Amaunet
Aquarium Advice Regular
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2013
- Messages
- 73
So if you’ve seen my previous posts you know that I discovered my tap water has an ammonia reading of 1.0ppm. My cycling for my 20 g high planted tank was not pretty and I had fish die. Mainly bc dummy me forgot to not take the LFS word as divine infallible fact. And it had been so long since I had stopped having a tank that I had forgotten more than I probably even knew anyway. So in a desperate attempt to keep my three spot gourami Jade from dying I started using distilled water with prime and stability added to it.
So I’ve gotten to the point last night in my unintended fish in cycle where my API kit is showing 0 ammonia, but the nitrite was a 2 - I think, the colors are not exactly matching the test kit example pics, so I’m guesstimating - and the nitrate was somewhere in between the colors for 20 and 40. I did a 15% WC bc that’s all the distilled water I had at the house. I know I’ll probably need to get some more and do another 15-20%, but that’s where my question comes in.
Now that the BB has established enough to make the ammonia read 0, is it possible to safely stop using distilled water and use tap water, since the BB eats the ammonia. Or am I forever in the situation where my fishy friends will always require distilled? Also how long once the ammonia starts reading 0 does it take for nitrites and nitrates to start going down as well? This diabolical process has left me feeling like I’m a fish killing noob all over again and don’t know anything.
So I’ve gotten to the point last night in my unintended fish in cycle where my API kit is showing 0 ammonia, but the nitrite was a 2 - I think, the colors are not exactly matching the test kit example pics, so I’m guesstimating - and the nitrate was somewhere in between the colors for 20 and 40. I did a 15% WC bc that’s all the distilled water I had at the house. I know I’ll probably need to get some more and do another 15-20%, but that’s where my question comes in.
Now that the BB has established enough to make the ammonia read 0, is it possible to safely stop using distilled water and use tap water, since the BB eats the ammonia. Or am I forever in the situation where my fishy friends will always require distilled? Also how long once the ammonia starts reading 0 does it take for nitrites and nitrates to start going down as well? This diabolical process has left me feeling like I’m a fish killing noob all over again and don’t know anything.