CMNCHNC
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Good morning, all,
I am new to having an aquarium and decided to go freshwater. My tank is approx 73 gallons, with a 10-gallon sump filter system. The tank is 47" (long) 20" tall and 19" width.
The tank is planted with primarily Amazon Sword, Brazilian Pennywort, Anubias Nana Petite, and Ludwigia Perusensis. I have been using Seachem Flourish Tabs, Flourish Excel, Flourish Iron starting this past week and the substrate in eco-complete. The filter system consists of 250 micron socks (3), matrix carbon, coarse sponge, and matrix (in that order).
Hardscape includes tiger rock and Malaysian driftwood. The driftwood was releasing crazy amount of tannins, more brackish than I wanted, so I pulled and boiled them for an hour to two and put them back in last week.
This past Saturday I did a 20% pwc and moved some of the plants around for a better aquascape.
The problem that I am running into now is that the nitrites are pretty much stuck around 2.0 ppm. The ammonia approaches zero (.25 ppm) almost each day and I have been adding between 1/2 tsp to 3/4 tsp of Fritz ammonia daily so that I don't hit zero. The nitrates have hit close to 160 ppm - all tests utilizing an API Freshwater Master Test.
Any ideas/suggestions of why the nitrites aren't dropping to zero? Just need to be patient?
After I get over this hump I will gladly take stocking ideas...
Thank you! Chuck
I am new to having an aquarium and decided to go freshwater. My tank is approx 73 gallons, with a 10-gallon sump filter system. The tank is 47" (long) 20" tall and 19" width.
The tank is planted with primarily Amazon Sword, Brazilian Pennywort, Anubias Nana Petite, and Ludwigia Perusensis. I have been using Seachem Flourish Tabs, Flourish Excel, Flourish Iron starting this past week and the substrate in eco-complete. The filter system consists of 250 micron socks (3), matrix carbon, coarse sponge, and matrix (in that order).
Hardscape includes tiger rock and Malaysian driftwood. The driftwood was releasing crazy amount of tannins, more brackish than I wanted, so I pulled and boiled them for an hour to two and put them back in last week.
This past Saturday I did a 20% pwc and moved some of the plants around for a better aquascape.
The problem that I am running into now is that the nitrites are pretty much stuck around 2.0 ppm. The ammonia approaches zero (.25 ppm) almost each day and I have been adding between 1/2 tsp to 3/4 tsp of Fritz ammonia daily so that I don't hit zero. The nitrates have hit close to 160 ppm - all tests utilizing an API Freshwater Master Test.
Any ideas/suggestions of why the nitrites aren't dropping to zero? Just need to be patient?
After I get over this hump I will gladly take stocking ideas...
Thank you! Chuck