Bunch of Questions About My First Tank

[eco23]

Sounds like you're on top of it . Just keep up the patience and perseverance and your fishy friends will get through this fine as long as you stay committed. Everything is normal with a fish-in cycle and you seem like you're going to make a great fish keeper. Welcome to the site btw.

 

[robby]

Thanks eco23. Latest readings just for the record:

Ammonia: 0.33 (between 0.25 and 0.5)
Nitrite: 2 or 5 (they look exactly the same to me on the reference card)
Nitrate: 5ppm

About to do another 50PWC... will keep you all posted if anything changes noticeably but otherwise will not keep topping the thread.

 

[eco23]

Thanks eco23. Latest readings just for the record:

Ammonia: 0.33 (between 0.25 and 0.5)
Nitrite: 2 or 5 (they look exactly the same to me on the reference card)
Nitrate: 5ppm

About to do another 50PWC... will keep you all posted if anything changes noticeably but otherwise will not keep topping the thread.

Sorry btw, my iPad started me half way through the thread and I thought it was the beginning...that's why I posted questions you'd already answered, lol. All my posts still stand though. The good new is tha because you already have nitrAtes and nitrItes are so high, you're entering your nitrItes spike phase which shows you're almost home. There's not much more to do...but this is IMO the most dangerous part of a cycle, so keep an eagle eye (like you are) every day until the ammo and no2 zero out. Good job

 

[robby]

Thanks and good to know.

Just did an 80% PWC. Readings afterwards were:
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 0

One more question for the time being:

I was pretty skeptical of the ammonia reading with fresh water, so to check myself I did a reading on plain tapwater. What do you know, water comes out of my tap with 0.5ppm Ammonia. I'm using the API "Tap Water Conditioner" which removes chlorine but not ammonia. Should I switch to something like Stress Coat which also removes ammonia? Or should I be okay since I do have the bacteria that converts Ammonia to Nitrite?

 

[jetajockey]

If you switch to one like Prime or Amquel+ then it detoxifies the ammonia temporarily.