Recent content by christophilthy

Update! Ammonia is now consistently 0. Working on the Nitrites now, starting to see some Nitrates. All is going well, no fish lost and in fact, they look quite happy with all these water changes I've been doing. Nitrites typically climbing into the danger zone daily, so I have to change the...

They already live in less than ideal condition in our tanks and I just worry about their well-being!

What I have read is just like you said, the chloramine can cause an ammonia reading as well. My tap water also registers at .25 but I know that my facility uses chloramine. I also have noticed that the little glass vial that the kit comes with gets stained. I have washed it thoroughly out...

Really? I don't want to do anything wrong and only want the best for my fish (which would always be a bigger tank!), but everywhere I have looked about angelfish, always suggest at least a 30g tank. Do they produce too much waste, or is it just that there is not enough room for them to stretch...

Alright, so now that my tank has started cycling and is well on it's way, I've been trying to figure out a good scheme for my tank. I have a 30 gallon planted tank with a Marineland Eclipse filtration system. So far in the tank: 15 plants (6 large, 5 medium, 4 small) 4 panda garras I...

Just an update. My tank got a little cloudy (Yay!) but my ammonia is still the same. Hopefully I will start to see an increase in the nitrites sometimes soon, as I am still getting a reading of 0. I have been adding "Stability" every day, but the bottle says to only add it for 7 days in a...

Ah, I see. I'll add a bit of that to the tank and see if anything changes. Tested again today, ammonia is the same as always, no nitrites or nitrates either though.

Tested with a different kit, this time a quick drip test for ammonia. Got the same reading as with the other tests. Any advice on how to proceed?

Hi there! I'm a 29 year old biologist here and setting up my first fish tank in...well...quite some time. My first tank was way back when I was a kid and I don't think my parents really knew what they were doing with it. Our fish kept dying. Heh. Anyway, at the moment, I have a 30 gallon...

Yes...that is true. After I posted that, I did remember that I would have to get the condensation coming off and not the boiling water itself. Heh. As a biologist I should remember these things! As for it being a testing error. There must be an error with the test itself, or that the...

So the plants are playing a part in this. I changed the water out probably 75% before I put the fish in, trying to get the ammonia to 0, but it still kept reading 0.25. I tested the water straight from the tap and got a 0.25. That's why I got the Prime. I haven't done a water change since I...

Hello everyone! I understand that questions like this probably have been answered over and over again, especially concerning cycling, but it is such an important aspect of owning an aquarium! Anyway, I have a planted 30 gallon tank, with a marineland Eclipse system. I got everything set up 2...