Nitrates in tap water

[amit.rajaram]

Hi,

I've been trying to cycle my 36g bowfront for about 6 weeks now with no luck. I've 2 filters - Marineland Penguin 200B and Aqueon QuietFlow 20. I started out with 4 guppies, added 2 platys after 3 weeks and one sunset thick lipped gourami last week. I havent lost a fish so far, all fish are healthy, active and eating well. I do 20-25% water changes weekly, and have been using PRIME and STABILITY with each water change.

Now despite all this Ammonia/um levels have been about 5-10 ppm mark for a few weeks now. Nitrites have been at 0 for a while and Nitrates are currently at 20ppm. No matter what I try (larger water changes, less feeding, more PRIME), I just cant get the Ammonia down to zero. I recently tested my tap water and found that while Ammonia is zero, Nitrates are at 5-10ppm. I'm wondering if this is about par for the course for everyone, or if this has anything with the time its taking my tank to cycle (into the 7th week now).

 

[TheDude]

Hmmm.

I have a 36 gallon bow front as well and use tap water with a larger stock of fish but my problem is the tap water being too soft. I use a bit of ammolock from APA that detoxifies the ammonia in the water. I suggest doing a water change at maybe 50% once a week or 25% twice a week. I do water changes every other day sometimes at 50 percent to keep the water fresh and clean.