What fish would be ideal for these tank parameters?

[BettaJen]

Hey! I had a betta but he passed on. My aquarium holds ten gallons. It currently houses a few mini pond snails, drift wood, a live plant (looks like Dwarf Bacopa), a stone arrangement, a ceramic dish, gravel, a heater, and filter.

The plant has been there for a year. I haven't seen much growth except for a few buds. I'm thinking I should get a fertilizer. :P Suggestions? I also want to buy more plants but am unsure of which will do well in plain gravel.

I just recently changed the filter cartridge. The old one was pretty destroyed. How long should I wait to start adding fish?

I understand I should do more research on the forums and will. :)

I used the API test kit and got these results:
PH - ~7.8
Ammonia - 0.25 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm

It seems like my PH is high. Could this be from snails or what exactly? Should I work on trying to lower it?

I was thinking of getting a school of fish. Some neon tetras were a past thought. And then eventually adding a new betta. Would neon tetras be okay in this living situation?

[LittleBettaFish]

Well unfortunately if you removed your whole filter catridge you just effectively removed any beneficial bacteria you might have had. This means you are more than likely going to have to cycle your tank from scratch again.

Your 0.25ppm of ammonia is also worrying. You should be registering 0ppm for that, especially if you have no stock in your tank.

Neon tetras are sensitive to poor water quality and prefer water that is neutral to soft to really thrive.

I would look at getting your tank properly cycled (there are several methods so choose the one that best suits your needs) and then look into appropriate stock.

Also what sort of stones have you got in there? They could very well be buffering up your pH if they are something like limestone. Have you got a pH reading from your tap water?

[BettaJen]

I think I will wait to add stock. Get the tank cycled and add more plants. Have to look into cycling it. My old cartridge was there for months and was tearing apart.

Could the ammonia be from not cleaning the tank well or the snail waste? How do I improve it? Oh, I put in fish food to start the cycling process.

They're stones I got by a river and cleaned.

Thanks.

[LittleBettaFish]

Sounds like a plan. Ammonia could be because the snails are still in there producing waste that you no longer have the biological capacity to process (because the cartridge was removed). Just keep eyes on them to make sure the ammonia isn't harming them. Nothing smells worse than a dead snail except several dead snails!

As an aside, I am not a fan of the flimsy cartridges I have seen in some filters where it just seems to be thin aquarium sponge pulled over a plastic frame (not sure if this is the case with yours). Is there any chance you could possibly fit in any other form of media in there such as bioballs or thicker sponge? These have lots of surface area for bacteria to colonise and last for years.

Don't worry too much about your slightly high pH if you are cycling your tank. The bacteria you want to colonise prefers a higher pH and the whole process should go faster than if you had a pH say of 7.

When you have it cycled, you could look at getting some fancy guppies. A reverse trio (two females and a male) are nice if you want to get into breeding or you could do an all male tank if not. There are so many nice strains out there. I love blue grass and black moscow myself.

Endlers are also another option and as they are smaller you could fit a small group of them in there. They are also livebearers so can be prolific, but you can always sell off/give away any excess fish.

What sort of light do you have over your tank? May be that it is not bright enough or has the wrong kelvin rating so your plant isn't able to utilise the light and grow. A good basic fertiliser is Seachem Flourish, although I myself use and like Microbe-Lift 'Bloom & Grow All In One'.