bosk1
Aquarium Advice FINatic
My tank is nearing the ned of its cycle. Current water parameters are:
Ammonia: 0 (add 2 ppm every day, and after 24 hours, it is always back to 0)
Nitrite: just under 1.0 (color on test is darker than 0.5, but lighter than 1.0)
Nitrate: showing 5.0, but I was told by someone on this forum I won't get an accurate reading with nitrites in the water.
ph: 7.1
The tank has been up and running for about a month now. I little while back, I noticed some particle matter on one of the flower pots. I noticed it has accumulated more in the last few days, but didn't look that closely. Now, the particles are bigger, and are all over everything (plants, substrate, etc.). I thought it might be algae, but it doesn't stick to anything. I stirred up the water around one area where they were collected, and they just "flew away." So it is just some strange particles that have gotten bigger, and are on every horizontal surface. What is this? Should I do a pwc and just vaccuum everything, or do I have a serious problem?
Side note: Up until a few minutes ago, I had an old filter cartridge from a friend sitting in my tank to get some of his bacteria going in my tank. (it wouldn't fit in my filter with my filter media, so I just dropped it into the tank). It is pretty "gunky," and I suspect the particles are just junk from this old, dirty filter media. Now that it looks like I've got my own bacteria growing, I'm going to take it out and let my tank finish cycling on its own. But I want to know if anyone knows what this is, and if it's a big problem. Thanks.
*worried*
Ammonia: 0 (add 2 ppm every day, and after 24 hours, it is always back to 0)
Nitrite: just under 1.0 (color on test is darker than 0.5, but lighter than 1.0)
Nitrate: showing 5.0, but I was told by someone on this forum I won't get an accurate reading with nitrites in the water.
ph: 7.1
The tank has been up and running for about a month now. I little while back, I noticed some particle matter on one of the flower pots. I noticed it has accumulated more in the last few days, but didn't look that closely. Now, the particles are bigger, and are all over everything (plants, substrate, etc.). I thought it might be algae, but it doesn't stick to anything. I stirred up the water around one area where they were collected, and they just "flew away." So it is just some strange particles that have gotten bigger, and are on every horizontal surface. What is this? Should I do a pwc and just vaccuum everything, or do I have a serious problem?
Side note: Up until a few minutes ago, I had an old filter cartridge from a friend sitting in my tank to get some of his bacteria going in my tank. (it wouldn't fit in my filter with my filter media, so I just dropped it into the tank). It is pretty "gunky," and I suspect the particles are just junk from this old, dirty filter media. Now that it looks like I've got my own bacteria growing, I'm going to take it out and let my tank finish cycling on its own. But I want to know if anyone knows what this is, and if it's a big problem. Thanks.
*worried*