Carniequeue
Aquarium Advice Newbie
So I posted here a few weeks ago for some stocking advice, and you all were very helpful. Hopefully you can provide some insight on what's going on with my tank. The tank is a 20 gallon long. Originally had as decorations a large piece of driftwood and several silk plans of varying sizes. I bought everything and set it up on 10/26 with the intention to do a fishless cycle. I was a little impatient though. I read up a little on fish-in cycling, and I figured that would be a harmless route to go to get a few fish in early. So on 11/30 I purchased 3 cherry barbs to use for the cycle. Really love those guys a lot. Things mostly proceeded as normal from there. I checked the water parameters every other day, after which I would do about a 35-40% water change. I checked mostly pH and ammonia, with the occasional hopeful check for nitrites.
It was this weekend past that things began to get a little weird. Saturday night I checked the ammonia, and instead of the around .25ppm it tended to be before a water change it seemed to be zero. I checked for nitrates and I finally had some. So super excited. It was right around 2 weeks so I seemd to be on schedule. The next morning, to burn off that extra energy, I went to my LFS to just look at fish. I was feeling like my aquarium was a little bare so I also decided to get a few plants. I got 2 small java ferns, and some java moss. When I got home, I rinsed them in tap water and put them in the tank.
Fast forward to Monday night, i was testing the water before the regular water change. When I checked I didn't get a reading on nitrites. A little disappointed I figured id read the test wrong and tested for ammonia. It was also on zero. So, baffled, I tested for nitrates. I had 15ppm. This, as confusing at it was, made me giddy. At least until the next morning, when I realized I'd never tested my tap water for nitrates. I live in a rural area around farms so I figured that was probably the issue. Tested it and sure enough it was 15ppm. I had elected not to change the water Monday due to test results so that night I tested again. Still zero on nitrites and ammonia. Nitrates were down to 10ppm though, which seems weird given the tap water situation. I changed the water as usual, and decided I wouldn't change every three days going forward. My fish seemed to be fine.
So here I am at the end of the week, and still haven't gotten any readings for ammonia or nitrites. I'd assume I was cycled but the tank now seems to be settling consistently on 5ppm nitrates, less than the water I'm doing the water changes with. Are my regents bad? They seemed to be working fine before. I'm worried about my barbs, and frustrated with not understanding whats happening with the cycle. Any ideas?
PS: My tap water also has very high pH, about 8.2. I added the driftwood originally to get that to go down. It didn't, at least until also this week. Between Sunday and today it's dropped and, hopefully, settled at 7.8. Will the water changes cause a problem now though? With the discrepancy?
It was this weekend past that things began to get a little weird. Saturday night I checked the ammonia, and instead of the around .25ppm it tended to be before a water change it seemed to be zero. I checked for nitrates and I finally had some. So super excited. It was right around 2 weeks so I seemd to be on schedule. The next morning, to burn off that extra energy, I went to my LFS to just look at fish. I was feeling like my aquarium was a little bare so I also decided to get a few plants. I got 2 small java ferns, and some java moss. When I got home, I rinsed them in tap water and put them in the tank.
Fast forward to Monday night, i was testing the water before the regular water change. When I checked I didn't get a reading on nitrites. A little disappointed I figured id read the test wrong and tested for ammonia. It was also on zero. So, baffled, I tested for nitrates. I had 15ppm. This, as confusing at it was, made me giddy. At least until the next morning, when I realized I'd never tested my tap water for nitrates. I live in a rural area around farms so I figured that was probably the issue. Tested it and sure enough it was 15ppm. I had elected not to change the water Monday due to test results so that night I tested again. Still zero on nitrites and ammonia. Nitrates were down to 10ppm though, which seems weird given the tap water situation. I changed the water as usual, and decided I wouldn't change every three days going forward. My fish seemed to be fine.
So here I am at the end of the week, and still haven't gotten any readings for ammonia or nitrites. I'd assume I was cycled but the tank now seems to be settling consistently on 5ppm nitrates, less than the water I'm doing the water changes with. Are my regents bad? They seemed to be working fine before. I'm worried about my barbs, and frustrated with not understanding whats happening with the cycle. Any ideas?
PS: My tap water also has very high pH, about 8.2. I added the driftwood originally to get that to go down. It didn't, at least until also this week. Between Sunday and today it's dropped and, hopefully, settled at 7.8. Will the water changes cause a problem now though? With the discrepancy?
