I'm afraid my journal update is a bit of a sorrowful tale. After 5 weeks of fishless cycling, I was getting negative ammonia and nitrite readings last weekend. On Monday I got my long awaited WCMM from my local pet shop.

I was so pleased with them and all 7 had names before they'd finished floating! Unfortunately within 24 hours all 7 had died. Discussing on here and with friends, I thought I'd put too many fish in at once and maybe had not acclimatised them slowly enough (all the chemistry was normal even when I'd just finished removing the dead fish).
On Tuesday I retuned to the pet shop where they gave me three WCMM. I floated them, very gradually introducing tank water. They were left with the light off and weren't fed. The only picture I have of them is while they were floating as they too died by the next day (once again, neagtive ammonia and nitrite readings).

I cleaned everything (except the filter media and live plants) in very hot water, and went to a specific fish shop. The fish tanks were pristine and the shop had no sick fish, unlike in the pet shop. The white clouds and golden clouds were stunning, but the assistant recommended zebra danios as they are even more hardy. So three little danios came home with me on Friday lunchtime.

I tested the water in the evening - ammonia 0, nitrite 0.1. By Saturday morning 2 danios had died and the nitrite was 0.3. The remaining little fish was gasping at the surface. I did a 20% water change to get the nitrite down, but he too died. The temperature sits between 22 and 24 deg (there's no heater).
Today I've thrown out everything except the tank, the stones and basket on the top of the filter and the filter, all of which I've washed and scrubbed in very hot/boiling water. I have new rinsed gravel, ornament and filter media. Next weekend I'm getting some mature media from a friend at a hamster show, then I'll start again with the fish. I hope to have an airpump and bubble wall delivered soon too. My plan for stocking eventually is 3 white cloud mountain minnow, 3 golden mountain minnow and some amano shrimp. I plan on introducing my next fish 2 each week and waiting for at least 3 months before thinking about shrimp. I've learned a lot of lessons from this last week, but really hope things go better from here out.
This is the tank as it is tonight
