Is 20 days into cycle safe to add a fish?

[ken1977]

I took my water to LFS and everything is on point! All parameters are good, they said it's safe to add a fish and I am cycled. My question is should I put a smal fish like a clown in the tank? 20G Nuvo tank and no lights....

 

[mikenam]

looked at your previous post and it seems like you used a bottle of nitrifying bacteria. The bottle says you can add fish immediately, so I would assume it is safe to add fish. I would just add the fish, but if you want to be safe you can add some ammonia and then test it and record the level. If the next day your ammonia is 0, then your tank is cycled.

 

[Sk8r]

Not recommended. Start with invertebrates, micro-hermits, snails, let them work for a month first, while you put your clown into a quarantine tank, (see the sticky in New to the Hobby) and make sure he has no parasites or disease, internal or external, which will force your tank into a 72 day stand-down. Parasites are VERY common nowadays, and they release from the fish and head for the sandbed, sort of like fleas in the carpet, invisible to the naked eye. Their life cycle is fish to sandbed to fish again, with death a not infrequent result.

 

[GimpyFin]

I agree with sk8r in that it's a good idea to make sure new fish are healthy before going into your main tank. Aside from that, if you used live bacteria like biospira to start the tank, it does make the tank safe to add a fish pretty much immediately.

 

[zeemofree]

If you use fresh live rock and Zeovit you can add fish 10 days after your startup.