I went to petco today and I was looking at the fish to buy for the tank. They had the Black Neon Tetras and most looked healthy.The frogs were sold out AGAIN. and they said they were willing to order me a Starlight Bristlenose Pleco (its such a cool looking fish). I bought a whole bunch of different species plants to see which one does best in the tank (Argentine Sword, Wisteria, Borneo Sword, Peacock Fern, White Ribbon, and Aqua Fern if your intrested in knowing) I was looking for the amonia but they only had stuff that would decrease the amonia level in the tank. Well, to get to the point. Our school lets out in late June and we really wanna get the tank started before school ends. The nitrogen cycle would take like 6 weeks and we wouldnt have that much left to work on the tank. The water in that tank has been running through a filter (Aquaclear 70 over head power filter) and heated (86 degrees F so we can kill of any other Fungus or Bacteria) for about 2 weeks now. It has the salt in it and we've let it sit and even added a dechlorinater and stuff. It was tap water and I just want to know if we add Stress Zyme and leave it there for a few days, then add the fish, could they live without an amonia spike? (The water hasnt had any living thing in it yet)

Whether you cycle with ammonia (household ammonia without any additives) or live animals, the nitrogen cycle still takes time. If you add fish now and only put in a few and do routine water changes, you may not see ammonia. If you put in a good amount of fish, the ammonia will certainly spike. Adding things like Stress-Zyme, Cycle, etc. will reduce the length of the cycling. My page on the nitrogen cycle is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/chem.htm
If you monitor the water chemistry and do frequent partial water changes, perhaps even every day or two, you can get the fish through the days of high ammonia and then nitrite. To avoid that though, put in very few fish. You can slowly add some more later.

The living things in the tank right now are:

1- Argentine Sword (large)
1- Wisteria (Medium)
1- Borneo Sword (small)
1- Peacock Fern (small)
1- White Ribbon (small)
1- Aqua Fern (small)

The Living things that we plan to add (hopefully next week)

6- Black Neon Tetras
1- Starlight Bristlenose Pleco
2- African Dwarf Frogs


I checked the water today for everything before i put the plants in. Everything seemed ok. Tommorow in school im going to check the amonia, nitrite, and pH levels just to make sure the plants are doing alright. I kept the Aqua glow light on until I had to go home and everymorning will leave it on during school hours for the fish and the plants. The temp. of the tank was set to 76 for the Black Neon Tetras and the frogs.

Are there to many organisms here for a 40 gallon set up that has not gone through the nitrogen cycle yet? Will this cause the Amonia and Nitrite levels to spike?

(Just a side question: If you use a dechlorinator on tap water, how long do you have to wait before you can put that water in the tank?)

They're going into a 40 gallon tank? Then, that many fish should not produce a lot of ammonia. What that means is that the good bacteria will grow slowly but should be able to keep up with the fish waste. There will be an ammonia spike until the good bacteria grow but, in that size tank, it shouldn't be detrimental. You should test for ammonia and nitrite every few days just in case. If you do a 40% or so water change each week on the tank with just those animals, you may never read registerable ammonia. It really varies tank to tank though. The plants will help too with water quality as long as they stay healthy. I assume you have intense lighting and fertilizer for them.

It's normally a good idea to wait to add algae-eating animals like the pleco until the tank is cycled and has some algae as they're more sensitive. He can be okay though if you keep an eye on the water chemistry and feed the pleco with sinking algae wafers, etc.

Dechlorinator works pretty much on contact. Once it's mixed with water, the chlorine is bound in a less toxic state.

Thank you for all that.

We have the plants in a gravel-sand mixture for the substrate. We added Flora Grow and we also have Flora 24 which we will add whenever we can. The bulb is a 30w. 89.45 cm (36 in) Aqua Glo for both Aquarium Fish and Aquatic plants. (says the box). They're also by a window so they have a good amount of sunlight too.

We were planning to buy the pleco the algea wafers, but just to be safe, I think we will wait until the first nitrogen cycle is done before bringing him into the tank. That would just leave us with the 6 Black Neon Teras and 2 African Dwarf Frogs for now.

Since the tank is at school, and I cant transfer the fish directly from the bag to the tank, is there a way of transfering the fish into a bowl or one of those small fish tanks (like the plastic ones that they have at fairs) just for the night, until I can get them into school? I dont want to stress them out. Is that possible?

Yes, you can pour them in the water they came in into a bowl or container of some sort (as long as its non-toxic). If you can add a weak air stone, that will help too. Be sure to cover it because the fish will try to jump. Because the water from the store is probably poor quality, if you want to transfer them to some conditioned water (like from the tank that's been running), that might be a better idea.