When I first got my aquarium set up (with plants, very little artificial anything) I used ammonia to start the cycle. It took about 3 weeks but I got to a point where I had zero Amonia, Nitrites and Ntrates. PH of -7 and it looked great. First round of fish - the only thing I ever saw change was Nitrates = which to me is an indicator of a dirty tank so I did a 50% water change, adjusted the PH a little and all went back to normal. Well I got new fish last Friday. The only thing I changed was that I fed them more (I just doubled the number of fish weight in the tank since 2 of them are really large fish.) I also started growing fresh brine shrimp which I guess they all like ok - frankly none of them like any of the food variety I give them - feeding time is exciting for them but not very. They do seem to like the bloodworms and brine shrimp. My Cory's and Blue Gourmii's are bottom feeders - for them I send down some heavy wafers which they all fight over and it takes forever for them to eat them they are so hard, but they are always gone by the next feeding.
If the food isn't gone after a couple of hours I siphon away most of any extra food. except the pellets because it can take them hours to break them up. (I'll do that until I get the hang of how much to feed them).Now that I have the new snails I have no algae problem - truly amazing- my tank always looks great.
My first test on the tank was 5 days after getting the new fish - so Tuesday. I wasn't too surprised that they read a little high in every category. So on Wednesday I did a 50-60% water change. Before I even started, I used my siphon to get to all the gunk in the hard to reach places (the Python isn't very good at that). I used the Python to clean the rest of the gravel and removed, and then replace the water. About midway during replacement I poured in a mixture of all my chemicals - Prime, Stability, Pristine and Flourish (for the plants) Had to put in a little PHdown
I tested the water after all that and before I fed them and got some really strange results: Amonia=0, Nitrites=5 ppm, Nitrates 40 ppm , PH 7.2 - I l know the Nitrite and Nitrate readings weren't that high BEFORE I changed the water. So what did I stir up? All fish are well and accounted for, so unless one of the snails died (how do you know when a snail dies? I can't even find them all) I don't know why these readings should be so high after a water change.
I measured everything today and had slightly better results - no ammonia, nitrites=1 ppm and nitrates=20 ppm, PH 7.2. So it settled down some. I've added more prime, pristine and stability and will test more tomorrow.
Has anybody else seen their numbers get higher AFTER a water change?
If the food isn't gone after a couple of hours I siphon away most of any extra food. except the pellets because it can take them hours to break them up. (I'll do that until I get the hang of how much to feed them).Now that I have the new snails I have no algae problem - truly amazing- my tank always looks great.
My first test on the tank was 5 days after getting the new fish - so Tuesday. I wasn't too surprised that they read a little high in every category. So on Wednesday I did a 50-60% water change. Before I even started, I used my siphon to get to all the gunk in the hard to reach places (the Python isn't very good at that). I used the Python to clean the rest of the gravel and removed, and then replace the water. About midway during replacement I poured in a mixture of all my chemicals - Prime, Stability, Pristine and Flourish (for the plants) Had to put in a little PHdown
I tested the water after all that and before I fed them and got some really strange results: Amonia=0, Nitrites=5 ppm, Nitrates 40 ppm , PH 7.2 - I l know the Nitrite and Nitrate readings weren't that high BEFORE I changed the water. So what did I stir up? All fish are well and accounted for, so unless one of the snails died (how do you know when a snail dies? I can't even find them all) I don't know why these readings should be so high after a water change.
I measured everything today and had slightly better results - no ammonia, nitrites=1 ppm and nitrates=20 ppm, PH 7.2. So it settled down some. I've added more prime, pristine and stability and will test more tomorrow.
Has anybody else seen their numbers get higher AFTER a water change?