55gal. cycling help, other fish to add to tank

[JamesY]

Hey all,

I'm going to pick up my 55gal tank I put on hold tonight. It comes with a heater and filter and everything I need except water + fish basically. How do I go about cycling such a big tank. I got some aquasafe drops aswell to make tap water safe for the fish. I am thinking about buying some plants to grow in the tank to soak up the nitrates I think they are, so I won't have aproblem with chlorine, nitrite, or nitrate. do I have that part right?

What else do I need to know about cycling and how to go about doing it?

I got a Betta right now, I don't know how long we will last as he was in fights before and is pretty skitzy and lazy but I'm going to try it. I am also going to pickup 2 Bala Sharks and my brother wants a Red Tail shark. What other fish can I put in here where I wont have any issues with fighting or other fish getting eaten?

Thanks all for your help.

[Julie]

Buy some Bio-Spira...if you can't find it in stores, then you can order it on line. Any other cycling product is a waste of money, IMO. Bio-Spira has to be kept cold because (unlike the others) it does actually contain LIVE bacteria, which will greatly help you on cycling. You need to use the water conditioner every time you add water to the tank. Only healthy, growing plants will help with your tanks parameters and that is only to a degree(you need plant lighting, some kind of substrate and ferts to keep plants). You will, IMO, experience ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. First is ammonia, very toxic to fish, if you have fish in there don't let the ammonia get any higher than .50ppm, you will need some to complete the cycle, but too much will kill the fish. The ammonia gets eaten by the bio bugs and gets turned into nitrite, less toxic but still deadly, I would not let the nitrite go above 1.0ppm again if you have fish in there. The nitrite get eaten and turned into nitrAtes, the beginning of nitrates tells you you are almost finished cycling! Yeah. Nitrates are toxic but they have to be in larger amounts, 40ppm and lower is about the safest. NitrAtes also let you know how often you should be doing water changes, once they build up(hopefully before actually) you know you need to do a water change. If you haven't already, pick up test kits. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals makes a good one, fresh water master test kit for about $15-20. Congrats on the tank!

As far as fish, you really need to have hardy fish to begin with the cycling. You need fish to produce the ammonia, a lot of fish are very sensitive to ammonia, so a hardy fish is in order. Or you can do a fishless cycle, it's up to you. You do not want to fully stock your tank until you are done cycling. Start off with about 20 give or take inches of fish per gallon, and REALLY watch your parameters! Do water changes until any of the above parameters come back down to the normal level, .50 ammonia, 1. nitrite, 40 nitrates, etc. Everytime they get above that, you will be jeopordizing the health of your fish, go water changes are in order. Do not siphon the gravel or change the filter media until you are closer to the end of the cycle. It takes 4-6weeks to cycle a tank, without Bio-spira. Bio-spira is added when you add the fish and it will GREATLY reduce this time, usually with it , it would only take days-maybe 2 weeks, as long as it has been properly stored. After your tank has cycled you can get about any fish you want-It takes a little patience to cycle properly, but will save you time and money. If you have another aquarium or know someone who does, using some of the bacteria collected on the filter media will be helpful, or some gravel in a nylon stocking placed in your tank for awhile will help. Conditioners such as Prime or Novaqua AND AmQuel together will bind ammonia and nitrite into a safer form but still digested by the bio bugs, allowing you to not to stress your fish out as much. I would suggest either of those for a water conditioner, especially, while cycling. Congrats on the new tank!!!

[Lexus]

http://www.fishforums.com/phpBB/kb.p...ticle&k=12

[Mobern]

Bala sharks get WAY too big for a 55 gallon tank. They are a no-no-- unnacceptable!

You could get the following however:
1 RTBS:
12 Tiger Barbs
12 Zebra Danios

OR (if your careful and pick out all the calmest and most non-aggressive tiger barbs and RTBS so no fins will get nipped):
1 RTBS
7 Tiger Barbs
7 Zebra Danios
7 dwarf rainbows
3 dwarf gouramis: 1 male and 2 females

whatcha think?