How often to add fish?

[ferg42995]

New cycled tank is ready for fish! I know not to add them all at once, but how long must I wait to see if the bioload is ready to add the next batch? If I add a school of 6 small fish Saturday, do I wait a week before adding the next batch and so on? How long should the water tests be good before I can feel confident it’s time to add the next group?

 

[GlennO]

Your plan sounds good. 6 at a time a week apart with testing in between. After fishless cycling you should have a sizable bacteria colony and it may even be possible to add your complete stocking but I still feel that it pays to play it safe and exercise a little patience. What level of ammonia did you maintain during cycling?

 

[ferg42995]

Thank you!

 

[FishGirl115]

Sounds good to me!

 

[Dennis57]

Once a week to play it safe, like said above.

 

[ferg42995]

So if I’m doing it once a week, do I have to quarantine starting on week 2?

 

[mattgirl]

Please refresh my memory. How much ammonia was this tank processing? I am thinking we got it up to either 3 or 4ppm. If that is the case you can add most of your stock all at the same time.

 

[ferg42995]

We did get it up to 3 or 4. But that has been a week because it was day after Thanksgiving. Then I did water changes every day M-F this week with treated RO water to get the right GH and pH. The nitrates were above 80 for several days. I had one ammonia spike to .5 and nitrites of .25 on Wed. LFS said probably had some food that had accumulated too much during cycling and had me vacuum the gravel. That worked as I went back to 0. I took out fake plants last night to plant more real ones. I have a sponge I’ve been seeding in there that I plan to move to QT tank today. That will seed it I hope.

 

[mattgirl]

We did get it up to 3 or 4. But that has been a week because it was day after Thanksgiving. Then I did water changes every day M-F this week with treated RO water to get the right GH and pH. The nitrates were above 80 for several days. I had one ammonia spike to .5 and nitrites of .25 on Wed. LFS said probably had some food that had accumulated too much during cycling and had me vacuum the gravel. That worked as I went back to 0. I took out fake plants last night to plant more real ones. I have a sponge I’ve been seeding in there that I plan to move to QT tank today. That will seed it I hope.

Changing out the water shouldn't have affected the amount of bacteria you had grown. You can test it out by adding ammonia one more time. If it will process 3ppm ammonia in 24 hours you should be able to go ahead and stock this tank instead of just adding a few fish at a time.

When fish in cycling a tank it is a good idea to add just a few fish at a time to allow the bacteria to catch up with the higher bio-load. One good thing about doing a fishless cycle is you can grow enough bacteria to handle adding your full stock of fish all at the same time. Since you used both fish food and ammonia to cycle this tank you have grown some strong bacteria. It is the exact bacteria you would have grown had you done a fish in cycle.

 

[StarGirl]

We need a picture of those "real" plants too when your done...

 

[ferg42995]

We need a picture of those "real" plants too when your done...

I was planting them last night and was amazed how good they looked after shipping. There was NO issue with any of them!

 

[StarGirl]

I was planting them last night and was amazed how good they looked after shipping. There was NO issue with any of them!

Yay!