Update:
Continuing my aquarium cycle.
for the past few days ...
ammonia levels around 0.1 ppm to 02ppm (so getting very close)
nitrite levels have always been around 0.25pppm
nitrate levels between 5ppm to 20ppm (been doing water changes when it gets too high)
odd thing is my tap water PH is 7 but when I test my aquarium water it is down to 6.
Think this is due to my KH being around 1 or 2.
I tried using crushed coral but only raised PH by 0.5 for a day or two before it fell back to 6. Now trying some egg shells to see if it helps.
Since I would like to keep guppies I don't want to get into a "cycled" state and then have to mess around the water parameters to make them suitable for the fish I wish to keep and subsequently "break" the aquarium cycle
Odd thing about the PH test ... NT Labs test results in 6 but using standard
litmus paper give a neutral result of about 7. Has anyone else experienced such differing results ?
Do you think I am close to "cycled" ?
How much egg shell should I use per gallon/liter of water?
Continuing my aquarium cycle.
for the past few days ...
ammonia levels around 0.1 ppm to 02ppm (so getting very close)
nitrite levels have always been around 0.25pppm
nitrate levels between 5ppm to 20ppm (been doing water changes when it gets too high)
odd thing is my tap water PH is 7 but when I test my aquarium water it is down to 6.
Think this is due to my KH being around 1 or 2.
I tried using crushed coral but only raised PH by 0.5 for a day or two before it fell back to 6. Now trying some egg shells to see if it helps.
Since I would like to keep guppies I don't want to get into a "cycled" state and then have to mess around the water parameters to make them suitable for the fish I wish to keep and subsequently "break" the aquarium cycle
Odd thing about the PH test ... NT Labs test results in 6 but using standard
litmus paper give a neutral result of about 7. Has anyone else experienced such differing results ?
Do you think I am close to "cycled" ?
How much egg shell should I use per gallon/liter of water?