Complicated Cycling Situation

rolo

Hi all. This my first post on here, but I doubt it will be my last. I am also fairly new to the hobby, starting just before the new year. Okay well let me explain my situation...

First off, yes I initially opted for the fish in cycle as opposed to the fishless cycle...yes yes I know big idiot and I regret it. Now, I am at my 3 month mark. Up until 1 week ago I HAD 3 Pearl Danio's when 2 of them decided to eat the other one and then go mental, which resulted in me returning the remaining 2 to the aquarium store. So now I'm sitting here, 3 months after starting with my 10 gallon tank, still with an uncycled filter. My readings are:
Ammonia: 0.50ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5.0ppm
which are also the same exact levels of my tap water. When I had the fish in I was doing 2-3 water changes a week and still kept getting the same readings. So basically my question is, and I think I know the answer but wanted to ask some veterans to clarify, whereabouts in the fishless cycle do I proceed from? I'm pretty sure I need to start from the beginning, using fish food as a source of ammonia.

Also, rougly how many fish food flakes are a good amount for a 10 gallon tank?

Any help and advice is truly appreciated. Thanks.

Byron

First thing, welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping forum.

Now, there are two methods to cycle (other than using fish), one is the so-called fishless cycle, the other which I prefer is by using live aquarium plants. I can go into the latter in detail if you ask, but for now I'll refer you to an article (by another forum member) on cycling that will help you generally and with the fishless method if that is your choice; this article is actually a sticky at the head of this section but here's a link:
A Beginner's Guide to the Freshwater Aquarium Cycle

Byron.

Termato

Hey Rolo, welcome to the forum.

Your tank has been set up for 3 months and it has not cycled yet? I would assume you have had some issues with ammonia/nitrite right? If this is so and you still have everything running and the danios are gone then you still have a cycled tank. Although you shouldn't be getting ammonia readings.

Do you have real plants? If not I would suggest getting them, they look beautiful and are magnificent for your fish and cycling issues. You can read about it in the guides. Java Fern, Hornwort and Java Moss are 3 good low light plants and dont require too much (although Hornwort is messy).

The plants will help adsorb any ammonia making your fish happier.

For your selection of fish:

Byron: Do you know that link to the thread of all good fish for micro aquariums. It has a list of all good fish for 1-5-10-20 and more gallon tanks? I cant find it. If you can post that here for him he might enjoy that :)

Byron

It was a thread in Freshwater Aquarium, here it is:
Nano Fish

Some of these require soft water, others are fine in medium hard or hard, so that needs to be known too. Several are in our profiles.

rolo

Thanks guys I appreciate the responses. Which of those plants would be the smallest? Also, when it comes to stocking it, when I do, I am planning on 6-8 different guppies.

Byron

The names shaded, which means they (the plants) are included in the profiles, so info on their size will be there.

On the guppies, all males? Or male/female? With livebearers, it is better to have either all male (no fry issues) or if mixed have 2-3 females per male to avoid stress on the females by the males. And with both male/female, you will have hundreds of fry every couple months, and that can be problematic.

rolo

I was thinking 2 males and 6 females. But back to my first post, why am I still getting that 0.50ppm of ammonia? My nitrites are 0ppm and my nitrates are at 5.0ppm which from what I've read is a healthy number. Why won't my ammonia hit 0? I am also using the API Freshwater Test Kit. And it's weird because 0.50ppm ammonia is also the reading of my tap water.

Termato

unless you want to get another tank or sell your fish I would not recommend getting males. Live bearers are overwhelming. They reproduce like wild fire.

rolo

Would you recommend all males or all females?

Termato

Females. The males will be more likely to fight one another.

The thing is when you buy them...their usually already pregnant...unless you get them real small.