Help with cycling first aquarium

Hello, have been following topics on the newsgroup and would really
appreciate some help.


I am in the process of cycling a 55g tank. I intend to have 5 goldfish

in it when it is fully cycled. 1 fantail, 1 Ryunkin, 1 pearlscale, 1
black moor and a oranda. Firstly do these fish all get along together?



The Aquaria has been up and running for a week now. I am using a
Fluval 404 so understand that I am 'over filtering' which is a good
thing with goldfish?? The day after running the aquarium I put the
Ryunkin and fantail in to help cycle the tank. Was going to use feeder

fish but didn't want to get attached to them then have a tank full of
them at the end. I am using 'Cycle' to speed the process up too. Our
pearlscale is in a different tank and won't be added till the cycle has

finished.


So when the first week was up I did a water test. The PH was 7.8 which

is a bit high although I understand this will naturally come down and
is still in the parameters that goldfish can handle. My ammonia was
0.25, Nitrites 0 and Nitrates 5. This seems a bit 'too good to be
true' in just a week. I was reading that this could mean the tank is
cycled for the current fish and now I should add one fish at a time
until I have my full stock and allow for a spike of ammonia and
nitrites after each fish is introduced.


Also the temp of the tank is running at 74-76 degrees. This is without

a heater. The fish are doing well, eating and having a great time in
there.


Could somebody please advise me if I'm doing this right or if I haven't

got a clue at all.


I am loving this 'hobby' so much


Thanks Mellie

"Mellie101" <mellie101.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote in message:

> in it when it is fully cycled. 1 fantail, 1 Ryunkin, 1 pearlscale, 1
> black moor and a oranda. Firstly do these fish all get along together?

Yes, usually. The only problems you may have is that some of the higher
mutated fancy varieties have limited swim abilities. This may mean the
pearlscale for instance gets less food during feeding.


> So when the first week was up I did a water test. The PH was 7.8 which
> is a bit high although I understand this will naturally come down and

This isn't high at all and perfectly fine, as long as its stable.


> is still in the parameters that goldfish can handle. My ammonia was
> 0.25, Nitrites 0 and Nitrates 5. This seems a bit 'too good to be
> true' in just a week. I was reading that this could mean the tank is
> cycled for the current fish and now I should add one fish at a time
> until I have my full stock and allow for a spike of ammonia and
> nitrites after each fish is introduced.

No, its not cycled. How often did you test? You most likely haven't even
started getting much of the nitrite producing bacteria. You want to test
every few days to see these values change so you know where you are at. In
the first week you should see ammonia peak and then start dropping. While
ammonia is dropping you will begin to see nitrite which will peak after a
week or so, then you will see nitrate slowly increase.