ragin1cajun
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
One of my daughters wanted a fish tank for Christmas so I said what the heck, I know what I am doing since my brother and I had fish when we were teenagers.
Well, 20 years later, I went ahead and did everything based on memory. I do not remember, and havent asked my brother yet, cycling a tank. Seems like we just bought the tank, set up the tank, and put fish in.. Now that I have read the articles here and elsewhere I would much prefer to do a fishless cycle but I am where I am!
The tank is a 6 Gallon tank, in retrospect, I should have bought a bigger tank. I let the water sit for a day filtering before putting the fish in the tank.
2 Zebra Danios (Glofish)
1 Albino Cory Catfish
After reading about cycling and testing water I bought an API Master Test Kit. My water is always at about 1ppm Ammonia with Nitrite/Nitrate levels both at 0ppm. So, yesterday I did a 25% water change then checked the water 4 hours later and no change in Ammonia levels.
It didn't occur to me until today that there may be Ammonia in my tap water. I checked and the tap water tests at 8 pH, 1ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite/Nitrate.
To condition the water going into the tank I have been using API Tap Water Conditioner which only removes Chlorine/Chloramines not Ammonia. I also used some Tetra SafeStart recommended by the store before putting the fish in the tank. Since I have not seen Ammonia go down I highly doubt the SafeStart did anything other than increase the stores revenue.
So 2 questions:
1. If I go get some Prime tomorrow, can I add it directly to the Aquarium to bring down the ammonia? Or should I proceed with daily 25% water changes treated with Prime?
2. pH for both Aquarium and tap water is testing around 8 to 8.2. Is this a cause for concern?
Thankfully, despite my initial ineptitude, the fish seem to be doing OK so far but I know I am gambling since the Ammonia has been at 1ppm for a couple days now..
Well, 20 years later, I went ahead and did everything based on memory. I do not remember, and havent asked my brother yet, cycling a tank. Seems like we just bought the tank, set up the tank, and put fish in.. Now that I have read the articles here and elsewhere I would much prefer to do a fishless cycle but I am where I am!
The tank is a 6 Gallon tank, in retrospect, I should have bought a bigger tank. I let the water sit for a day filtering before putting the fish in the tank.
2 Zebra Danios (Glofish)
1 Albino Cory Catfish
After reading about cycling and testing water I bought an API Master Test Kit. My water is always at about 1ppm Ammonia with Nitrite/Nitrate levels both at 0ppm. So, yesterday I did a 25% water change then checked the water 4 hours later and no change in Ammonia levels.
It didn't occur to me until today that there may be Ammonia in my tap water. I checked and the tap water tests at 8 pH, 1ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite/Nitrate.
To condition the water going into the tank I have been using API Tap Water Conditioner which only removes Chlorine/Chloramines not Ammonia. I also used some Tetra SafeStart recommended by the store before putting the fish in the tank. Since I have not seen Ammonia go down I highly doubt the SafeStart did anything other than increase the stores revenue.
So 2 questions:
1. If I go get some Prime tomorrow, can I add it directly to the Aquarium to bring down the ammonia? Or should I proceed with daily 25% water changes treated with Prime?
2. pH for both Aquarium and tap water is testing around 8 to 8.2. Is this a cause for concern?
Thankfully, despite my initial ineptitude, the fish seem to be doing OK so far but I know I am gambling since the Ammonia has been at 1ppm for a couple days now..