Recent content by anne stuart

I've been cycling my 8 gallon Bio Orb for weeks now and I still haven't seen any nitrates or nitrites. Next week I'm heading out of town for 4 nights. I have someone feeding the cats and fish in my other tank but what do I do about this partially complete fishless cycle? I just did a PWC...

Well I had done a pretty big water change because my PH was dropping. Everything still looked good after adding ammonia so I added 5 endler's livebearers and a Pleco. AFter 24 hours everyone seems happy. Although the Pleco is hiding under something today. He hid for a while then started...

Thanks! I actually had the same readings yesterday, added ammonia yesterday to see how fast it cycled and it was all gone in the morning.

Is it common for everything to drop to 0 overnight? I don't even have Nitrate anymore even though just yesterday it was at 80! Am I done?

I'm following the fishless cycle process I found on forums here and also on the Dr. Tim Aquatics site. I used his Ammonia. From what I've read partial water changes are needed if the PH drops or if the Nitrite gets so high it's off the charts. this restores buffers. I've been at this for...

I've been cycling a 5 gallon FluVal tank and it's been very slow going. It's been sort of one step foreward one step back. Today I was about to do a partial water change because my PH is dropping and my Nitrites are at or above 5.0. I just happened to really read the directions on the dechlor...

That's what I did. I'll test again later today and see what happened with the ammonia I added last night. When I checked ammonia yesterday afternoon it was reading Ammonia of only 1 or 2 so I'm thinking I didn't put enough in. I'm using the dr. Tim's aquarium ammonia and followed the...

Good tip about pantyhose. Now let me see if I can go back to the 80s when we all wore those... I've already got 2 cats, at least the fish don't wake me up at 4am wanting attention or hacking up a fur ball on the rug. I can't grow live plants in a biorb. I've ordered some silk plants and I...

What are you using for slime coat? All I treat the water with is the Seachum Prime Dechlor the fish store sold me. I had this idea that fish would be an easy pet for my daughter, it's turning into a whole science experiment for Mommy. Another question. I've got this drift wood that I had...

I'm Using The API master test kit. That's what has me puzzled. I have one tiny little plant. I added a decent amount of seeding material from my existing tank and at one point added about half a gallon of water from the existing tank to get things going. I did go away for Mother's day...

Good to know!

Cycling a 5 gallon Fluval Spec and I need some advise. The thing is that it's so small evaporation and the tiny amount I take to test the water daily keeps causing me to need to top off the tank. I have to do it for the 3rd time today in the 9 days I've been at this. Can I trust the readings...

Really? I had heard 50% only in the event of something rather large like a fish dying. I worry about us not keeping a good bio filter if I change much more than 30% weekly especially on such a small tank.

Great tip! With a heated tank do I need to heat the new water before adding it to the tank? I have always put water in a bucket and treated it then left it n the room for a few hours to come to room temp. A pwc on an 8 gallon is only 2 gallons so it doesn't rake long to warm up.

Thanks! I'll probably just get a heater since it seems to make the choices easier.