waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
AZ, there's another thread going at the moment with pics of some nice looking Red Honey Dwarf G's and some discussion - You really might want to take some time and think about these or honey or gold.. chk em all out. G's are going to hopefully (except for the Dwarf G. disease that's unpredictable and you can do nothing about) be more hardy than rams. I hear German Blue Rams, which are beautiful, are delicate enough that people put them in the "wait 6 or 12 months" category and even then they supposedly need pristine water.
~~waterdrop~~
edit: Dublin_Lad, the nitrification process (both cycling and normal operation of the biofilter) results in the build-up of nitrate(NO3) as a normal thing. If you have 5ppm of nitrate in your tap water and your tank has 20ppm then that means your tank has built up the other 15ppm, which is quite normal and not bad at all. You can get this closer to the 5ppm via more thorough gravel cleans and more frequent and larger water changes, although there shouldn't be much call for this (unless you go for those rams like AZ!)
~~waterdrop~~
edit: Dublin_Lad, the nitrification process (both cycling and normal operation of the biofilter) results in the build-up of nitrate(NO3) as a normal thing. If you have 5ppm of nitrate in your tap water and your tank has 20ppm then that means your tank has built up the other 15ppm, which is quite normal and not bad at all. You can get this closer to the 5ppm via more thorough gravel cleans and more frequent and larger water changes, although there shouldn't be much call for this (unless you go for those rams like AZ!)
I just hope the 'community' will get along 
Keep changing my mind 
