how long to break in tank

I have a ten gallon tank that I want to add tropical freshwater fish
to. I've got the tank at the right temp, the filter's running, the
light is set up and the water is treated. How long should i wait
before i add fish. How many should I add at a time? I'm thinking of
having 5 small fish. I read somewhere that you should have no more
than one inch of fish per gallon. is this accurate? any suggestions
would be very helpful, thanks!

"peacepipe" wrote in message
om...
I have a ten gallon tank that I want to add tropical freshwater fish
to. I've got the tank at the right temp, the filter's running, the
light is set up and the water is treated. How long should i wait
before i add fish. How many should I add at a time? I'm thinking of
having 5 small fish. I read somewhere that you should have no more
than one inch of fish per gallon. is this accurate? any suggestions
would be very helpful, thanks!

I would suggest starting with www.thekrib.com and read about the cycling
process. If you opt to cycle the tank using fish I would not add more than 2
initially. The one inch per gallon is a rule of thumb however has many
variables, ie: perhaps you can keep 10 x 1" fish in that tank but you
couldn't keep one 10" fish. More important to the well being of the fish is
the surface area, type of fish kept, type of filtration and schedule of tank
maintenance.

Rick

Any plants? A heavily planted tank with low fish load won't need to be
cycled. The plants will use the ammonia directly.

Anyone you know that can pass on some used filter material? the will jump
start things pretty fast.

bob

"peacepipe" wrote in message
om...
I have a ten gallon tank that I want to add tropical freshwater fish
to. I've got the tank at the right temp, the filter's running, the
light is set up and the water is treated. How long should i wait
before i add fish. How many should I add at a time? I'm thinking of
having 5 small fish. I read somewhere that you should have no more
than one inch of fish per gallon. is this accurate? any suggestions
would be very helpful, thanks!