New Aquarium Help/Tank Setup/Cycling

Question
Question: Help. I have a new aquarium and I need help figuring out how to cycle the tank so I am ready to add the permanant fish.

My tank is a 31 gallon long, which will be used for small discus and angels. I do not want to cycle the tank with either of these extremely sensitive & expensive fish.

Tank history:
I put the substrate (spectra stone) in and filled up the tank with water (and some stresscoat, per directions for dechlorination) and let it sit for a week before adding a single betta fish (female), while waiting for a missing piece for my filter. I added two additional bettas (female) and a water onion plant and some type of sword plant (not sure of type) 3 days ago. 2 days ago my filter part came in and I have setup the filter (Fluval 205 using the ceramic noodles in the bottom basket, activated charcoal in the middle basket, and sponges in the upper basket of the filter). I do not plan on keeping the bettas in this tank, however I am using them to help cycle the tank before returning them to a different tank.
The water temperature is set to 80 degrees right now and the fish seem to be doing well. I have not done any water changes to this point.

I'd like to know if I have enough fish to cycle the tank, or if I will need more? I've heard a tank can take about a month to cycle, but also that different amounts of fish can affect the cycle time. Do you recommend adding any additional fish to help the cycle or do I just need to wait? I do not want to buy fish for use in cycling that have nowhere to go afterwords...I have another tank with fancy guppies, betta females, and neon tetras, ghost shrimp, and 1 small pleco. Ideally, I'd like to cycle the 31 gallon tank with some of these fish from my other tank and then recycle them back to their normal tank, but my LFS said that guppies and neon tetras are not very good for cycling usually, especially with the type of filter I have. I don't know enough about this stuff and I need some help. Do you have any recommendations?

I've started a log to track the water chemistry changes. Current pH (which maxes out at 7.6 was tested and read as 7.6/+, so I used the high pH test and that one (which measures up to 8.8  high pH also read as 7.6. Ammonia read as 0.75 and Nitrite read at 0.125. I have a nitrate test also, but I didn't test that yet. How often should I test each of these? When should I start testing for nitrates? Is there a specific test I can get for testing water hardness? I think the fish I want to get need soft water. Ideally, the fish I want to put into this tank like slightly acidic water so I will need to eventually lower the pH. I am planning on adding more live plants - I don't like the plastic ones, but I don't know what type to add at this point and haven't researched it much (can plants affect/change the pH of the water?).

Also, the tanks are setup away from heat sources and windows, however the room itself gets a pretty decent amount of sunlight, but the tanks are not in direct sunlight. I do have a fluorescent light for the cover of both tanks, but I'm not sure of the wattage - both came with the tanks. I'd also like to know how often the light should be on (for the betta/tetra/guppy tank, as well as for the 31 gal, which will have small discus & angels).

Any additional information you can think of would be most helpful and appreciated. Thanks.

Answer
Hi Jay;

You could easily remove the bettas and cycle the tank with no fish at all. It certainly is healthier for the bettas who are undoubtedly stressed and it will get worse for them. It's known as a fishless cycle and is very easy. You only have to add pure ammonia, fish food, salad shrimp or another source of ammonia to the tank to get a good population of beneficial bacteria growing. Just keep in mind that you will want to add the permanent fish VERY slowly because the biological balance has to readjust for each additional fish. Here are links about how to do it;

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/faustus/nicoldaquaria/fishless.htm

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_fishless.php

http://aquatic-terrors.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5843

You may also need to know that all angels and discus grow very large. I just wanted to make sure you weren't buying "small" ones thinking that's as big as they get. They are labeled as small, medium, large in the stores because that's how big they are at sale for pricing considerations. They all grow big. Discus get at least 6" and angels get at least 3" in their bodies, not counting tails. The good news for you is that they need tall tanks for their fins to grow properly, rather than wider or longer for swimming space. Ignore this if you already knew that. ;-)

I like to leave my tank lights on about 10 hours a day. I have them on timers so in warmer weather I cut it back to 8 hours or so. Otherwise, they get too much algae growing. If you don't have live plants, you could leave them off during the day and only turn them on if you want to view the fish in the early morning or evening.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins