Noob here, bought a tank "kit" at the big box chain store for my daughter's 7th birthday and made some of the usual mistakes about not understanding the cycling process before jumping in. (Please be gentle!) As a kid, I had guppies in a very small tank, and then a somewhat larger community tank (guppies and tetras mostly) and I remembered it as being very low maintenance -- I don't think we ever did any water chemistry tests at all! I'm learning that they just don't make guppies the way they used to! 
So now, we are still trying to keep this simple but want to get our fish-in cycle done right, and I am confused by some of the test results we are getting.
Setup and history here -- sorry about the novel but I hope not to leave out anything important:
10G tank (I know, I know, but larger not practical now) with the Top Fin filter and lighted hood that came in the "kit". Gravel and some plastic plants. Conditioned water in and filtered for several days before we put in three guppies from the big chain store. We do not have a heater, but temp has been very stable at 74-76 F. We did not have a test kit when we started.
Guppy death #1 on day three or four (after putting the fish in). Probably ammonia poisoning, but we have no idea actually because no tests.
That afternoon we visited a better local fish store, a small specialist place. They sold us a bottle of the TetraSafe bacteria booster stuff, a clump of floating "guppy grass" (we weren't planning to deal with live planting but this was supposed to be maintenance-free), a pH test kit and some "acid buffer" because (they say) our local tap water is very high pH which means the ammonia is even more toxic. They also recommended an ammonia test kit but we passed because the price was ridiculous.
We did have the free test strip done at the chain store, were told "everything fine" for being less than a week out, but no actual numbers.
I did a lot of reading about cycling and everything seemed well enough for the next week and a half. We dumped in the bacteria stuff and the plant, acquired a gravel vac and did PWCs every 2-3 days, some with the acid buffer. The pH fluctuated a bit with the changes, lowest test result was about 6.6 and the highest 7.2. We also bought an "ammonia alert" sensor that hangs in the tank; it has always shown 0 when the hood light is on, but tinges into the .05 range when the hood light is off.
The "guppy grass" has been gradually turning brown, breaking into smaller pieces and sinking. This does not seem good. But we haven't had a chance to call or visit the store where we got it to ask about that. Oh, btw, we seem to have a tiny snail in the tank which I assume hitched in on the guppy grass.
Chain store strip results on day 10:
Ammonia .5 (or that's what the store employee wrote down, though I thought it was lower when I looked at the strip), nitrite 0, nitrate 2, pH 6.8, alkalinity 30, hardness 80, chlorine/chloramine 0.
Guppy death #2 at two weeks. He may have had fin rot; my daughter said his fin seemed "fuzzy" the last day, and the other guppy had been nipping at him quite a bit.
We didn't do anything about the fin rot -- the poor fish was already dead, after all, and it seemed silly to attempt to mess with the tank water when we weren't sure that was the problem. But we did (finally!) acquire the API master test kit.
Test results since then:
Day 1 chain store test strip (before PWC):
Ammonia .5, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, pH 6.6, alkalinity 75, hardness 25, chlorine/chloramine 0. Pet store employee sold my husband a bottle of API "proper pH 7.0 buffer and conditioner" but we have not used it.
Day 1 API tests (after 20% PWC):
Ammonia less than .25, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, pH read 7.6 with API test but 6.8 with Nutrafin. (We did both just out of curiosity.)
Day 2 (no PWC):
Ammonia less than .25, nitrite 0, nitrate between 5 and 10, pH 6.6 with API but 6.8 with Nutrafin.
Day 3 (before PWC):
Ammonia .5, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, pH 7.4 with API but 6.8 with Nutrafin.
Day 3 (after 40% PWC):
Ammonia .25, pH 6.8 with both tests.
I decided to do an ammonia test on our tap water too, after adding the water conditioner. Got a .25 result.
What the devil is going on with those pH results? Obviously I'd rather believe the Nutrafin but I know the API kit is supposed to be The One. Should we use the pH buffer stuff or return it? Am I right that I shouldn't even be seeing nitrates yet, given that the ammonia is consistently >0 and nitrites consistently 0? We could have just missed the nitrites in the first week, I guess, and the ammonia is in our tap water? What do we do about that?
Remaining guppy
seems okay. But then, so did the others until within a day of expiring. And I don't know if it's good for him to be in there all by his lonesome.
My daughter is of course anxious to add more pretty fish! But I have now read and heard so much conflicting info and advice on the bottled bacteria stuff, the pH products, and the appropriate length of time to wait before adding fish, that I am not sure what to do.
So, if this were your second-grader's tank, what would you do?
TIA!
So now, we are still trying to keep this simple but want to get our fish-in cycle done right, and I am confused by some of the test results we are getting.Setup and history here -- sorry about the novel but I hope not to leave out anything important:
10G tank (I know, I know, but larger not practical now) with the Top Fin filter and lighted hood that came in the "kit". Gravel and some plastic plants. Conditioned water in and filtered for several days before we put in three guppies from the big chain store. We do not have a heater, but temp has been very stable at 74-76 F. We did not have a test kit when we started.
Guppy death #1 on day three or four (after putting the fish in). Probably ammonia poisoning, but we have no idea actually because no tests.
That afternoon we visited a better local fish store, a small specialist place. They sold us a bottle of the TetraSafe bacteria booster stuff, a clump of floating "guppy grass" (we weren't planning to deal with live planting but this was supposed to be maintenance-free), a pH test kit and some "acid buffer" because (they say) our local tap water is very high pH which means the ammonia is even more toxic. They also recommended an ammonia test kit but we passed because the price was ridiculous.
We did have the free test strip done at the chain store, were told "everything fine" for being less than a week out, but no actual numbers.
I did a lot of reading about cycling and everything seemed well enough for the next week and a half. We dumped in the bacteria stuff and the plant, acquired a gravel vac and did PWCs every 2-3 days, some with the acid buffer. The pH fluctuated a bit with the changes, lowest test result was about 6.6 and the highest 7.2. We also bought an "ammonia alert" sensor that hangs in the tank; it has always shown 0 when the hood light is on, but tinges into the .05 range when the hood light is off.
The "guppy grass" has been gradually turning brown, breaking into smaller pieces and sinking. This does not seem good. But we haven't had a chance to call or visit the store where we got it to ask about that. Oh, btw, we seem to have a tiny snail in the tank which I assume hitched in on the guppy grass.
Chain store strip results on day 10:
Ammonia .5 (or that's what the store employee wrote down, though I thought it was lower when I looked at the strip), nitrite 0, nitrate 2, pH 6.8, alkalinity 30, hardness 80, chlorine/chloramine 0.
Guppy death #2 at two weeks. He may have had fin rot; my daughter said his fin seemed "fuzzy" the last day, and the other guppy had been nipping at him quite a bit.
We didn't do anything about the fin rot -- the poor fish was already dead, after all, and it seemed silly to attempt to mess with the tank water when we weren't sure that was the problem. But we did (finally!) acquire the API master test kit.
Test results since then:
Day 1 chain store test strip (before PWC):
Ammonia .5, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, pH 6.6, alkalinity 75, hardness 25, chlorine/chloramine 0. Pet store employee sold my husband a bottle of API "proper pH 7.0 buffer and conditioner" but we have not used it.
Day 1 API tests (after 20% PWC):
Ammonia less than .25, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, pH read 7.6 with API test but 6.8 with Nutrafin.
(We did both just out of curiosity.)Day 2 (no PWC):
Ammonia less than .25, nitrite 0, nitrate between 5 and 10, pH 6.6 with API but 6.8 with Nutrafin.
Day 3 (before PWC):
Ammonia .5, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, pH 7.4 with API but 6.8 with Nutrafin.
Day 3 (after 40% PWC):
Ammonia .25, pH 6.8 with both tests.
I decided to do an ammonia test on our tap water too, after adding the water conditioner. Got a .25 result.
What the devil is going on with those pH results? Obviously I'd rather believe the Nutrafin
but I know the API kit is supposed to be The One. Should we use the pH buffer stuff or return it? Am I right that I shouldn't even be seeing nitrates yet, given that the ammonia is consistently >0 and nitrites consistently 0? We could have just missed the nitrites in the first week, I guess, and the ammonia is in our tap water? What do we do about that?Remaining guppy
seems okay. But then, so did the others until within a day of expiring. And I don't know if it's good for him to be in there all by his lonesome.My daughter is of course anxious to add more pretty fish!
But I have now read and heard so much conflicting info and advice on the bottled bacteria stuff, the pH products, and the appropriate length of time to wait before adding fish, that I am not sure what to do. So, if this were your second-grader's tank, what would you do?
TIA!
