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If you are going away and wont be able to test or do water changes for a few days i would get the ammonia as close to zero as you can before you go. Do 3 or 4 x 50% water changes the day before you go away.

Everything you have said is correct. In acidic water, 1ppm of ammonia isnt going to be toxic. I would still get it down to 0.5ppm with a water change. Your water chemistry is going to fluctuate while establishing, the pH might unexpectedly rise or the ammonia might unexpectedly rise. Keeping...

All your plants are low light plants. They would probably do well with just the ambient room lighting. If they can only test for what the standard test kit can do, they dont sound like a very good aquarium store. We are asking for a 2nd opinion because test kits have a tendancy to go off...

Just try something for me. Do an ammonia test on your RO. Its not uncommon for an ammonia test shows a trace amount when in fact there is zero ammonia. RO should be zero ammonia, so if the test from your aquarium, and the test from your RO looks the same then your aquarium ammonia is zero...

Lets see what the second opinions are with your water parameters first, but raising KH might help and you can do this by adding carbonates/ bicarbonates. These can be introduced through adding an alkalinity buffer, or some form of calcium carbonate (crushed coral or cuttlefish bone) into your...

A significant amount of the microbes that are responsible for your cycle will be living on the substrate. Changing the substrate will remove these microbes and your cycle would need to catch up. Typically you don't want to change more than 1/3 of the substrate per week so you dont affect your...

What is the ammonia test result? When you say rocks, do you mean substrate (gravel) or large pieces of rocks in your aquascape? Have you been regularly testing the water when you didnt have problems? If so, whats a typical set of test results? It looks like changing whatever you changed did 2...

You're welcome. Glad we could be of some help.

And just to clarify on the GH test. The drops are using degrees as the unit and the strips are using ppm as the unit. 17.8ppm to 1 degree. So your drops are reading as around 120ppm. Remember that these are home test kits, not laboratory testing. They arent all that accurate. I would suggest...

I think carbon might be your problem. Most low demand plants like the ones you are keeping get their carbon from carbonate hardness. High demand plants will get their carbon from CO2, and due to their high needs it needs to be injected into the system. Low demand plants will melt as they use up...

If everything looks ok i wouldnt worry too much. Power outages happen, 1.5 hours isnt too long. If you are concerned, test the water and do a water change if things seem off. But you are in the middle of cycling, so water quality isnt perfect anyway. A year or so ago i was working from home...

Adding a source of calcium carbonate will normally keep your KH up and increase the pH a little. You can do this by adding some crushed coral into your filtration, or mixing it in with your substrate, or adding a piece of cuttlefish bone into your aquascape. Lets get your tapwater pH after 24...

Its almost always better to suit fish to the pH rather than trying to adjust pH to the fish. Having said that, its much easier to raise pH than it is to lower it. From your other post you say you have danios and platys. Both of these fish do better in harder water with a pH above 7, but are...

Like i said, many of these products make claims they cant actually back up. The product either absorbs ammonia or it doesnt. If it absorbs ammonia, that reduces the amount of food available to those microbes and restricts their growth. The study actually admits that using their product will...

Cycling a tank typically takes a couple of months. It can take 2 or 3 weeks, more commonly 6 to 8 weeks, sometimes 3 or 4 months. In the first few months your aquarium is very fragile. Even a light rinsing of the filtration might be enough to remove enough microbes to effect your cycle. Do you...

Anything that absorbs ammonia will prevent a tank from cycling by starving the microbes you are trying to grow. These products are nothing but a temporary solution that prevent the nitrogen cycle establishing. These products only work for so long before they get "filled up", after which you will...

I wouldnt describe a couple month old aquarium as established. Youve lost your cycle. It might take months to re-establish same as cycling a tank from scratch. Do you know how to cycle a tank with fish? What precisely are your ammonia and nitrite results immediately before a water change...

One of our members from a few years back was a big fan of pot scrubbers for bio media. https://www.aquariumadvice.com/threads/pot-scrubbies-bio-home.375264/#post-3553997 He recommended 16 pot scrubbers per tray for a SunSun 303b which is an equivalent size filter to a 407. I would work on...

Your youtube video is set to private so we cant watch it. Some fish are just jerks no matter what you do.

I know you have already done your aquascape etc, but have you considered a aquadecor background? Would look amazing on that new aquarium. https://aquadecorbackgrounds.com/

Do you know how to do a fish in cycle? https://www.aquariumadvice.com/threads/fish-in-cycle-guide.382320/

100% water change.

It just takes time, you are 4 weeks into what could easily be a 3 month process. A water change can sometimes help out a stalled cycle by replenishing KH. You are having to dose baking soda to get your KH which suggests your tap water is low on KH so that wouldn't help. Are the 6 KH and 9 GH...

That looks like ich to me. Lets wait for a 2nd opinion from @Andy Sager before deciding what to do next.

You can get manufactured rock similar to what filter media is made from. If you look for "Real Reef Rock" these are man made rocks that resemble natural marine rock. https://krakencorals.co.uk/aquatics/substrates/real-reef-rock.html Biohome is currently testing these products.