so far.. neons ignore everyone and everyone ignores them.. and when the dg's(mostly the male) get close to one of the long fin tetras, they just poke them with their feelers..lol the female also likes to pick at thing, shes always huntin for little scraps, eithe eatin the algea off the coffin i got, or pickin at the gravel for peices of food, etc.. is it comon??

but i do have a couple questions,

1. the water was fairly clear, but now its started to get a bit cloudy.. not like an algea bloom, just like a light fog.. whats up??

2. im readin about these bubble nests that the dwarf guaramis make, is there anything i can do to start it along?, or do they just do it when they feel like it??

3. now that its cycled, do i still add the prime with the water changes??

readings.. as of today..

nitrites--- 0
amonia--- 0
nitrate---2? barely changed the water in test.(the 2 real plants seemd to have droped it significantly)
ph------- 6
temp----80

jdhef

Generally white cloudiness is due to a bacteria bloom and will go away in a couple of days. This could happen if you recently added fish.

Male's build bubble nest when they are ready to mate, so he might not be ready yet.

You need to use some sort of water conditioner to your tap water to remove chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals, and Prime is just as good as any product at doing that, so yes...you should still use it.

jarrod

ya i just added the dg, and the center cave..hopefully itll go away soon..

thanks

jarrod

hey, well the cloudyness stayed so i did a wc, well that seems to have done the job..

but weird thing has happened, my ott0 has totally vanished??not even a body to be found??

and now i have 2 snails..

abc123d30

It was the fish aliens
Are you sure he's gone? Did you check under decorations and behind plants?

jarrod

ive been lookin everywhere.., havent seen him in like a week..??

Lucy

The tank looks good! Sorry about your oto. Unfortunatly, the other inhabitants cold make quick work of him if he passed.