Newbie with 2gal tank - cleaning advice?

[neilanh]

That pH is fine, mine is 7.5ish and no issues. Just like you said, stable is way more important than target.

How much is a "little ammonia" that you're reading? Basically, if it ever gets to 0.5ppm, do a 50% water change. That's what I'd recommend.

[jfoust]

Honestly, off the top of my head I don't remember what the Ammonia level was! Thanks to Google I found an image of the ammonia card from the API kit and I think it was between a 0.25 and 0.50, so I did the water change. The change I did yesterday was about 35%, thinking I would do a few of those and see if it brings that level down.

BTW, that API kit is great! It's simple to use and easy to read, and they say it's good for 800 tests, so even though I had to pay $29.99 for it at PetSmart, it only works out to $0.03 per test and even if I test every day this one kit will last me over two years

Oh yeah, how often should I test? I was sort of thinking about doing it every time before I do my weekly water change, but I don't know if that's too much or not.

[bluerose]

Once the tank is cycled and holding steady once a week is good... and then test if your fish are acting weird or if something changes in the tank.

No such thing as too much testing! knowledge is power so they say :P

[neilanh]

Yeah, until your tank completely finishes it's cycle I'd recommend testing every day or two. After that, weekly should be fine, and once you get comfortable you can slack off from that too. Not recommending this, mind you, but I can't even remember the last time I checked the parameters in any of my FW tanks. lol. It's been at least since June.

[jfoust]

Wow I hope mine gets that stable!!! Thanks for all the advice! I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get everything settled in