Yet another question about cycling

[MartinC]

Already I find myself "loosing" half an hour just watching them, in 3 days they have gone from 6 little identical flashes of light to 6 individual personalities with subtle differences in markings and their own particular place in the shoal.

[Carylnz]

Wait until the MTS starts (Multiple Tank Syndrome - where you have to have just 1 more tank...)

[MartinC]

Got to admit, I've got a corner in the room that is just perfect for a large bow fronted corner tank. He he

[MartinC]

another update. Tank is doing well, my initial stock of tiger barbs has slowly increased to 8 with 2 zebra loaches (these cleared the tank of approx 200+ tiny snails over a weekend!)
Today Im adding 3 more zebra loaches and 4 red harlequin rasboras with a view to starting a small shoal of harlequins over the next few weeks.
Ammonia and nitrite have stayed at zero and nitrate is well under control with weekly 30% water changes, never more than out of the tap, I think the plants are dealing with most of it. ph has remained at 8-8.2 and I can't understand why, its stable so I'm not too concerned about it.
Thanks to everyone for their help and support over the last few weeks, hopefully I'll soon be in a position to return the favour

[SparkyST]

great news all is going well. I have an outbreak of snails too, may have to invest in some loaches to clean them up.

[MartinC]

Well I can certainly vouch for the zebra/candystripe loaches, they did a grand job and they shouldn't grow too large for my tank. I've added 3 more today in the hope that a larger group will venture out into the open a little more, they have made their "home" between 2 pieces of bogwood and seldom venture out during the day at the moment.

[Rockfish]

Good to hear things are going well

I'd agree on not worrying too much about the pH; if it's stable and the fish seem happy then it's better not to try to mess with it. The pH tends to fall over time in most tanks anyway, so it may settle at a lower value as the tank matures.