Getting a second 10 or 20 gallon tank right now to hold 7 fancy guppies that my friend will no longer be able to care for. I have a sponge filter already sitting in my established 10 gallon to collect beneficial bacteria but that will obviously take awhile and I'll be getting these fish in about a week or less. I am worried about the cycling that will be going on with the fish in there already. If there were only 2 or 3 I wouldn't worry but this is 7 guppies x__x There really is no where else these fish can go since we have no local pet stores around here that take trade-ins or any "used" fish.
I would like to just do a natural fish cycle, as in not use any chemicals but is this my only option right now? Any suggestions?
Well really with only a week chemicals are a good idea because naturals take a month to get ready chemicals take about 2 days so its a hard choose but ask yourself what is best for the fish?
There is a product called Nutrafin cycle, it is a few bucks for a bottle, just follow the instructions, it works great. Make sure to monitor the water conditions using a test kit, and if you have an established tank, take some water from a water change and some of the gravel for the new tank. you could also throw in some plants to help reduce the stress to the fish and use up the ammonia and nitrite.
when i set up my new tank i let it run for 24 hours so that all the chemicals can leave then i put about a hand full of aquarium salt in it then when i got my fish i floated them for 20 min then i put them in the tank and i have had them for over a hear and a half now and they are doing well .. but you may want to put a few plants in the tank and then you would have a fully independent tank and all you will have to to is feed them and that would be it.
