30 gallon fish tank: cycling

Question
QUESTION: Hi Karen.
I am 13 years old and recently have purchased a 30 gallon acrylic tank setup
with a whisper 40, Ebo Jager Heater and gravel. The used gravel is pretty old I
have rinsed it as well as humanly possible, I used a old filter cartridge for 12
hours, I put tank water in from 3 other tanks and I put bacteria supplement in
the water.  I am also using 2 cherry barbs to help cycle my tank. It's now
tuesday (5/19/09)  and I started cycling on friday (5/15/09). It's been cycling
for 4 days and I want to know how much longer. Do I wait to check the ammonia? I know the nitrite, nitrate, chlorine, ph, hardness are ok I just need
to check the ammonia. So how long? (the shortest amount of time please)

ANSWER: Hi Ryan,
I must say you are doing an EXCELLENT job at starting your tank up and keeping tract of the cycling process! Better than most!

On writing this- the tank has been cycling for 5 days right? There may be only the tiniest trace of ammonia given the tank's size and containing only two cherry barbs. The bacterial supplement and additions from the other tanks will definitely help a lot of course.

There's really no time span for how soon to test for ammonia. Usually though, you would do it the next day after adding your cycling fish.

Most fish-keepers like to keep a routine of checking it everyday or every other day depending upon if there is a great possibility the ammonia level could be climbing drastically.

What do you have planned for this tank? Sounds like it will be a really nice setup!

Hope this helps!
Karen~

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Ok, I had to take out the two cherry barbs and put them in my smaller tank with my new Furcata Rainbow, I will also put a very shy moonlight gourami that iv'e had it for a month I will also put in a Lyre Tail Hifin Sword Tail Fish. He's really dark orange. I want a suggestion for what to put in the tank. Iv'e considered putting the moonlight's tank mate in but he's a bully (snakeskin gourami). Ive also considered neon tetras and cardinal tetras and yes I have bog wood in the tank. Iv'e considered flying fox, hillstream loach and clown pleco. Ive also condiered lemon, diamond and bleeding heart tetras but they're currently unavailable to me. But I have to wait until the bacterial bloom is gone.

ANSWER: So you took the cherry barbs out due to the bacterial bloom?

Fortunately this problem should go away with time as the tank establishes. You can help it along by doing a 30-50% water change. But keep in mind removing the barbs will have removed the food source the bacteria need to develop and colonize in the tank.

You've already considered some fantastic species.
Neons or cardinals would be excellent as a large school--perhaps 10 or so.
Either the hillstream loach or clown pleco would be fine (except for the Clown pleco's usual high price) while Flying foxes usually aren't available in my area I have read that they can be peaceful when young but be aggressive when adults. Perhaps they become territorial towards other fish.

I am very fond of Lemon, Diamond, and Bleeding heart tetras. If they are unavailable then how about-

Glowlight tetras
Black neons
Bloodfin tetras
Marbled Hatchetfish
Glass fish (undyed variety)
Black phantom and red phantom tetra
Serpae Tetras
Pristella tetras

And Harlequin rasboras or other rainbowfish species.

I'm not sure what you have planned for this aquarium. Such as if it is going to become a community tank with many different species mixed.
Or a theme or "biotope" tank. Containing fish from just one area of the world. My favorite is the Southeast Asian biotope tank. Which consists of gourami species, rasbora species, loaches, danios, white clouds, ect...

Gouramis like yours do have an issue with territorial fights often. Especially if you have males. (Males have more pointed dorsal fins than females)

I think it would be an excellent idea for you to take this time whilst the tank is still cycling to plan out a great fish combination where the tank looks balanced and has activity and color and unusual patterns and shapes in the fish.

I do hope this helps!
Karen~

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Ok, so I got some fish they been in for a while. The inhabitants consist of:
2 Cherry Barbs
1 Moonlight Gourami (my prized possesion but only had em' for a month)
1 Snakeskin Gourami
1 Dark Orange Lyretail Swordtail
1 Furcata Rainbow (Forktailed Blue Eye)
1 Peppered Cory (gonna get more soon)
2 Snails ( 1 red, 1 black)
1 Red Freshwater snail (cleared up the algae bloom I think)
Temp. 79 degrees F consistant
PH: 6.2
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 9


What else do you suggest?

Another Moonlight Gourami? (LOVE THEM!)
or more cherry barbs?
Could I put sterbai corys with peppered?
what about adolfo corys?

DOn't look for beginer stuff my mom helps me make the right choices (not always right). Shes cared for fish for 10 years or so. She started off with 2 goldfish they both got 5 in. then we put in a smaller koi and then for some reason one of the goldfish had a growth spurt and grew like 4in. In a very short amount of time. Then it swallowed the koi whole. The other got 12 in. after a couple of years. He went to a pond with koi, comet shubikin, and common goldfish. Come winter it got eaten by raccoons

Answer
Hi,
Sounds like an interesting fish combination so far. I think I would keep a bit larger group of cherry barbs, perhaps a few more swordtails  (bout3-4 females) and maybe a school of tetras such as cardinals, neons, or Rummynose tetras. You'd have quite a colorful an interesting tank indeed. The Furcata Rainbow would appreciate several other individuals. The same goes for the Corydoras. You can definitely mix species just fine and they will group together very well.

I am a bit leery of adding another moonlight gourami because territorial issues -may- develop. You might try, however, keeping a pair (male and female) together and that may work out better.

Quite interesting story about the goldfish/koi.

I hope this helps!
Karen~