Recent content by Kaybear

I finally got my large piece of mopani wood in the mail today so I went to the store to buy a tub, bucket or something to soak it in before placing it in my tank. I ended up buying a sterilite 10 gallon storage tub. Now I'm wondering if this is okay to use? I have read some places that people...

I'm sorry, I didn't see any nitrites until day 21 not 19

Angels plus is a good reliable source. +1 on Tolaks post

I didn't see any nitrites until day 19 on my cycle and it was barely noticeable on the test. I could tell it wasnt that same light blue i had been staring at for what felt like forever. I had a gradual daily increase of nitrites from there. It took a couple days after nitrites started showing...

I didn't think I would have nitrates that fast, that's why I didn't bother checking before. I did today because it was odd that the ammonia I added had been processed but the nitrites didn't go up any. I know to have a fully stocked tank right away it has to be able to process 5ppm of ammonia...

I have nitrates today yay! My ammonia is at 0 again, nitrite staying around .50 and nitrate at about 20. My ammonia isn't hitting zero in 24 hours yet, it did in 48 hours though. I'm happy that my nitrites are staying at .50 even though I have had to dose the tank with ammonia so I know my n...

As long as her scales aren't sticking out, it sounds like she's about to have babies. That sounds like what my platys did when they were and I also noticed the thin clearish poo. The ball is usually a baby, you will see it open and start swimming. Some of them don't make it and stay balled up...

Tested and I now have .25 ppm of ammonia and about .50 ppm of nitrite. I will add some ammonia tomorrow if it's at zero by then. I love seeing different colors other than a darkish green and a deep pink purple :D. I ordered some mopani wood a couple days ago, says it's supposed to be here...

I know this is weird but I hate doing big water changes like that because it doesn't smell like a fish tank anymore lol

I don't expect them to drop that quickly, I'm just doing the water change to help promote the growth of the nbacs and like you said have a readable starting point. I'm currently waiting for the tank to finish filling, did about an 80% wc. Going to let it run for about an hour and test for...

Yea, I have plenty of ammonia I just didn't know if I should put it back to the same amount it was before the water change or more. I don't want to end up with an over abundance of nitrites right away since they aren't being processed yet. That was my only concern. And thanks for the detail...

Okay thanks, I will wait until the ammonia hits zero before adding more. Next question, do I need to wait until the ammonia hits zero before doing the water changes to get the nitrites down or do it now since they are off the charts? My ammonia is reading about 1-2 ppm and nitrites are 5 plus...

That's what I thought too. I have read so many different things but I always thought that continuously adding a lot of ammonia would produce too much nitrite, thus delaying or even stopping the cycle. I will try to keep the ammonia at about 1-2 pmm until the nitrites start getting processed. I...

Never mind, the ammonia has dropped some today. I think it's close to 2-3 ppm, I will wait to see where it's at tomorrow before I dose it with more ammonia. Some people dose their tanks back to 5 ppm after the nitrite spike and ammonia drop, others keep it at 2. Im thinking 2-3 would be better...

I bumped the temp up to 84F. Ammonia hasn't dropped, it's still at about 5 ppm, nitrites have went up to 1 ppm and my ph is about 8.2. Approximately how long should it be before I start seeing a drop in ammonia now that my nitrites are going up everyday? Monday the nitrites were .25, yesterday...