cycling fish

Question
hey,

i have drained and completely restarted my 55 gallon freshwater aquarium. The water temeperature is 79 degrees, and i used distilled water to fill it. It has cycled for a few days and now i am ready for fish. I have had fish before, but always forget which ones would be good to cycle the tank. I want something bright, peacful, somewhat inexpensive, and hardy. What would you suggest? Thanks
andrew

Answer
Hello Andrew,
I'm afraid you may have made a mistake filling your aquarium with distilled water. I am unsure of the true effect of this water on fish because I have never tried it but it is considered quite harmful and because of it's instability pH flucuations can occur extremely rapidly. For the best benefits of distilled water--it is best mixed with your current tap water. There is very little reason why you need to use "pure" water. Tap water in regards to pH and hardness is generally always at acceptable levels for common tropical fish. Nearly all fish can adapt to non-specific chemistry as long as the water is clean and stable.

For cycling, Platies or Swordtails make good cyclers. But I have found the best fish so far to be a good cycler is the Black skirt tetra. They are very easy to keep, hardy, and like to be in big groups. Danios, most barbs, and guppies can also be used for cycling. All these fish are peaceful--though tiger barbs can be nippy. These problems can be resolved by keeping a large enough school.
But please keep in mind even though they are "hardy" please don't forget they are still not immune to toxic ammonia or nitrite. They can just handle it a little better than other species. Never subject them to harmful ammonia/nitrite levels. Be sure to always do a 30-50% water change when one or both these levels are out of the safe bounds...

I really hope this helps! If you have anymore questions, or concerns, feel free to email me as always...

Best wishes and Happy fishkeeping!!!
Karen~