ghent_3rd
Fish Addict
ONe of my 18x10x10 tanks is has no ammonia but the nitrite keeps rising so I am guessing that although the filter media was taken from an exisitng tank the bacteria is not quite up to scratch yet on the nitrite side. I was wondering how long I need to wait to be able to test the water again after doing a water change?? I changed the water a few minutes ago, about 33% as nitrite was over 1 ppm, and I want to test again before I go to bed to make sure that it has at least come down some.
The guppies are all looking really poorly,they seem to be succombing to some form of bacterial infection 1 by 1. First they get wuite large red sores/ulcers on their backs and then struggle to swim/keep upright before perishing. I hate to admit but I think I was a bit keen in trying to clone a tank. The tank with the fighter that I added on the same day has been fine with no ammonia or nitrite produced at all but the guppy tank has really struggled with nitrite.
bad times and upsetting learning curve. I added mature media to my tank and it took about a week or 2 after that before nitrite started to appear then it took another week or 2 to spike and about a week to drop to 0 within 24 hrs. Then the same again to drop within 12 hrs. Before I got the mature media I did the add and wait method but nothing seemed to be happening. 
my tank took 4 months to cycle but I think that may have been down to my
