Ami
Fishaholic
Since I restocked, I'm completely paranoid about the tank, especially after adding the trio of barbs and trio of honey's last weekend, along with 6 more shrimp and some potash tablets in the plants roots.
I've been checking my ammonia and nitrite levels every couple of days, did my weekly water change yesterday of about 20% (b'cos I'm worried), fed the plants today and did a full weekly test of stats. This is what I have:
NH3 <0.1mg/l - same as always - colour goes almost yellow ie 0.1mg/l so I presume it's less or even zero really b'cos the test doesn't show 0!
NO2 <0.1 mg/l - test works same as NH3
NO3 25mg/l - this is an increase since last week when it was at 0, even though I did the water change the day before
PH 7
GH possibly 2, but how the hell should I know?! The test says 10mls water, add a drop, swirl it and keep going until you see the colour change from green to red. Okay, the test regeant is green but doesn't make the water green and after 2 drops the water starts to turn red - looks like a see through pink?
Questions are:
1) Are my NH3 & NO2 readings accurate?
2) Am I overfeeding - what could make the NO3 increase like that?
3) Am I using that stupid GH test correctly??
re: overfeeding - the 7 shrimp know before the fish do that I'm about to put in some algae pellets, then they all rush over as soon as they see them falling and run off with them! Did the same when I put in some blood worms last night. Have you ever seen a tiny shrimp try to run off with as many bloodworms as possible? They kept stopping to grab more and panicking whent they ended up dropping what they already had!
I therefore end up putting in more food. I only do a pinch of pellets at a time and same with any other food I might try to add and there's never anything left, but then I don't know if this is too much or too little.
Please, please help before I go completely insane!
I've been checking my ammonia and nitrite levels every couple of days, did my weekly water change yesterday of about 20% (b'cos I'm worried), fed the plants today and did a full weekly test of stats. This is what I have:
NH3 <0.1mg/l - same as always - colour goes almost yellow ie 0.1mg/l so I presume it's less or even zero really b'cos the test doesn't show 0!
NO2 <0.1 mg/l - test works same as NH3
NO3 25mg/l - this is an increase since last week when it was at 0, even though I did the water change the day before
PH 7
GH possibly 2, but how the hell should I know?! The test says 10mls water, add a drop, swirl it and keep going until you see the colour change from green to red. Okay, the test regeant is green but doesn't make the water green and after 2 drops the water starts to turn red - looks like a see through pink?
Questions are:
1) Are my NH3 & NO2 readings accurate?
2) Am I overfeeding - what could make the NO3 increase like that?
3) Am I using that stupid GH test correctly??
re: overfeeding - the 7 shrimp know before the fish do that I'm about to put in some algae pellets, then they all rush over as soon as they see them falling and run off with them! Did the same when I put in some blood worms last night. Have you ever seen a tiny shrimp try to run off with as many bloodworms as possible? They kept stopping to grab more and panicking whent they ended up dropping what they already had!
I therefore end up putting in more food. I only do a pinch of pellets at a time and same with any other food I might try to add and there's never anything left, but then I don't know if this is too much or too little.
Please, please help before I go completely insane!
)
