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Thanks. Great explanation. It is definitely diatoms (brown, brushed off easily). I'll keep testing and doing water changes to cycle the tank and assume it will go away when the tank balances out.

I successfully started a new tank for the first time about 3 years ago and am in the process of starting up another tank but forgot all my learning. The new tank has been up and running for a few weeks now and is starting to cycle. I have two small tetra in the tank which I have added to...

Great information. Thanks! I've been planning to swap out my plastic plants for live plants so I simply put a couple of them into my son's new tank.

I have a 20 gal tank that has been up since January and appears to be problem free. Fish are happy, water is clean, testing levels are good. My son now want to start a 10 gal tank of his own. To help the process along, is it okay to use water from a PWC in my existing tank to start this new...

Hi all Thanks for the suggestions. To answer your questions, "high" was almost 60. I test using an AP test kit that I have been using since the beginning of my setup so I'm pretty confident the test was accurate. I usually do PWCs every Sunday but had missed one week and had not tested for...

Hi My Nitrate levels in my tank are very high right now while Amonia and Nitrites are both 0.0. Is there anything needed to keep Nitrates down other then water changes (and vacuming gravel)?

My tank has been in service since January, cycled and stocked several weeks ago (don't recall the exact date now). I'm doing weekly water tests and water changes at which time I rince out my filter cartridge in the water I remove. My tank is starting to look slightly cloudy and I suspect...

I'm trying to follow everyone's advise to add some snails to my new tank to help control algae but have run into a roadblock at my LFS. My LFS does not carry any freshwater snails claiming A) the the popular species is now illegal to own and B) the only other species available kept dying on...

It is a brown/red algae

I have a quesiton about the social behaviors of Tetras. I have three tetras that were the first fish in my tank. Apparently, rather than being a schooling fish as I expected they seem to pair off. So I have two of the three which have paired off and stay together all the time. The third is...

Finished cycling my tank a few weeks ago and fish seem very happy now. But I do have a good bit of algae building up the plastic plants. I have one Pleco that seems happy with all the algae available but he's not able to keep up with it all. Any advise on algae management? I don't really...

Does anyone have any good experience and suggestions with automatic feeders to keep your tank fed for 3-4 days at a time? Do they all work well with flake food?

Now that my tank has cycled and I'm ready to stock, what sort of routine do I need to settle into going forward? I'm looking forward to no more daily water changes :D How often do I need to test my water now? How frequently do I need to perform water changes? Anything else?

My ammonias dropped quickly to zero about 7-10 days ago (make that at 8 weeks). In fact you will see I posted another question a few days ago saying this had happened but my nitrites were still high. Everyone told me to wait, which I did and they too dropped to zero within a matter of two...

Just counted it up and it was nine weeks and three days to complete.

Thanks to all the advise and assistance from this forum I have successfully completed cycle on my tank. Took measurements this morning to find Amonia = 0.0, Nitrites = 0.0, and Nitrates = 20.0. Finally ready to start stocking....

The algae is actually green. There is not a lot of it an it appears to be only on the one large rock in my landscape right now. My light is a single bulb in the hood (don't recall the wattage) and the tank is not in a position where it gets sunlight.

I'm about 7-8 weeks into my cycle and I think I'm getting close to done. Still have three tetras that have survived the cycle just fine and don't show any signs of stress. My amonia levels dropped to 0.0 a couple of weeks ago but my nitrite seems to be stalled at .25 ppm and my nitrates are at...

Thought I would share what I think caused this. I keep a 5 gallon bucket of water on the side to top off my tank due to evaporation and water changes. I also have two gallon jugs that I keep for that purpose as well. I realized that I filled those two jugs from a filtered tap rather than the...

Thanks. The thing that concerned me was this pH spike occurred prior to any water changes. After the first water change the pH is back down to 7.2 which I'm more confortable with. I'm going to assume that maybe I somehow messed up my test yesterday.

Hi Folks My cycle seems to be really kicking in now. My amonias went up between .25 and .50 yesterday and I had to do my first partial water change. I'm watching it closely now and expect to be doing significant daily water changes. Nitrates look like they are starting to develop but the...

I'm patiently waiting through my first cycle and have a question about adding live plants. Currently I have some plastic plants in that I already own but my desire is to migrate to live plants. When is the right time to add live plants? Should they be in as part of the cycling process or do...

I'm not done cycling yet so I haven't even selected the fish that will populate my tank but I've read about different types of food (flakes, pellets, brine, etc.). Can someone give me a quick tutorial about the pros and cons of each type of food and when you should use them?

Oh, and forgot to mention that I am testing with the AP Master Kit now rather than strips.

On Saturday I put some additive in my tank (don't recall the name now) to boost the bacteria growth but I'm still registering 0 on nitrites and nitrates and very low amonia as well ( < 0.25 ). SHould I be doing something else to get the cycle started?