Starter Fish For Ten Gallon
 

I have done cycling before but with my other tanks I used danios, platys, neons and in one case a betta. I was wondering if a goldfish (Just one) would be too messy for cycling a ten gallon.

No goldfish at all in a 10G tank. Feeders can put a disease in the tank and other goldies seem not-hardy enough IMO.

I wouldnt use a goldfish they are one of the dirtiest fish that you can get. they are actually really a pain to take care of to because they are picky and messy. I would stick to danios for cycling or mollies.

I think I will go with a couple of balloon mollies, they are so funny and interesting to watch. Thanks guys :)

HI frosty, i don't how soon you need to get started but i'll tell you DR.fostersmoth has a new cycling product; featured in thier catalouge, with both ammonia and bio bacteria. I willl use this one in the future.You might like to have a look.

I don't know if you want to cycle with Balloon Mollies. I have heard that they are pretty sensitive.

Zebra Danios are best IMO.

If you have to cycle with fish then you're better off with danios or platys.

Don't use fish to cycle your tank. Use clear aqueous ammonia; the kind with no added scents, dyes, or suds. It's actually cheaper to buy a half gallon bottle of aqueous ammonia that will last a very long time if you only use it for cycle tanks than to buy fish that will suffer through the cycling process. A good test to see if the ammonia is non-sudsing is to shake it and if no suds form then...well then it obviously doesn't have suds. You only want a solution of ammonia and water nothing else in the solution.

I would like to add to my last post since I didn't answer your question. I can't give you any certain answers cuz I've never had gold fish, but I know they produce a ton of waste, which turns into a NH3 source. You might have to keep watch of your nitrates so they don't get astronomical. Do a small water change to dilute nitrates.

I'm cycling my 5 gallon tank right now and yesterday I measured my nitrates to be 160 ppm, NH3 0 ppm, and nitrite 0.5 ppm. I'm going to use Chemistry topics to explain why I think I am having trouble getting 0 nitrites at 6 weeks into the cycle, so bare with me. I haven't been able to get nitrites to 0 ppm in 12 hours after addition of NH3 and after reading the nitrate test I suspect that the equilibrium between nitrite and nitrate is toward nitrites using Le'Chatelier's Principle as the basis for this conclusion