masonarie9
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi, I'm fairly new to keeping my freshwater tank so I'm hoping I can get some advice! I was given a ton of guppies in a 10gal tank by a friend. It was obviously wayyy too many for that small of a tank so I got rid of most and kept a few that I moved to a 50 gallon tank along with some neon tetras. I was totally new to this and should've done a little more research and let the tank cycle without the fish but I didn't. It was set up Memorial day so its been 4 weeks exactly today. About a week ago the water was looking cloudy and the fish seem stressed so i tested the water and the nitrite and nitrate levels were both very high. (Honestly it was so high I'm kind of surprised my fish survived..) I actually did some research and looked at a few forums on here and did a lot of massive water changes over the course of the past week and a half or so and managed to get the nitrite levels down to zero. But I'm confused because the nitrate level is also showing zero. I thought if the tank was successfully cycled that the nitrate level would be showing something a little higher? So does this mean I screwed up the cycle and it'll be starting over? I would definitely appreciate any advice/thoughts on this! Thank you!