Tony s

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Our first tank was a betta tank, then we added the harlequins to that. first fish ever. My daughter had won a fish at a county fair in one of the ball toss games. It didn't make it through the night. next morning I had a very upset 6-year-old, so we went and got a couple of cheap tanks. I had never heard of the cycle. didn't know anything. made tons of mistakes. But I tell everyone, we mess it up then fix it. it's how we learn. and that was only a couple of years ago. You are lightyears better than I ever was when starting. But we learn. For the bettas, we usually add them last. simply because they don't live a very long life from the box stores. supposed to live up to 5 years, but usually anywhere from 4 months to 2 years. they simply have a rougher life until someone comes to rescue them. aggression in bettas is more of the individual's personality. some are just more aggressive than others. you'll have to watch that for a while and see how they respond. but I wouldn't hesitate about putting them first, I find them nonaggressive with non bettas. Honey gourami's are not really schooling fish, but they are a bit social and like to be in small groups. but they're okay as single fish as well. and then add guppies when your tank is well cycled. I have never bought from a breeder before. we live in a rural area and there are none. It's an hour drive to one of my local stores and a 2-hour drive to the other in Indianapolis. I have a different definition of local store. 🙂 And I wait for my daughter's gymnastics to go there I have purchased online only once, from a non-coop affiliate. I bought rams which are kind of risky in my water, but oh so pretty. They didn't make it. It was a risk, I thought i had a good setup for them. But I learn. Aquarium coop has affiliation with Dan's fish (I am so tempted there) and aqua huna which are excellent online stores.

I can tell you what fish I had the most luck with. We also started on 10g tanks, and honestly not that long ago. Bettas- You know. the ones they keep in the cups. you can only do one. they tend to fight each other till one dies which is why they're in the cups and can't see each other. they're mostly peaceful with non bettas. I keep six usually, in community tanks with other peaceful fish. They can breathe air so that helps them while cycling a tank. they don't always have to breathe through the bad water. they have a ton of personality too. and are extremely colorful. gourami's- these are related to the bettas. also can breathe air. so, again that eases the cycle for them. The best one for a ten is called the honey gourami. it's a bit harder to find. they may not be at the big box pet stores. One for a ten is usually still the recommendation. but really cute. mostly slow moving like the betta. They have two front "arms" they use to feel their way around their tank. The next gourami is a dwarf gourami. This one may be better in a bigger tank, but since they're also slow moving, a 10 is highly doable. it just limits potential tank mates to a few. only 1 in a ten. these are very colorful as well. not as colorful as the betta, but still pretty good. they range from a powder blue color to a kind of red body with pale blue or silver stripes. Big box pet stores do carry these. Harlequin rasboras- In my opinion, these little fish are highly under-rated because they're beginner friendly. these you can do more than 1 of. they're loosely schooling fish and need 5-6 to feel safe. very pretty, they have a silver/copper body with a dark black triangular patch in the middle. When they get older, they're coloration can change into a very metallic copper color. really very pretty. danios- you already know about those. there are other hardy fish that are easy to start with, but they need a bigger tank. Things like black skirt tetras (which are also the glo tetras, like your danios) and the small corydoras they carry. Theoretically, you could add a few of these later, as you get the hang of things. The nice thing about the harlequins, once your tank is well cycled, you could add more harlequins. or, you could even add one betta or one gourami. I have a tank that's been running for years. It's always had 9 harlequins and 1 betta. it's very peaceful. very colorful. Its slightly overstocked, but gets more water changes, so it's fine. You just have to make sure the betta gets his food as that's about the only time the rasboras have anything resembling speed. But that's okay. He and I have an understanding. He comes to his corner, and he gets fed. with the honey gourami you could even try the guppies again

Very correct again, no arguments from me. Maintenance is key. It's why I advocate for daily testing. just so they get a good grasp how and when to test. a "feel" for what's going on. Then once a week is more than sufficient. Then just prime for dichlorination after, Yeah, I absolutely do not agree with people using additives in place of work. It's bad habits. I personally never use a dechlorinator even. I have bad well water instead. But for city water, I wouldn't take the chance of not using it

Absolutely correct. But unless, they're doing water doing water changes every day like some people, Hi! :), they may miss when they're fully cycled.

Apisto females are usually kind of drab. I have heard that panduros color up on both sexes. Not a spectacular as some. But still colorful and hardy

And you have a 95% chance of having no issues at all 😉

That is correct. But you're dealing with people's pets. The fact there is a debate isn't really relevant. People keep bringing that up, that debate has no place when you're trying to help save the life of their animals. If there is a chance it works, we use it. period, end of story. Academic arguments are great, but not in this kind of situation,

Right. Cory just had to back up the failed units. Whole different situation

The other thing to think about, if it looks exactly the same, it is going to be made by the same manufacturer. And inheritably, carry the exact same flaws that caused Cory to drop them in the first place. But if you like them, go for it

I’d be hesitant right now. Possibly adding some more ammonia and seeing how fast it disappears. If you’re at the point where it reads 0 ammonia and you’ve built up some nitrates, you may be good. Nitrates are the key. No nitrates, probably not cycled. If it takes longer than 24 hours you’re probably not quite cycled yet. But probably very close. If it clears in a day and you get nitrates, you have a basic cycle. A baby bacteria colony, if you will. You’re safe to add a few fish at this point. Just keep testing daily to make sure the colony can keep up with your fish. Bacteria colonies grow and change depending on the number and size of your fish. A new colony may not quite be able to keep up yet. And you may still see ammonia occasionally. Then water change. add some prime to dechlorinate and you should be good. If you’re able to stay at zero, you can slow your testing to once or twice a week

Yeah, that’s not really how prime works. Prime is mostly a good dechlorinator. You want to use it mainly after every water change. It eliminates the chlorine in your tap water. It also has the side effect of neutralizing ammonia. Just putting it in without the water change doesn’t really help. when you’re testing for ammonia and need a water change, then you use prime. But, the key is testing. when using fish food for ammonia you need to keep adding a bit daily. To provide a consistent source of ammonia. I’m guessing your cycle stalled out after it used up your ammonia. So this really will be a fish-in cycle. That’s ok. As long as you’re testing every day. Changing water every day. And using the prime afterwards. You can start using the stability again if you’d like. Just follow its directions on the back. It may speed up the process. What you’re looking for. You’ll start to see ammonia after a couple of days. Do your water changes. Keep your fish safe. Then after 4-5 days, you’ll start to see nitrites form. And possibly ammonia starting to disappear. After a couple of weeks (yes, weeks, this isn’t going to fast) the ammonia should be at zero. You may still have nitrites. That would be normal. You’d still do water changes with nitrites. Then a couple more days, you should have zero nitrites and zero ammonia. You should always show nitrates at this point. And you’ll be cycled. You want to keep nitrates under 50 for fish health, but you’d only need to do water changes if they get above that. Once every week or longer. Most people on this kind of forum will still do weekly changes. Which is great. People who don’t do forums like this, do much less. The key is still testing. Periodically. Unfortunately, you can’t see if your water needs changing. If you actually can see, you’re already having major problems. once you’re cycled, it really gets much easier. Cycling with fish requires the most work. But it also builds some good habits. Which will help your corys stay happy and healthy.

Yeah, that’s kind of the conclusion I’m coming to. The strips do a decent job, but you can’t beat the api kit

If the tank is empty, you have 2 basic options. Trying again after a bit, maybe couple of days to a week or 2. Or you could completely break it down and let it dry out. This would kill any disease issues. Personally, I would choose the first option. Most common disease causing organisms are always In with the fish anyway. As long as they’re not under stress, they don’t get sick. at this point you could do a fish less cycle. Which would be easier on you. And we could go through that as well

Apparently I gave you the wrong video. That was Jason being the professor. Might have been information overload. This might be better. I had the same issue when starting out. Low to zero ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. My fish store called my water still sterile. Basically a completely uncycled tank. I was having a lot of issues with bloat, dropsy, ich, and just fish suddenly dying. A lot of that was just very stressed out fish. They became very susceptible to every disease and die really quickly. yes, stress ich is a thing. But it’s just regular ich that comes on very quickly from stress. Actually most ich is caused by stress. if you’re seeing ammonia, and nothing else. No nitrates or nitrites, it’s still an uncycledtank. Which could very easily cause all kinds of diseases to manifest. your kh, gh, ph are quite good for live bearers. Your water isn’t really that hard. Mine is closer to 300gh, 240kh. So no issues there. Although kh and gh almost never cause issues like that I’m not sure if you have anybody left at this point. If not, I’m sorry for your losses. I’ve been there before. It’s just a completely helpless feeling when you’re new. if you do, I can walk you through a fish-in cycle. The problem being if they’re not eating, they’re not producing waste either.

You’ll be fine doing just water changes. If you’re concerned, do several smaller changes over the week. It will correct itself. I’m guessing water changes have gotten away from you in this tank. It’s not a problem, happens to most people from time to time

Also not sure what you’re testing with. API makes a thing called api master test kit. It has tests in it for all 3. All water droplets and test tubes. Kinda fun actually. It’s one of the best tests you can get. An alternative for test strips is the coops own strips. You’d want the ammonia on for sure, but then you’d have to get the other tests in a different strip.

If you have access to a local fish store they would have acces to even more and better plants. I have what’s called hornwort in most of my tanks. Helps to keep the nitrates down. Nitrates would be the end product of your tank’s cycle. We go from ammonia, to nitrites, to nitrates. Nitrates are technically not poisonous. But they do make existence rather unpleasant for fish and can cause stress diseases. Plants are one method of reducing nitrates, the other is water change. You’ll need to be testing for all 3 on a regular basis. Nitrates for plants are best kept under 50. Fish may prefer lower still I’ve heard nitrates described as being in a smoke filled room. Some is okay. But the higher the smoke gets, the harder it becomes to breathe. Same with nitrates

Correct, although any ammonia or nitrites can cause damage. So if you see any, time for a water change. Best be safe. drop and go plants include Java moss and Java fern. Broader leaved plants like any anubias (keep the rhizome above the gravel or they rot). Basically anything at petco/petsmart will work and be hardy. Gravel is not the best but it works fine. It’s what I use.things like sword plants need fertilizer tablets called root tabs.

I included Jason’s video here, he can explain the cycle better than I can. He’s a microbiology professor from around Chicago. I love his channel. He does such a wonderful job explaining things to regular people. He also does fish profiles of the fish he keeps. He also has hard water like we do. So, what he’ll show you will work for hard water. Most live bearers like water on the hard side anyway. Hi Colu, she had a question about how long does a disease take to clear a tank. I haven’t got an answer for her. Do you? I’m not honestly sure she had a disease and the fish didn’t just stress out. A disease shouldn’t be that lethal that quickly.

I’m not if you had an actual disease, or if they were just showing signs of stress. My neons don’t usually show symptoms, they just disappear. I keep snails in all my tanks, so probably snail food. gh (general hardness) is the amount of calcium/magnesium you have in your water. kh (carbonic hardness) is related to alkalinity of your water. Now, not talking about about the acid/base ratio. True alkalinity is a measure of how resistant your water is to ph swings. Which is very helpful in stabilizing your tanks ph. Extremely important, you need some or it can vary wildly, which is bad for your fish. that being said, you’re better off just understanding what they are. The harder your water, the higher your gh and kh are going to be. Keeping fish, it’s usually not going to be an issue. Where it becomes an issue is in breeding some fish. Some people will play around with these values and do what’s called chasing their ph. It’s really not advisable for regular people to mess with. Just use what you have coming from your tap and you’ll be fine. Remembering to use a good dechlorinator after every water change. Seachem prime is now carried at petsmart/petco and seems to be about the best.

Yeah, at the very early stages of a cycle at best. And 6 Cory’s are going to push the limits. As I said, keep a very close eye on your ammonia. Use api master test kit. If possible. At the least, I believe api makes a test kit for ammonia. You’ll probably want to do this daily for a couple of weeks. If/when you see ammonia, you’ll want change about half the water with fresh water. Grab a small bottle of Seachem prime and use after every batch of new water. City water contains chlorine to kill bacteria. Your cycle is also based on your good bacteria. Prime has the added benefit of helping to neutralize the remaining ammonia. So you’ll be good until you check it the next day. Petsmart/petco also has their own brand of bacteria you can add to speed your cycle. Not sure what you’re currently using. Fritzzyme 7 is better than theirs, if you can get. People get wound up on whether this works or not. Honestly, if there is a chance it helps (I believe it does), go ahead and add bacteria according to directions. when you get to the point of seeing no ammonia for a couple of days, then you can relax your testing to 1-2 times a week. By then you’ll be cycled. But, really, enjoy your fish. That’s the whole point after all. I know you’re going to do your best for them.

The only thing else I would add would be some fritz turbo start or fritzzyme7. Just to give your bacteria colony a potential boost

I myself can’t keep standard neons alive more than a couple of weeks. Losing upwards of 70%