Recent content by fishnoobs

tap water pH=7.4

Oh and I'm using the API master test kit

Substrate: eco-complete and fine black sand from Petco. There are no rocks or limestone in the tank

Day 2 with fish: 5 tetra and 3 ghost shrimp. I feed them with tropical fish granules and the tank is quite heavily planted with java ferns, java moss, marimo moss balls, honwort (I think it's dying though :( ), amazon sword, and some other plants I don't know the names :) Ammonia=0, Nitrite=0...

My tank is cycled! Ammonia=0 Nitrite=0 Nitrate=5 pH=7.8 :dance: :rofl: I am out of ideas on lowering my pH. All the natural things I put (peat, driftwood, chola wood) did nothing to reduce it :banghead:

If the nitrate reads 20ppm (or lower) tomorrow, do I still need to do water change?

So I was surprised to see the reading this morning: ammonia=0, nitrite=0, nitrate=0. I spiked the ammonia to 2ppm on 10/3 afternoon, and yesterday's morning (10/4) reading was (14 hours after the ammonia spike): ammonia=0, nitrite=2, nitrate=40ppm then in the afternoon (24 hours after ammonia...

Eco complete gravel and petco fine substrate

pH never drops below 7.8 So can someone explain this to me? Tap water pH is 7.4 But my fish less tank pH is never below 7.8 even though I have chola wood, driftwood, peat granules, and I put CO2 booster every day. What's causing the pH to stay in the 7.8? The live plants or is it because it's...

Today is the day the ammonia=0, nitrite=0, and nitrate=5. I'm going to bump the ammonia to 2ppm and crossing my fingers they will drop to 0 in 24 hours!

9/28 readings After three 50% PWC, here are the readings: pH 8.0 (it was elevated to 8.4 after I added Fluval peat granules on 9/26, not sure why) ammonia 0ppm (yay!) nitrite 0.25ppm nitrate 20ppm So since there's still nitrite and nitrate, I should keep feeding the bacteria with 1ppm...

Thanks! I'm keeping a log to record the daily reading. Hopefully they will come down soon!

Started the cycle on 9/15, so it's been 11 days so far. The tank has live plants in it along with 2 lava rocks and 1 large driftwood. I use the Eco-complete substrate and another layer of finer substrate (Petco brand). The temperature in the tank is about 80-82F. I have been using API CO2...