New gal from uk. :)

[burrhubb]

Hiya. Gosh am I in need of help with my 20 litre tropical tank. Looking for some answers on here.

Off to get searching

 

[bob mccoy]

hope u find what your looking for.

 

[burrhubb]

Thank u. I'm in process of cycling my tank (fish less) and NO3 sky high. Want to know why and how to lower them. Let the searching begin ay lol x

 

[cgthebeast]

Welcome to AA

 

[shellyx]

Hi, welcome to the forum

 

[Aquamandan]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[KPhilly]

Welcome, welcome! My advice, is patience. It has to cycle own its own. That or WC.

 

[burrhubb]

Water change? Ok well I did 25% wc today.
It's been up and running for a week now. I have used tetra 6 in 1 to test my water. I have heard these are a waste of time and they give false readings. Although when I went to aquatics centre near by they tested my water and it was the same results. So for time being I will stick to these but change later on.
Right when I enquired at the shop the things I needed to get my water ready for fish they have given me stress coat and nutrafin cycle. So as directed on bottle I added nutrafin over three days and stress coat only the once. I was then told I could put my fish in. However when I tested the water these are my readings

No3 between 50 -100
No2. 1
Gh. 16
Kh. 7.6
Ph. 7.2
Cl2. O

The no3 has gone up it was 50. No2 was 0 yesterday as well. Please help. What do I do next? It's a 90litre tank

Thanx in advance I need it haha

 

[KPhilly]

Okay, so you are doing fishless? What method? Put ammonia, raw shrimp, or flake food? Get your hands on a freshwater master test kit? Skip the nutrafin because I have heard nothing big bad news about BB in a bottle. Reason being, you'll just have to keep dosing it later down the road. I heard about some BB in a bottle that just came out that you only have to dose once, but I don't know much about. Defiantly do NOT put fish in if you aren't quite sure about your results. Grow your own BB colony, skip the bottles. Your goal is to get 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites in 24 hours. Then you can add fish.

 

[KPhilly]

Also, don't stress about PH. It's going to fluctuate during your cycle plus most fish that are tank bred are able to acclimate to different PH levels excluding Discuss. Don't water change anymore either. Let it ride.

 

[KPhilly]

One more thing, you have a small tank so make sure you're not overdosing anything. The smaller the water, the easier to make huge mistakes.

 

[burrhubb]

1st of all thank you for replying (yay!!)

Sorry I meant 90litre. Doh!!! Don't know why I put 20!! Lol. Ok Thank you. I will just leave it now then. It's fish less cycle I'm doing. Do I need to add fish food? I have heard/seen different things on the Internet people saying add food don't add it so I'm quite confused.

 

[KPhilly]

1st of all thank you for replying (yay!!)

Sorry I meant 90litre. Doh!!! Don't know why I put 20!! Lol. Ok Thank you. I will just leave it now then. It's fish less cycle I'm doing. Do I need to add fish food? I have heard/seen different things on the Internet people saying add food don't add it so I'm quite confused.

It's more of preference I believe. I use pure ammonia that I got from a local store. I like the put ammonia because I can measure how much exactly is going in but you can do any of the methods.

 

[KPhilly]

Your tank is still considered small. Don't quote me on this but I think it's considered small up until you reach around 40+ gallons so still be cautious!

 

[cgthebeast]

Your tank is still considered small. Don't quote me on this but I think it's considered small up until you reach around 40+ gallons so still be cautious!

Yep, general rule

 

[burrhubb]

Ok thanks for your advice . I will sit and wait then and hope it sorts itself out. Thanks again been a great help

 

[KPhilly]

Ok thanks for your advice . I will sit and wait then and hope it sorts itself out. Thanks again been a great help

Not a problem! I'm fairly new too. I've gotten most of my information from this website and the users. It's a great community! If you need help, just ask. Take advantage of the Internet but a lot comes from experience! Have patience! That's one thing this hobby is teaching me!

 

[burrhubb]

Ok. Just tested my water again.

No3 100
No2 1-5
Gh 16
Kh 10
Ph 7.2-7.6
Cl2 ok

Should it be going up whilst in cycling process? Then will come back down? I feel like its getting worse. But I'm not sure if it gets worse before it gets better. Or whether I'm doing something really wrong.