# too good



## kafes (Jan 15, 2015)

Hi 
i decided to go with subtropical aquarium since my house gets pretty cold. i set up the tank 68F, after setting up the tank ,


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## cb1021 (Sep 21, 2009)

Many usually test multiple times during the cycle to see the trend while you only tested 2 weeks into the cycle - it's okay. I would start testing on a regular basis (every day) starting now. Feel free to feed your fish the normal amount (ie. 2-3 times a day) but you need to test to monitor Ammonia levels. If you get any ammonia, then your tank is not yet ready to handle additional bioload. It will trigger a mini cycle - it's okay.

It does take several weeks (It took mine 4 weeks) to complete a cycle. There's a probability that your tank is not cycled at all because you have a low bioload (few fish in a large tank, with minimal feeding). If it were me, I would feed your current stock more heavily to make sure the tank is cycled. How long did you plan to underfeed your fish? 

Let us know if you have any further questions.


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## cb1021 (Sep 21, 2009)

I'm not sure if the bottled bio support stuff works or not. 

Btw I would stop under feeding, underfeeding will not produce enough ammonia to maintain a cycle...That's just me though - others may say otherwise. I like to have a strong base of Nitrifying bacteria so that I can enjoy feeding my fish.


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## Merman (Nov 23, 2009)

..welcome.

I think you're doing just fine. Easy does it - and you're doing that.

If all the bacteria you need is in the Bio Support (in all my years of keeping aquariums I've never used such a thing) then I would assume your cycling would be rapidly sped up. I don't use bottled bacteria because I have several tanks going and whenever I set up a tank for quarantine or breeding I just squeeze out the 'mud' from an established filter into my new filter and that is exactly what the Bio Support would do.

If you haven't lost any of your fish so far you're doing extremely well. Everybody loses a few newly purchased fish due to the stress of transport to the shop/overcrowding & disease in the store, etc.

Newbie advice: avoid letting certain stores (yes, Big A's or others) start selling you needless plastic bottles of chemicals to pour into your tank. This can get into an almost endless cycle of dumping these things in in succession and ultimately destroying your natural bacteria and your livestock...read lots of info on the net...Wetwebmedia is a good reliable site.

Good luck.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

have to watch the fish you buy, bent spine means they are going to die soon.

If you are cycled, you can add more fish slowly


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## bob123 (Dec 31, 2009)

What is working for you is good and until there are problems you must be doing things right. With the temperature at 68f I find that ideal for minnows and danios even if growth rate is slower life span should be longer. In the wild fish do not get three feedings a day, over feeding is the biggest problem you can have, food variety is more important.


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