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Thanks, everyone! I ended up getting some white cloud minnows to help out. I didn't want to overdose the tank and end up feeding it too much ammonia, but I was paranoid I'd under-feed and kill the bacteria! My nitrites are still off the charts high, but i've been using prime to detoxify the...

Hey, everyone! Sorry I keep asking so many noob questions. I appreciate your patience! I just want to make sure this is all normal. I dose my tank to 2-3ppm ammonia and within 3-4 hours, it's back down to zero. Every time I see it at 0, I dose again so I don't starve the bacteria. But my...

Yeah, for sure! I'm SUPER impatient with this one, but I'm happy to be back in the aquarium game. The largest tank I ever had before was a 29 and I'm already itching to get a larger one. :P If I do a semi-aggressive tank, I definitely want something larger than 55G. I just can't wait for these...

Thanks so much for all of the advice and information! It's a 46 bow front tank. :) I think I've just given up on the RTS. Haha. Eventually I'll be able to talk the fiancé into getting a second, semi-aggressive tank. ;)

Ooh, those are pretty! Haha. I'm trying to figure out what to put in mine once I can actually start getting stuff. I'm set on neons and cherry shrimp. From what I'm reading, peacock gudgeons are "peaceful fish", but does that mean they wouldn't eat my neons and shrimp? Haha. I'd like some more...

Yeah, for sure. It just seemed like I was totally stalled on the ammonium part for a loooooooooong time. I'm glad I'm finally past that part, at least!

Haha, fair enough! Do you suppose Rasboras would do well with the neons and the shrimp? I've never kept them, but I think they're pretty.

Yeah, I'm good with smaller fish for this tank. We talked about doing a tank of just tetras and shrimp (along with possibly a gold nugget pleco if I want to shell out the money for one down the line), but aside from Serpaes, i've never really kept tetras so I'm not sure what would work well. :)...

Thanks, everyone! It looks like we're moving a bit now. I talked to someone at our local fish store and got something called Microbe-Lift Special Blend. It's not exactly a quick-start (when I asked about those, he flat out said they don't work, but since adding that we're really moving on our...

Thanks, everyone! I'm also quite attached to cherry shrimp. Haha. I think for the sake of my future shrimp, I'm going to give up my RTS lust and just convince the fiancé to let me have a second, semi-aggressive tank down the line. :P So. What else would you all recommend with a pack of neons...

Thanks, Caleb! Do you have experience with Cardinals? A friend of mine who keeps them is the one who told me they can't tolerate hard water. It's been a while since i've tested (the strips are generally so inaccurate that I don't bother anymore) but I know our water is pretty hard. Also, I...

Hey, all! I'm still working on fishless-ly cycling my tank, but I'd like a bit of input. :) I've always wanted a decent school of neon tetras (at least 10). However, when I had tanks years ago, I could never keep them from being eaten from what I thought were mostly peaceful fish. I didn't have...

Right? Somehow they ARE still alive, though! And they seem to be quite happily scooting around, eating algae and cleaning the sand. It confuses me. The pH I'm not as concerned with. The Fiancé is a biologist (pharmaceutical, not environmental) and he insists that once we get the pH down below...

Hey, all! I posted about a week ago about how my fish were dying. You (very gently, thank you!) told me that I likely had ammonia, despite the rest of my numbers looking fine. I returned the fish, bought a liquid kit and voila! I had ammonia. Not much, but a bit. So I thought to myself, "Hey...

You rock. Thanks so much for all of the advice!

Ah, that's what I want to get the ammonia up to? Then drop to zero after that? Sorry for all of the silly questions. :)

Whew, that makes me feel better, then! I've been still "feeding" the tank with fish food, hoping that helps. Yay! :D

YOWZA. Good thing I took the fish outta there. It's chemical warfare in this thing!I did not get a chance to do a partial water change yesterday and I haven't done one yet today, so that's definitely on the agenda today. I'm guessing this means I'm nowhere close to cycling. Here's where I am...

Fair enough! Give me a bit of time to run downstairs and I'll check and post. :D

Thanks, Caleb! Personally, I think I'd rather just let it cycle on its own. Since I've got the driftwood from the established tank, the plants, and it's been set up for nearly a week (it will be a week on Saturday), I feel like I've gotta be at least halfway done. Haha.

Welp, you were all right. :P It WAS ammonia! I'm at between 1-2 ppm. Just to be safe, I returned the remaining fish (I only have some of the pest snails in there right now. Don't judge me, I like them :lol: ) so hopefully the tank will cycle quickly. :) My fiancé keeps reading about quick...

Ooh, that's really good to know, thank you! I was told that the plants use the ammonia, not the nitrates. That could definitely be it, then! I'm excited to get the water test kit and find out for sure what's going on. :D

Also, how much ammonia do plants typically eat? I've been told that that, plus the colonized driftwood would basically make cycling obsolete for this tank. I've never had a planted tank before now, so I don't know how much ammonia they actually convert!

Yeah, that's totally fair. They did use the strips, not the liquid kind. It was just Petsmart, after all. :P We're going to get the liquid one later tonight and see what that says. So bizarre. Does driftwood not hold much bacteria? I thought that with that in there, it would help offset the...

You think that's the case, even though the water test said 0 on ammonia? Not arguing, I promise. :P I'm just all kinds of confused! Haha.