[Oliver82]

Hey everyone,
First time poster here. Just upgraded to a 37G Eclipse Tank with mirrored background. Love it so far. I have a well established 10G with all my community fish (4 neon tetras, 2 albino cory cats, 3 cherry barbs, 2 hatchet fish, harlequin barbs, etc). I plan to move these fish into the 37G which has been running for 4 days now. It has 2 large fake silk plants, 2 pieces of drift wood, (1 with a live plant attached to it from petsupermarket) and also 2 live japanese grass moss balls also from the store. I added a 4 "tester" guppies a few hours after I treated the tank with aqua safe and Prime and they are doing fine 4 days later. An associate at Pet supermarket convinced me it was okay to add a few large Angelfish to the mix, which I now did, along with 4 neon tetras. The fish are getting along however from what Ive read the angels can eventually attack the neons. I was thinking of excahnging the larger angels for much smaller ones so they can grow up together and decrease chances of attacks.
Also my ammonia level reads about 1ppm (4th day) Im a little concerned and hoping this will go down. Also PH is about 7.2-7.4
Im afraid of adding my fish from the 10G, should I wait a few more days and see how the neons I put in with the angels do for a few more days?
Thank you!

 

[kamikazi]

Welcome to the forum!

Takes more than 4 days to cycle a tank. Usually takes around 4 weeks, but can be longer or shorter. I would not add anymore fish till you were certain the tank was cycled.
You will get an ammonia spike, followed by a nitrite spike, then nitrates. Once you have gone through the cycle you can perform water changes to keep the nitrates within safe levels.

It sounds like you already have a decent number of fish and fish types, I would recommend building the numbers of the schooling fish and not get any angelfish.

I'd go with at least 6 neons, at least 5 albino cories, at least 5 cherry barbs, at least 6 hatchet fish, 6 harlequins

If you LFS will accept some of your old fish for store credit you could turn in the barbs, hatchets etc and get angelfish instead. Cardinals are a bit bigger than neons and probably fair better if housed with angels.

 

[Oliver82]

Thanks for the info. I am actually attached to the community fish I have so I dont have an interest in exchanging them lol. As far as cycling the tank, I also know it could take 4 weeks however the person at the LFS told me it'd be safe. Everyones got a different opinion! I'd like to try to keep the angels along with the smaller fish, so the main question is, would it be recommened to start with smaller angel fish so they can grow up with the others? I dont mind exchanging them.

 

[kamikazi]

Thanks for the info. I am actually attached to the community fish I have so I dont have an interest in exchanging them lol. As far as cycling the tank, I also know it could take 4 weeks however the person at the LFS told me it'd be safe. Everyones got a different opinion! I'd like to try to keep the angels along with the smaller fish, so the main question is, would it be recommened to start with smaller angel fish so they can grow up with the others? I dont mind exchanging them.

In my experience many LFS employees don't know what they are talking about. Two weeks is about the shortest cycle you can have without having a very heavily planted tank. There are products like Tetra Safe Start with Bio-Spira that supposedly make it so you can instantly add fish. I have used it in the past and it seemed to work, but I stocked very slowly adding only a few fish every 2 weeks.

It will really depend on the angelfish and their personality. The larger ones you have now could be docile and then you exchange them for ones that will be more aggressive. I have heard that people who start with small ones who grow up with the other fish have had less problems with the angelfish eating the smaller fish once they are full grown.

 

[silva_unt]

There are products like Tetra Safe Start with Bio-Spira that supposedly make it so you can instantly add fish. I have used it in the past and it seemed to work, but I stocked very slowly adding only a few fish every 2 weeks.

I've done this as well with Seachem Stability with great results. I also added my fish very slowly and checked my perameters often.

 

[Oliver82]

Okay I will get that product and exchange for smaller angels as a precaution
Thanks!

 

[wendyjo]

Angels need a larger tank - return them.

I am confused about what you are trying to do and why you are making it so difficult. If you are simply moving your existing fish into a new tank then you don't need to cycle it. Just move all your filter media over to the new tank, move the fish over, and be done with it. The size of the tank has nothing to do with the cycle - the cycle is totally dependent on the bioload in the tank. If you have the same bioload, then your existing filter media will keep the tank cycled. By adding all these new fish (which you didn't quarantine!) you are actually screwing things up because you are now increasing the bioload which will cause an ammonia spike.

If it was me I would return all new fish and tear down and disinfect the new tank since you dumped pet store fish in there without quarantining them. Then I'd refill the tank, add your water conditioner, move the filter media over from the old tank, and move the fish over. Done.

You are making this way harder than it needs to be and I dunno why people are giving you all this crazy advise.

 

[kamikazi]

Thanks for the info. I am actually attached to the community fish I have so I dont have an interest in exchanging them lol. As far as cycling the tank, I also know it could take 4 weeks however the person at the LFS told me it'd be safe. Everyones got a different opinion! I'd like to try to keep the angels along with the smaller fish, so the main question is, would it be recommened to start with smaller angel fish so they can grow up with the others? I dont mind exchanging them.

Angels need a larger tank - return them.

I am confused about what you are trying to do and why you are making it so difficult. If you are simply moving your existing fish into a new tank then you don't need to cycle it. Just move all your filter media over to the new tank, move the fish over, and be done with it. The size of the tank has nothing to do with the cycle - the cycle is totally dependent on the bioload in the tank. If you have the same bioload, then your existing filter media will keep the tank cycled. By adding all these new fish (which you didn't quarantine!) you are actually screwing things up because you are now increasing the bioload which will cause an ammonia spike.

If it was me I would return all new fish and tear down and disinfect the new tank since you dumped pet store fish in there without quarantining them. Then I'd refill the tank, add your water conditioner, move the filter media over from the old tank, and move the fish over. Done.

You are making this way harder than it needs to be and I dunno why people are giving you all this crazy advise.

Advice isn't crazy, poster didnt say anywhere that they were completely tearing down the 10 gallon or weren't going to do something different with it.

From the sound of it the poster is pretty intent on keeping angels and going about things the way that they are so I gave them the best advise I could. I even advised they not add any additional fish to the tank till it cycled and just build the schools they have without adding angelfish, but as you can see above that's not what they want to do.

 

[wendyjo]

^ No I meant the guy at the pet store. There was no need for the OP to buy angels, guppies or neons for this new tank. The guy was just trying to sell some fish.

And while the OP could get some small angels to start with, they will eventually need their own tank so he needs to be prepared to get another tank down the road for them. In my opinion the minimum for a pair of adult angels is a 20H, and to me that's on the small side. They need a tall tank in any event. Not sure if the OP realizes just how large they can get. He said he purchased large ones but they are still juvies I'm sure.

 

[kamikazi]

^ No I meant the guy at the pet store. There was no need for him to buy angels, guppies or neons for this new tank. The guy was just trying to sell some fish.

oh ok, yeh unfortunately