King Fisher
Aquarium Advice Addict
Lol. He'll learn to love the real plants.
Plants don't remove nitrates to the extent a lot of people think. You'd have to have a very heavily planted tank to see really good results which most people don't have.
40 ppm nitrates is the proven max to still keep fish healthy over a long period of time. Fish could probably live in 80 ppm but it would obviously shorten thier life span. A lot of people like to keep nitrates really low like 10 ppm or 20 ppm but in my experience it doesn't matter. I have South American Cichlids in 20-40 ppm nitrates for several years. I usually hit 40 ppm by day 7 before I do my water change. My betta tank hits around 15 ppm on day 7 sometimes 20 ppm especially with a snail. I think your nitrates are fine.....good actually.
You can cycle a tank in 5 weeks. If you aren't showing any ammonia or nitrites after 7 days or longer I'd say you are definitely cycled. Good job man. Just keep up the weekly 50% water changes, be consistent, and your fish will be happy and you'll have little to nothing to worry about.
All you really need is prime and consistent water changes in most tank set ups. People have a lot of ideas. LFS employees like to push product because it's thier job to. I find that very few people who work at box stores and some who work at local lfs shops know what they are talking about at all or they go off old ideas or textbook/internet regurgitation of info. The best advice is usually your own experience and the experience of others who are passionate about fish keeping and have been around awhile.
I'm glad I could help you out. If you need anything I'll be here to help you out the best I can.
Plants don't remove nitrates to the extent a lot of people think. You'd have to have a very heavily planted tank to see really good results which most people don't have.
40 ppm nitrates is the proven max to still keep fish healthy over a long period of time. Fish could probably live in 80 ppm but it would obviously shorten thier life span. A lot of people like to keep nitrates really low like 10 ppm or 20 ppm but in my experience it doesn't matter. I have South American Cichlids in 20-40 ppm nitrates for several years. I usually hit 40 ppm by day 7 before I do my water change. My betta tank hits around 15 ppm on day 7 sometimes 20 ppm especially with a snail. I think your nitrates are fine.....good actually.
You can cycle a tank in 5 weeks. If you aren't showing any ammonia or nitrites after 7 days or longer I'd say you are definitely cycled. Good job man. Just keep up the weekly 50% water changes, be consistent, and your fish will be happy and you'll have little to nothing to worry about.
All you really need is prime and consistent water changes in most tank set ups. People have a lot of ideas. LFS employees like to push product because it's thier job to. I find that very few people who work at box stores and some who work at local lfs shops know what they are talking about at all or they go off old ideas or textbook/internet regurgitation of info. The best advice is usually your own experience and the experience of others who are passionate about fish keeping and have been around awhile.
I'm glad I could help you out. If you need anything I'll be here to help you out the best I can.
