Recent content by hollyml

So, an update...we have nitrItes! I am calling this good news because it's evidence that the cycle is finally progressing. We did add some fish last week, selected with the help of the good LFS, and now have two guppies, two cories and what turns out to be two little snails, plus some small...

Yes, at the moment just the one guppy...plus a snail, which I swear has doubled in size since the last time I caught sight of it! Still 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 or so nitrate today. Total elapsed time since we first put fish in the tank is now 20 days. D'you suppose we could add another...

Oh, I know I don't want nitrItes, ultimately, but have been expecting to see them because we didn't think the tank had cycled yet. Figured we've been seeing the 5ish nitrAte readings due to the the Tetra SafeStart. I've kept doing the Nutrafin pH test only because our results are so bizarre...

Now I'm even more confused... Last night I did not have time/energy for a full battery of tests so I did just the ammonia, and got just a tinge of green -- not zero, but less than .25. Figured I could leave it overnight and we'd likely do a PWC today. Test results this evening: Ammonia 0...

Yeah, the thing is I don't really WANT a planted tank. The stuff we bought just floats, and was represented to require no care. I didn't think to ask about lighting though. I'm not at all concerned that it's not really an aquatic plant, given where we bought it (specialty store, not from the...

Thanks, eco23 but I think you missed the part where we bought the API master test kit already. :) The list of of test results over the last few days is using that kit. And it's giving us wildly differing pH results, even though the other pH drip test set is giving us very consistent results --...

"In My Opinion" -- general Internet speak, not specific to fish. :)

I even BOUGHT a "complete tank kit" only to discover that it is FAR from "complete." :lol: It does include a pamphlet sort of thing about set-up, cycling and adding fish slowly, but it's...incomplete. And probably overly optimistic about how long it takes for a new tank to cycle. It is...

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...