how many is too many

[Nautilus291]

I was wonder how many fish is too many. Right now i have a ten gallon tank with 5 platies 3 albino corys and a couple of ghost shrimp. I was thinking about adding a couple more albinos since there supposed to be schooling fish, and a couple more platies(becuase i have 3 males and 2 females, and I have heard that its better if you have more females then males. Will I over croud my tank if i do this? or do u think i should add different kinds of fish other than just 2?

[Lady Hobbs]

The rule of thumb "for small fish" is 1 inch per gallon at their full growth. What would be nice in that tank would be a bunch of neons. But for now, until that tank has finished cycling, nothing else.

Neons are very brightly colored and they are very nice all swimming together. The jumbo neons only grow to about 1 inch.

[Nautilus291]

how long does it take a tank to cycle? also how will i know when its done cycling?

[Lady Hobbs]

Every tank that is going thru a cycling process needs to have a test kit so you can test the water. Not the cheapie test strips but the liquid. Not that the test strips are cheap, either. You only get a few in the box and seldom are they accurate. I get my water testing materials from petsmart. Online it's $13 but don't know how much in the store. Some places have kits for $44and this is ridiculous and these expensive ones aren't needed at all as long as they test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH.

Ammonia is first present from fish food, urnine and from the fish gills themselves. A bacteria forms in the aquarium that will eat up this ammonia which will eventually be able to keep up with it then you will have high nitrites. ALSO LETHAL if allowed to get too high. Another bacteria will be born to eat the nitrites. Finally, you will have nitrates (note the a in this one) and it is then time to add your fish. Your ammonia at this time will be 0 and your nitrites will be 0. Finally safe for fish.

The reason we start with only maybe 3 fish in a tank your size is so the bacteria growing has time to eat up those ammonia and nitrites levels. More fish cause more problems as the bacteria can not produce itself fast enough to eat higher ammounts of ammonia so then here comes those ammonia spikes........killing everything in your tank. Also water turning white.

With the levels you now are showing, I would do a 50 percent water change, but do not clean the gravel, do not change anything in your filter and add some Stress Zyme that is sold at Walmarts or any stores like it. Add only the amount it says to add or you will get a bunch of algae. This Stress Zyme is added bacteria to help speed your cycle along.

And make sure all your water changes are declorinated water.......not just tap water. And you can also keep ammonia down by not adding too much fish food. Feed them sparingly until this cycle is over.

Every couple of days, check for ammonia levels again. You may have to do several 30% water changes until you notice ammonia is dropping. But then you have to be checking on nitrites, as well, so that those don't get too high or the water changes continue keeping that under control.

Finally, it's over! And more fish can be added.

This is why fishless cycling is so great! You add no fish, just add ammonia to your tank daily and it will cycle itself. No water changes are needed and no fish are killed. When this is finished, the fish go in the tank.

[Fishguy2727]

Assuming you keep nitrates under 40ppm, and have a filter rated for at least 20 gallons, add a few cories, return one male platy, and add another female. The platies will help overstock the tank.