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Reno

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Mar 6, 2020
Messages
6
We have bought a 20 gallon to step up from a 10 gallon. I have been messing with this thing for over a 2 months now and readings keep coming back for water with
Ammonia 1ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 40-80 ppm
Ph 6.6
Temp 78 degrees
Can someone help me get the numbers correct? What else can I add?
 
Two months is a long time. Just a few thoughts:



Was/is the ten gallon cycled? If so, and if you don't plan to use it anymore, simply transfer the old filter media into the new filter. Alternatively, you can move the entire old filter onto the new tank and run it alongside the new filter for a few weeks until the new filter fully colonizes with bacteria. If you are using the ten gallon for something else, just move some of the media over and monitor both tanks/do partial water changes as necessary.



Other thoughts:



1. What test kit are you using, and are you sure it is not out of date?



2. Have you tried testing your tap water to see how it compares?



3. Hold a white card up behind the test tube to make sure you are reading the color accurately. Sounds silly, but sometimes people misread it.



4. Have you been cleaning your filter? You do not want to do that. When you do your partial water changes, make sure that you are not removing or rinsing filter media in tap water. You want to keep the beneficial bacteria that live there.



5. If the 10 gallon doesn't have filter media you can use, do you have access to another healthy, established tank? Just adding more colonized filter media will often bump a cycle to complete. I recently did this with a cycle that had appeared to stall, and it completed within five days. If you live near a large city, there is probably an aquarium society nearby; you might try posting on their message board to see if someone will give you some used filter media from a healthy, established tank.



6. Do you have a Python for changing water so you don't have to lug buckets? The Python makes it almost effortless to change water--you just attach the hose to your sink and drain it and then fill. If you have a good system in place for easy water changes, you might complete the cycle fish-in, just doing very frequent water changes to protect your fish. Occasionally there is a post here about a cycle that stalls, and for some reason having fish in seems to help it complete. You have to be willing to be very vigilant about doing water changes though, or the process will be hard on your fish.



Maybe someone else has other or better suggestions. Good luck.
 
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