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**Update**

Tested the params today and im almost there!!

Nitrite : 0.50ppm

Ammonia : 0ppm

Nitrate : 40ppm

Salinity : 1.024

Woooh!! If everything is going as smooth as it is now, i can imagine that by tuesday i will be able to get mah fishies lol.
 
**Update**

Tested the params today and im almost there!!

Nitrite : 0.50ppm

Ammonia : 0ppm

Nitrate : 40ppm

Salinity : 1.024

Woooh!! If everything is going as smooth as it is now, i can imagine that by tuesday i will be able to get mah fishies lol.
Congrats man(y). You just have to get the nitrates down a bit. What is going to be your first tank mates?
 
Yeah i was wondering about those. Is that a normal nitrate reading for a tank in the stage its at right now? or is that too high..

The first tank mates are going to be two Ocelleris Clownfish. Since my LFS has them and because they are pretty cheap. Something like 10$ each. Plus my mom is buying them, so its not like i'm going to deny a gift like that lol.
 
Yeah i was wondering about those. Is that a normal nitrate reading for a tank in the stage its at right now? or is that too high..

The first tank mates are going to be two Ocelleris Clownfish. Since my LFS has them and because they are pretty cheap. Something like 10$ each. Plus my mom is buying them, so its not like i'm going to deny a gift like that lol.
That's a really nice gift and gesture. It sounds like you have some parental support unlike some others on the site unfortunately. Are you going to QT them? What are the Nitrate readings of your tap water?
Wait for the cycle to end, they will probably go a little higher, When the cycle is completed do a nice size water change 30 to 50% to lower the nitrates. At the end of my cycle I was reading about 15 to 20 ppm Nitrates , after a 50% PWC they dropped to 5 PPM.
 
The Nitrate readings of my tap water is 0 or something low because i tested my tap water for everything a while back and i know the nitrites and ammonia where zero, and i remember everything else being low as well. Unfortunately, i'm not going to QT the two clownfish i am getting first, but every other fish i will.

And yeah, i can imagine they will get a bit higher by the time my nitrites hit 0 which should be today or tomorrow im guessing. I was reading 4ppm of Nitrites only about a day and a half ago, so i can't imagine i taking more than a couple days to drop to zero. But who knows, things happen. Also, i will do a good sized water change when the cycle is completed. The cycle will be completed when the Nitrites hit zero as well correct?
 
When both ammonia and nitrites = 0, your cycle has completed. Just a silly question did you use a fresh water nitrate kit to test the tap?
 
Yeah. That was the only test kit i had way back when i was about to make this 55G a FW tank. Why, should i test it with the saltwater test kit? I would think that they are the same... no?
 
I know with the API saltwater test kit the nitrate test can be used for both but there is a different color chart for the freshwater results. I have three different test kits, Seachem, API, and Tetratest. I started with the tetra test for my cichlid tank and used it to test the tap and it reads about 5ppm.
 
The Nitrate readings of my tap water is 0 or something low because i tested my tap water for everything a while back and i know the nitrites and ammonia where zero, and i remember everything else being low as well. Unfortunately, i'm not going to QT the two clownfish i am getting first, but every other fish i will.

And yeah, i can imagine they will get a bit higher by the time my nitrites hit 0 which should be today or tomorrow im guessing. I was reading 4ppm of Nitrites only about a day and a half ago, so i can't imagine i taking more than a couple days to drop to zero. But who knows, things happen. Also, i will do a good sized water change when the cycle is completed. The cycle will be completed when the Nitrites hit zero as well correct?
Sorry to pester you but this qt thing is bugging me and I wouldn't want to see you have to deal with what I'm going thru. Think about it this way, If the first fish you get do have ich (remember they may not have any external indications of having ich but could be carrying it on their gills which you wont be able to see) and it gets into you tank then you will have to deal with curing the fish and getting rid of the ICH from your DT. The problem gets a bit more complex when you have corals and inverts because they would not survive the hypo treatment and most of the chemical treatments out there not to mention they do not work anyway with exception of copper based treatments which aren't good for anything in the tank. Think about it.
 
Inverts would not have to go through hypo, they can't carry/get the same diseases/parasites as fish. The DT can stay filled with coral and other inverts while the cycle of the parasite is broken and the fish are in hypo. HTH.
 
Yeah thanks for all the info guys. But i doubt im going to get ich from these two clowns because my LFS does TONS of maintenance on their SW livestock. Its not a very big section of the store, so they keep everything in seperated tanks. So thats a plus. But im not sure yet what im going to do.
 
Inverts would not have to go through hypo, they can't carry/get the same diseases/parasites as fish. The DT can stay filled with coral and other inverts while the cycle of the parasite is broken and the fish are in hypo. HTH.
I don't think I said they have to go through hypo, I believe I said they cannot go through hypo.
 
Yeah thanks for all the info guys. But i doubt im going to get ich from these two clowns because my LFS does TONS of maintenance on their SW livestock. Its not a very big section of the store, so they keep everything in seperated tanks. So thats a plus. But im not sure yet what im going to do.

If the fish come in with ich, it doesn't matter how much maintenance your LFS does on the tanks. ;) If they keep the FO tanks medicated, it will probably be fine.
 
Alright, thanks for the info SM. I'm going to ask them if they do medicate when they see a problem. I don't see why they wouldnt since all of the tanks are separated.
 
Some stores keep medication in the FO tanks at all times. That's what I was talking about.
 
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