Recent content by stephenpjenkins

I always use the gravel vac to do the water changes. Most of the time lately I have not been putting it into the gravel... trying not to disturb any possible biological growth down there. Another person mentioned adding another fish or two... he said that the limited number of fish may not be...

OK... back from the LFS. They measure the ammonia at between .25 and .5 ppm. So obviously my first test kit was measuring way high, but that still leaves me with asking why I have any in the first place. These are my original fish, I would like to add two or three more for a total of 5-6...

Thanks for the replies so far... The test that I was using was the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals two bottle test. Looking at Tankgirl's response, I went and bought a Jungle Laboratories strip test tonight (I know, not as accurate as the other but I wanted something to check against quickly). It looks...

OK, 10 gallon tank, three platies, three months, and I still have ammonia. I started off with a cheap filter that came with the tank about a month ago, I ditched that for a Penguin Mini with the biowheel. I did save the old filter from the first filter and floated it in the tank so I would not...

Quick question... I have a non-biowheel powerfilter and noticed that the filter cartridge looks like it has a good amount of bacterial growth on the pad. The cartridge has a clip on top that can be removed and the frame taken out of the cartridge leaving just a bag of floss and activated carbon...

I am using test tube tests for ammonia and strips for nitrite/nitrate/ph/hardness/alkalinity. I guess I was surprised as so many things you read say that as soon as you add fish, you get ammonia. Here I was all ready to do water changes etc. to keep the fish alive and they seem to be pretty darn...

Hello- I am brand new to the hobby and set up a 10 gallon about 5 days ago. I added 3 wagtail platies about 4 days ago to start the cycling. I have been testing for ammonia everyday and am getting readings of 0 each day. No nitrites or nitrates either. I used Bio-safe to condition the original...