Bad luck finally turning to good..First water test question.

[turbovr6]

So my road to this point has been quite a rough one.
1. Fill my new tank, starts to leak.....fix that
2. One of my pumps is noisy as hell....fix that
3. Plug in heaters, one is defective, sparks and stuff....heaters sent to manufacturer, get replacements and tons of freebies.....

Now on to the water test part....

I have a 150 gal tank, 2 rio 2100 pumps, 2 rena 200w heaters, cotton pads for filter media. Due to the heater disater the tank has been running for 2 weeks with no heat. It's at 68 degrees.
I was "hooked up" with a guy who runs a small Aquarium maintenence service who also sells fish on an "by order" basis. 2 people I know buy all there fish from him with no problems. Anyway he told me the usual 6 week cycle period, and not to bother testing anything for a few weeks. So 2 weeks have passed and I decided to test the water here are my results using a "test tube/dropper kit"
Ammonia 0
PH 7.2
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Phosphate 0.5
GH 5
KH 3

Does this seem possible? It looks like the water is good to me, but I am a noob. How often should I keep testing, and for how long???

Thanks for reading though all that!!!!!

Oh, here's the tank....

[rich311k]

What is in the tank? Any source of ammonia?

[turbovr6]

tap water, I did'nt add any chemicals at all

[rich311k]

You need to add pure ammonia or a replacement for it. Please read the following article. Ignore the saltwater part works just as well for fresh.


http://aquariumadvice.com/article_vi...q=2&fldAuto=15

[turbovr6]

**** i feel like a fool. I forgot the "add source of amonia" part. off to the store I go

Thanks!!!!

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

So what freebies did you end up getting?

Is that pure actinic lighting? looks like it.

[turbovr6]

I got about $100(retail) of goodies. master water test kits, phosporus test kits, GH/KH test kits, a bunch of chiclid food, catfish food, algae chips, a few bottles of ammo lock, stress coat, stress zyme, and melafix.

As far as the lighting that is pure actinic lighting. This tank/hood was from a friend. He has one ballast set up for normal lighting, and a special ballast just for actinic lighting.

I bought some raw shrimp today, I could not find any "pure ammonia" around my area.
I guess 3 of them will be enough for a 150gal tank???