Advice Needed

[pieman]

Second test results about an hour after cleaning and replacing water lost during cleaning and they are exactly the same, is this good?

 

[beux]

To me this looks like your tank may be nearly finished cycling? You've got your nitrates and your ammonia is down, and no nitrites.

Second opinion anyone? (I am testing my learning here)

But I think thats pretty much done. Keep up with the 10-20% water changes to keep that last bit of ammonia down, keep testing and don't buy any new fish yet...but it's looking good.

Give it a few weeks to settle down then you can buy some more fish, but only buy a few at a time - each time you get new fish start testing the water daily again, as you are adding more ammonia into the tank and it will take some time for the levels of bacteria in the filter to adjust.

 

[pieman]

I'm waiting at least a month before I buy any new fish just incase there are any sudden changes in my tank, also given the size of my tank, what would you say the largest a fish could be in my tank, I don't really want to end up for example buying one of them cool little 10cm sharks in the shop to find out that it will end up around 13"

I wouldn't mind some guppy, I like the looks of the snakeskin ones and hear that they are fairly tollerant, I also found out they eat their own eggs so I wouldnt have to worry about setting up my spare tank for some fry.

Thanks for your help all those who have replied

Also could someone tell me what LFS means, im guessing at something along the lines of lame fish service

 

[beux]

I wouldn't go for any fish that get much bigger than 2/3 inches in their adult size, and of these the less active ones are probably better as they will need less room to swim around in. And make sure you stick to the inch/gallon rule (using what their adult size would be).

Guppy would be quite cool for your tank, just make sure you don't combine them with any fin nippers.

 

[pieman]

I'm now waiting two weeks just to make sure my tank is stable, then buying four female guppy and 1 male from a nice lady who also works as an rspca officer

Since I have an old hexagonal tank which hasn't been used for a while, i'm going to set it up and cycle it, then place all the guppy fry in it, and give them away/sell them.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I think you are very wise to wait a little before adding more. Keep testing for nitrites, as it could also be that you are starting the second phase of the cycle (where the ammonia disappears and the nitrites then go up). But if the ammonia disappears and the nitrites stay at 0 for a few weeks, then you probably are cycled.

Guppies are lovely fish, some of my absolute favourites! The only thing I would say is, watch those black widows as I have heard that they can be nippy; of course, guppies have lovely long flowy tails which can present a bit of a temptation to any fin-nippers. But if you set up that old hex, you could always transfer a fish in an emergency (and so MTS claims yet another victim... )

Guppies are livebearers, so they do not lay eggs, but give birth to fully formed free-swimming fry. It is impossible to predict whether any guppy will or will not eat their own fry; some of them do, some of them don't, and the same ones don't always behave in the same way. Unpredictable thing, nature...

Guppies are not quite as hardy as they were, so look carefully at the fish you are buying. Though your seller sounds a reliable person, which is good.

And we do have a special livebearer forum, where the real experts will answer any questions.

 

[pieman]

Todays test results, bearing in mind I overfed twice yesterday

Anyways i'm bringing them in picture form today as I've never done that well with my eyesight

pH :


Ammonia :


Nitrite :


Nitrate :