brian7
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hi. I am new to the hobby, so I please ask that there is no harsh criticism. Thanks. Sorry this may be long
I set up a brand new 55 gallon, and in doing research I learned I needed to cycle my tank. So I was going the fishless route until I learned shortly after that I was using ammonia with surfactants... I took all of the water out and started over, this time with fish.
I bought to long fin zebra danios to cycle my tank, being nieve and new to the hobby I felt bad for the two little guys and bought four more a few days later, know that they are schooling fish. To make long story short my girlfriend talked me into getting guppies more schooling fish... we now had 12 fish.
I was adding biozyme to kick start the bacteria. The ammonia did not seem to take too long to drop. But now i've been stuck with high nitrites for a few weeks now, this is where I need help. I was adding salt to help with the high nitrite levels. After a while of them remaining high I figured putting a couple live plants would help reduce the nitrites. Still high nitrites. In research I stumbled across seachem prime. A few days ago I purchased this product, immediately put 5x the dose is (5 caps) because this was an emergency. It immediately seemed to drop the nitrites from 2-5 ppm to .25. This is great. Next day they seemed a little higher than .25. I did about a 10% water change and added one cap of prime. Day three they seem to still be at .25. After all this being said I just need advice on what to do. Am I almost done?
Notes: I have been doing very frequent water changes. I have a decoration that blows bubbles and a bubble curtain, a sufficient filter (not under gravel). Let me know if more info is needed.
I AM A COMPLETE NOVICE; I KNOW I REALLY SCREWED THIS UP, BUT I AM TRING TO FIX TO HAVE A HAPPY HEALTHY TANK. PLEASE NO CRITISCIM.
THANKS
I set up a brand new 55 gallon, and in doing research I learned I needed to cycle my tank. So I was going the fishless route until I learned shortly after that I was using ammonia with surfactants... I took all of the water out and started over, this time with fish.
I bought to long fin zebra danios to cycle my tank, being nieve and new to the hobby I felt bad for the two little guys and bought four more a few days later, know that they are schooling fish. To make long story short my girlfriend talked me into getting guppies more schooling fish... we now had 12 fish.
I was adding biozyme to kick start the bacteria. The ammonia did not seem to take too long to drop. But now i've been stuck with high nitrites for a few weeks now, this is where I need help. I was adding salt to help with the high nitrite levels. After a while of them remaining high I figured putting a couple live plants would help reduce the nitrites. Still high nitrites. In research I stumbled across seachem prime. A few days ago I purchased this product, immediately put 5x the dose is (5 caps) because this was an emergency. It immediately seemed to drop the nitrites from 2-5 ppm to .25. This is great. Next day they seemed a little higher than .25. I did about a 10% water change and added one cap of prime. Day three they seem to still be at .25. After all this being said I just need advice on what to do. Am I almost done?
Notes: I have been doing very frequent water changes. I have a decoration that blows bubbles and a bubble curtain, a sufficient filter (not under gravel). Let me know if more info is needed.
I AM A COMPLETE NOVICE; I KNOW I REALLY SCREWED THIS UP, BUT I AM TRING TO FIX TO HAVE A HAPPY HEALTHY TANK. PLEASE NO CRITISCIM.
THANKS