DiverDown
Aquarium Advice Regular
I recently moved my tetra community from a 20 gallon to a 60 gallon to which I plan on adding Discus. I don't know what I'm going to do with the 20 for now, although the wife wants to try marine (that's a topic for another thread). For now, I'm happy leaving the 20 as a quarantine tank as it is and getting another 55 or 60 for marine later.
Sorry, I"m rambling, here is my question, or rather, the crux of my post.
I plan on using the 20 to acclimate the discus to my water when they arrive. It was an established aquarium, and in the month or so since moving everyone out of it, I have done water changes and cleaned the heck out of the gravel. I now notice that while nitrite is staying good, and nitrate has stayed at about 15-20 ppm, my ammonia has gone through the roof. (I only used the tank temporarily since then to house a goldfish I bought for a friend's kid while the 2.5 tank I bought for him settled. I cleaned the gravel after getting goldy out of there.) I want to get that ammonia back down to the old, established levels. If I need to quarantine a fish before I get the discus from any of my tanks, I obviously don't want to put them into a toxic waste dump. Should I leave some live fish, like danio's or platys in the quarantine tank at all times to maintain stability, or will my tank cycle naturally again back to the old, regular levels.
I don't think I even want to discus why it went haywire to begin with.
Sorry, I"m rambling, here is my question, or rather, the crux of my post.
I plan on using the 20 to acclimate the discus to my water when they arrive. It was an established aquarium, and in the month or so since moving everyone out of it, I have done water changes and cleaned the heck out of the gravel. I now notice that while nitrite is staying good, and nitrate has stayed at about 15-20 ppm, my ammonia has gone through the roof. (I only used the tank temporarily since then to house a goldfish I bought for a friend's kid while the 2.5 tank I bought for him settled. I cleaned the gravel after getting goldy out of there.) I want to get that ammonia back down to the old, established levels. If I need to quarantine a fish before I get the discus from any of my tanks, I obviously don't want to put them into a toxic waste dump. Should I leave some live fish, like danio's or platys in the quarantine tank at all times to maintain stability, or will my tank cycle naturally again back to the old, regular levels.
I don't think I even want to discus why it went haywire to begin with.
