How many fish can you add after a fishless cycle?

[rinmouse]

Hello,

I have a new 55g and am looking to add african mbunas. I am currently working on a fishless cycle. I was wondering how many fish it will be safe to add at once when it's finished, as I'm ordering online and will be getting all my stock at once.

Normally I wouldn't add more than a few fish at once to any tank, so I'm a little concerned.

 

[echoofformless]

This will have to do with how much ammonia you used in the cycle.

I dumped lots of it into my mbuna tank so I would have massive colonies waiting for my stock. It also meant lots of water changes once the cycle finished, since the nitrates were through the roof. I ended up doing something like 150% before adding the fish.

But I had no crashes or issues at all.

So I recommend it. Go overboard. But of course remember to do massive water changes once the nitrites are gone or you will have a nitrate problem the size of Jupiter on your hands.

 

[Squawkbert]

I stocked my 46 pretty quickly after a fishless cycle using (I think) 4-5ppm NH3 and I had a little bit of a spike a week later. 1-3ppm would be for a lighter initial tank bioload.

So, I'd go for 6-8ppm. I think that this is "off the chart" for most test kits, so you may want to do a 1:1 or 2:1 dilution of your tank water sample w/ RO or DI water, then multiply your result accordingly to get an accurate result.

 

[rinmouse]

My test kit goes to .25, .5, 1, 2, 4, 8. So I'll go higher then. I don't mind doing some big water changes at the end. Do you think the cycle will take much longer at the higher levels? How long do you normally wait before testing to see what your levels are at? I wanted to make sure the ammonia was evenly dispersed in the water, so waited overnight after adding, but do you think a few hours would be ok? I'm pumped.

 

[Squawkbert]

I think the bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate are the ones that take longest to adjust their population. I'd check a day or two after bumping up NH3 concentration.

 

[southpaw]

My test kit goes to .25, .5, 1, 2, 4, 8. So I'll go higher then. I don't mind doing some big water changes at the end. Do you think the cycle will take much longer at the higher levels? How long do you normally wait before testing to see what your levels are at? I wanted to make sure the ammonia was evenly dispersed in the water, so waited overnight after adding, but do you think a few hours would be ok? I'm pumped.

After adding ammonia give it an hour or so to let it mix good for a better reading. If you wait overnight you wont get a true reading of what you originally dosed it too since ammonia eating bacteria may have already started eating it up.

The first time you add it get the level to 5-6ppm. Then after the ammonia readings start falling down closer to 0ppm (might take 2 weeks or so)start dosing to keep it at around 2-3ppm and you should be in good shape. You will probably have to test around every 12 hours or so once ammonia starts dropping as with mine it would go from 2-3ppm to 0ppm within 12 hours so I had to dose it twice a day to keep ammonia present.

 

[Sploke]

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122598