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I'd vote for the old school thermometer. Some of the cheaper digital thermometers get really inaccurate when the batteries get low. I've had them read 15-20 degrees below the tank's actual temp with no other indication that the batteries were low. I usually use a regular thermometer for...

I've had this thermometer for about 8 months and just wanted to post a little information about it to prevent someone else from making the same mistake I did... This thermometer has worked very well in my 54 gallon corner tank. I keep the tank at 76 degrees with a pair of Fluval m200 heaters...

Having just torn down my wife's Biorb (betta tank) for a normal tank, I can give some feedback on it. The tank itself was the round version, not the square Life version...but they both use the same filtration. The way the filter works is a bubbler in the middle pushes water up the lift tube...

It could also be the free ammonia at higher levels in the warm water (it goes up with temp or pH). Darrenpen what test kit are you using? Something like the API master only measures total ammonia and is not sensitive to temperature. But if you're using one with a free ammonia test (SeaChem...

Can you give a bit more information? It seems there are a number of things that can cause pH drops. Is your tank cycled, how old is it? What is the pH? What is the pH from your tap? Do you know if you have soft water?

Thanks for the advice everyone. One thing I keep forgetting when I look at the tank is that the gourami can get to be 5-6". I think I will go look for a small school to add a bit more color. I know they can be fin nippers, but I've looked at serpae tetras before. Maybe time to revisit that...

I have a 54 gallon corner that until pretty recently was very lightly planted (5-6 plants). It's got a 24" dual T5HO fixture (longest that will fit on a corner) at 48 watts and no CO2 setup. It's a decent amount of light since the tank isn't as long as a normal 55, and the low-med light plants...

I saw the large gourami go after a tetra once. The tetra and three of his buddies kicked the gourami's butt and he hasn't tried it again. He mainly worries about keeping the other gourami out of his space and trying to fight off the corys for their food (lost cause). I could definitely go...

Having a bit of a hard time deciding on the final residents of my 54 gallon corner tank. My water is fairly soft with a pH of 7.6. The tank temp is 76-77. Right now I have: 1 bristlenose pleco 8 orange laser corys 2 oto cats 2 gold gourami 6 black skirt tetras At some point later, I am...

Figured I'd post my experience so far just in case anyone finds this thread later. I added about 1 - 1.5 cups of crushed coral to my canister filter on a 55 gallon tank 4 days ago. The crushed coral has increased my kh just like I needed. It's doing it fairly slowly, and is up to about 2...

It's definitely moving. In about 30 hours, the pH has risen from 6.6 to 7.6. A bit faster than I would have liked, but the fish look ok. Appetites are good and they're all active. The kh has come up to somewhere between 1 and 2...but it's at least measurable now. I have about 1 - 1.5 cups...

Another question about the coral in the filter. How quickly does this typically start to affect water parameters (55 gal)? I want to keep an eye on it as it adjusts, but the hardness test kit is borrowed so I don't want to burn through all the chemicals :whistle:

I picked it up a few days ago when I saw it at the LFS. I have some parts of my tank that are really tough to get to with the siphon vacuum, as well as a very messy pleco. So far it seems to work really well as long as your tank is deep enough. If you see a picture of it, the grey portion...

Thanks for the advice guys. I ran out today and got some crushed coral and filter bags. I have about half of the top tray of the canister filled with the coral right now. Is too too much (flow is still fine), or can I leave it like that until the coral gets eroded? Once the kh comes up a...

Hi all, I have a 55 gallon tank, lightly planted about half stocked that's been running for about 4 months. It's got regular aquarium gravel and a Fluval 305 filter with just bio media and sponges. I did an Ammo, Nitrite, Nitrate test last night and decided to do a pH test too. I don't...

Quick update. Ammonia is still being processed at a little under .5 ppm per day, nitrates are rising and no trace of nitrites. Looks like I may have a stable nitrite eating colony and a small ammonia eating colony. Hopefully the ammonia bacteria get a move on in the next couple of weeks...

Well, definitely not an instant cycle. I'm starting to see very slow movement on the ammonia (about .5 ppm/day) though. The nitrates are also rising, but nitrites are not. So maybe the filters had a good colony of nitrite processing bacteria? Given the amount of filter media I got (2 4"...

About 24 hours after adding the active filters to my tank...and no change in any levels at all :nono:. Ammo, nitrite, nitrate and pH are all where they have been since my last water change. If there were any bacteria surviving on those filters, I think they should have had at least a small...

It's possible that there aren't any nitrites or nitrates and the test is accurate. I have similar unfortunate experience with a long cycle that won't get started. I noticed that over the period of a few weeks, the ammonia levels would very slowly drop to about 1ppm without producing any...

Well, I haven't posted any more results because there haven't been any more. Nitrite went off the scale, and everything stopped right there. Looks like the Cycle worked for about a week then died off :banghead:. I've done several 50% water changes to replenish nutrients and tried waiting...

Day 5 (after Cycle) results: pH 7.9 Ammo just under 1 Nitrite >5 Nitrate above 20 Temp 85 I think I'm going to do a PWC and ammo redose tonight. It's too hard to figure out what's going on without being able to read the nitrite levels. Also, I decided I really don't like the 10-30 range on...

Lol, that plan works for me. I just reread your guide for a normal cycle and noticed it says wait until nitrites and nitrates are off scale before the water change. I guess as long as the ammo keeps dropping and the nitrates keep rising I'll stick to that.

Day 5 after 1st Cycle dose pH 7.9 Ammo 1 (little darker than 1, but not 2) Nitrite >5 (off the scale high) Nitrate 15 (10 and 20 are too close for my eyes) Temp 84.6 Ammo is dropping very slowly, not quite 1ppm per day. The nitrates are building, so I guess that's good. I'm still confused...

That's pretty intense. I kind of wish I'd picked Stability instead of Cycle. They were right next to each other on the shelf. But, I'm in for the ride now. Hopefully I actually end up with a usable filter :)

Results for today (day 4 after 1st Cycle dose): pH 7.9 Am < 2ppm Nitrite >5 ppm Nitrate <10 ppm Temp 84.5 I'm done dosing the Cycle so it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. Something seems off here. I'm guessing the Cycle has a substantial amount of nitrite...