[Bjornzantine]

Just wanted to ask a quick question and get my first post out on this forum.
I have a two week old fully cycled 20 gallon planted tank (Fluval 207, No CO2). As of 3 days ago, I got a Cobalt Blue Dwarf Gourami and 3 Leopard Cory's in my aquarium. My LFS recommended to not buy all my fish at once (don't want to ammonia-bomb my tank), so these are the ones that I got for now. I want to get about 6-8 Harlequin Rasbora's, a few Amano shrimp, and preferably a few more leopard corys if I can fit them.
My question is: How long should I wait until introducing the next few batches of fish?

Notes:
I have been testing every day and the parameters are good. 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and 10PPM Nitrates.

 

[Le duke]

Depending on how you’ve cycled your tank, you might be able to add quite a few.

How many ppm of ammonia were you dosing while cycling?


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[Bjornzantine]

Kept a 4-5PPM for week then let the cycle take place. I tested it a few days before adding fish by adding 2PPM and seeing how fast it took to fully cycle away the ammonia to zero. It took a bit over a day.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Kept a 4-5PPM for week then let the cycle take place. I tested it a few days before adding fish by adding 2PPM and seeing how fast it took to fully cycle away the ammonia to zero. It took a bit over a day.

It sounds like you didn't actually cycle your tank before adding livestock. Here's a good primer on fishless cycling. You have to add ammonia on a daily or frequent basis until the tank can process a fixed concentration of ammonia in less than 24 hours with no nitrite reading.

Like @Le duke suggested, most people 'cycle' their tank with a enough ammonia to support the livestock of they plan to have in a fully stocked tank. Once the tank is ready, usually after 4-6 weeks, they fully stock their tank from day one.

Since you already have livestock in the tank, you'll need to stagger any additions. The number of fish you can add and how frequently will really depend upon the specific fish.

One thing that will really help is to increase the plant mass in your tank. More plants = more ability to process waste.

 

[Bjornzantine]

It sounds like you didn't actually cycle your tank before adding livestock. Here's a good primer on fishless cycling. You have to add ammonia on a daily or frequent basis until the tank can process a fixed concentration of ammonia in less than 24 hours with no nitrite reading.

Like @Le duke suggested, most people 'cycle' their tank with a enough ammonia to support the livestock of they plan to have in a fully stocked tank. Once the tank is ready, usually after 4-6 weeks, they fully stock their tank from day one.

Since you already have livestock in the tank, you'll need to stagger any additions. The number of fish you can add and how frequently will really depend upon the specific fish.

One thing that will really help is to increase the plant mass in your tank. More plants = more ability to process waste.

I'm sorry if I didn't explain my situation properly. I started a fishless cycle by adding API quick start for a week while keeping my tank at 4-5 parts ammonia using Fritz Fishless. I then let off the Fritz ammonia completely and switched to seachem stability. It took a week for the ammonia to go to zero, the nitrites to spike and then go to zero, and the nitrates to show up. I then added 2 PPM ammonia to test out how cycled my tank was and it took a day for the ammonia and nitrites to go to zero. After I did this, a few days later, I found sometime after work to go to the LFS and pick up fish. I made some mistakes along the way but got my tank fully cycled.
I think what you said about adding more plants could be really helpful, I'll try to add a few more when I find time to get to my LFS. Thank you

 

[Frshwtr]

I'm sorry if I didn't explain my situation properly. I started a fishless cycle by adding API quick start for a week while keeping my tank at 4-5 parts ammonia using Fritz Fishless. I then let off the Fritz ammonia completely and switched to seachem stability. It took a week for the ammonia to go to zero, the nitrites to spike and then go to zero, and the nitrates to show up. I then added 2 PPM ammonia to test out how cycled my tank was and it took a day for the ammonia and nitrites to go to zero. After I did this, a few days later, I found sometime after work to go to the LFS and pick up fish. I made some mistakes along the way but got my tank fully cycled.
I think what you said about adding more plants could be really helpful, I'll try to add a few more when I find time to get to my LFS. Thank you

Adding more plant mass will also really help in keeping algae at bay. Find some really fast growing stems like rotala and let it go to town. I find that to FULLY cycle a tank, it's usually 3-4 months. I would definitely stagger anywhere from 1-2 new fish per week to let the bacteria colony grow to meet the new waste demands.

 

[somewhatshocked]

I find that to FULLY cycle a tank, it's usually 3-4 months.

Your tank will be "cycled" once there are enough nitrifying bacteria in the system to process a fixed concentration of ammonia into nitrate, with no detectible nitrite, within a 24-hour period. At a certain point, there are only so many bacteria that can be supported by X amount of ammonia, so no more develop. Depending upon water parameters, that's usually in 4-5 weeks at most. Usually a couple weeks longer in super-acidic conditions like those preferred for more sensitive varieties of Caridina shrimp.

Certainly great to allow a tank to mature, though. Continuing a fishless cycle and dosing ammonia every day for a couple extra months will allow for tons of biofilm and aufwuchs to develop to support micro critters that are great for fish and shrimp.

 

[sm1ke]

Cycling and testing aside, I usually wait 2-4 weeks between adding fish. This is mostly to make sure the new batch of fish isn't sick, but it also gives the tank some time to adjust to the slightly increased load.

If you have a quarantine tank, then you don't really need to do this, but I would stagger the additions to increase the bioload slowly over time.