How long does it take a tropical fish tank to be ready for some good fish it alreadys had 3 guppys?

Answer 1

The process of getting a fish tank 'ready' for fish is called cycling. Basically, 'cycling' is the establishment of the bacterial colonies that carry out the nitrogen cycle. These bacteria live in your filter. They 'eat' ammonia - a highly toxic waste product that is constantly excreted by fish - and turn it into nitrite (also toxic) and then nitrate (relatively non-toxic). If you try to keep fish in a tank that is not cycled, the ammonia levels will build up and kill your fish.

You've probably been told to put three guppies in your tank, and then wait a few weeks before adding any more fish. This is because the guppies will produce enough ammonia to start the process of cycling. However, it's not as simple as add tough fish - wait - add more fish. Ideally, you need to monitor the cycling process to see how far along you are. Buy a test kit so you can check the levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in your water - I recommend the API Freshwater Liquid Master.

It's hard to work out whether three guppies is an appropriate number of fish without knowing how big the tank is. While your tank is cycling, you will need to test the ammonia and nitrite levels once every day or second day. If they rise above about 0.25 parts per million, do a 50% water change. If your tank is large with three guppies, this might only happen once a week. If it's quite small and contains three guppies, you may need to be doing 50% water changes daily until your tank has cycled. You'll need to keep this up until both ammonia and nitrite have been zero for five days. This means that the bacterial colonies are now stable and capable of supporting the number of fish you have.

Now you can start adding your other fish. It's a good idea to add one or two fish at a time, wait a few days and then add some more. Don't add all the rest of your fish at once, or you will overload the filter and your ammonia and nitrite levels will rise again.

It's very hard to give a definite answer as to how long it will be before you can start adding the rest of your fish, because this will depend on the size of your tank, how far along the cycle you already are, and whether or not the filter has been 'seeded'. By adding some live bacteria to your tank, you can cut the cycle time drastically, even down to a few days. The best way to do this is to take a small piece of filter media (like a piece of sponge or some ceramic rings) from a cycled aquarium belonging to a friend or the aquarium shop. If you can't do this, there are some products you can buy that contain bacteria to help cycle your tank. There are three that appear to work: Bio-Spira (USA), Bactinettes (UK) and Aquarium Science Eco-start (Aus.) Extensive anecdotal evidence from the world's fish community suggests that pretty much all of the others are snake oil. Cycling a filter from scratch (ie without seeding it at all) can take up to three months, but one month is more usual. Using one of these products or some live media, you're looking at about a week. It could be less if your cycle is already partly done.