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Nitrite is 2.0 but ammonia is not below 0.75 ppm so you need to wait. Test again in another 3 days.

Unless the level gets horribly high, once a day is enough. If the level does get horribly high you may need to do more than one water change a day and testing twice a day. Feeding the fish less and once every two or three days also helps. Less food means the fish excrete less ammonia so...

The water change should be as large as necessary. Yes I know that's not very helpful :) What I mean is, when you test it depends how high the reading is. The idea is the nitrite level should be at or almost zero after a water change. A 50% water change will lower the level by half. That's OK if...

Aquarium salt is the same as cooking/table salt, just more expensive as it's sold for aquarium use. However, cooking/table salt usually contains extra ingredients such as anti caking agents or iodide. TwoTankAmin says it's OK to use salt with those additives as the amount when added to a tank is...

The idea behind using salt is that nitrite can be allowed to be above zero and grow the nitrite eaters faster. Without salt nitrite needs to be kept as low as possible and it takes longer to grow the nitrite eaters. So it's one or the other - add salt as per the directions in TwoTankAmin's...

Yes, water changes are stressful but not nearly as stressful as living in water with nitrite in it. Water changes are the lesser of two evils. If you don't want to calculate the amount of salt to use, water changes are the only way to keep the fish from harm. Water changes need to be done...

You can use salt to mitigate the effects of nitrite while waiting for the nitrite eaters to grow, but it does involve some calculations. If you want to give it a go you'll find how to use salt in the second part of this link (the first part is about ammonia)...

In brief, the method on here is this. Add ammonia. Test for ammonia and nitrite after 3 days Test both again after another 3 days Test both again after another 3 days Keep on testing every 3 days until you reach a day where ammonia is less than 0.75 AND nitrite is over 2 ppm Then post on here...

Plants should have removed ammonia without making nitrite though, and the photo shows about 2 ppm ammonia still. If ammonia is not dropping, nitrite won't go up.

Byron was one of our most respected members who sadly passed away earlier this year. He was very knowledgeable having spent years in the hobby. The first post in this thread explains why it is a myth that fish ca adapt to any hardness...

The fish on your list may be kept in your water at the local store but that won't change how they evolved over millions of years. It is much better for the fish if you keep those which originate in water with similar hardness to your tap water.

You can get all 6 embers at once - that's the number Colin recommends. With the number of fish already in the tank another 6 small fish should cause no problem at all. If you want to be absolutely certain, test for ammonia and nitrite every day till you are sure they are staying at zero. After a...

They will breed out of control if they have plenty food. This means uneaten fish food and dead plant matter. If you take care not to over feed the fish and remove dead plants immediately there shouldn't be a snail population explosion.

These are tiny fish which need a large group or they'll be stressed. That number will be OK in a 6 gallon tank.

That's good. Now wait 3 days and test ammonia and nitrite. Tell us the results, please.

The tank manufacturer says 125 gallon, but take out some of that 125 gallons for the air space between the water surface and the tank rim, and more for the substrate and decor in there. It probably holds 100 gallons water. The bottle of ammonium chloride says to add 4 drops per gallon. 100...

There are two aspects to putting plants in during a fishless cycle. When there are fish in a tank ammonia is produced in tiny amounts 24 hours a day. Fishless cycling adds the same amount all once. In the early stages of cycling, the ammonia remains in the water for some time, often days or...

Can you talk us through what you did. How much ammonia did you add? If you used Dr Tim's ammonium chloride the dose rate is 4 drops per US gallon or 5 ml in 25 gallons of actual water (not what the manufacturers say the volume is) When you read the test, was it in daylight or was the room light...

When did you try to post them? Were they the first post starting a new thread or in an existing thread?

The bacteria in the Tetra product are the ones which grow in aquariums, unlike some other brands. But they do need to be fed. There are two ways to feed them - put fish in the tank as they excrete ammonia or add ammonia from a bottle. Because the Tetra product does not work instantly, putting...

Nitrite is well below the target for adding the next dose of ammonia. But the ammonia reading was low when you tested a few days after adding it though we didn't know whether that's because you didn't add enough or because the bottled bacteria you added had removed it. Since both ammonia and...

What is the nitrate level in your tap water? That's the lowest it can be in a newly filled tank with no fish. Nitrite distorts nitrate readings which is why we don't usually measure nitrate while there is a reading above zero for nitrite.

In the chart, read across the top line to find 1 deg F. Then go down the column to find the equivalent in the other units. Down from 1 deg F we have 0.09991 mmol/l; 10 ppm, 0.5603 dH etc. Or use this calculator https://www.cactus2000.de/uk/unit/masswas.php and enter 50 in the deg fH box

It depends on the plants. Most, if not all, aquarium plants feed through the leaves but some, such as amazon swords and cryptocorynes, also feed through their roots. For these plants, roots tabs are usually used. Mine get Seachem Flourish root tabs every 3 to 4 months.

6500K is the usual recommendation for planted tanks.

There are two causes of cloudy water. Dust from the substrate if if was not washed enough. Bacterial bloom. These are not the bacteria we want to grow in the filter. They live floating free in the water, feed on carbon based food (unlike the filter bacteria which feed on nitrogen based food)...

Thank you, that helps a lot :) If 1 FR = 10 ppm that means your 50 FR = 500 ppm and 28 dH which is extremely hard. To be honest I'm not sure which fish can live in such hard water. Hopefully members who have hard water will be able to suggest fish which can live in very hard water.

It's the hardness that is confusing us. What is the unit "FR"? I know there are several units for hardness but I do not recognise FR. @emeraldking Do you know what 50 FR means for hardness?

1. Plants. Shrimps love moss and the minute critters that live in there. I have Java moss in my shrimp tank, it grows very well and has to have a 'hair cut' on a regular basis. In a small tank like this, you do need small plants. Java moss on a small piece of wood or rock is ideal. A filter is...

It looks as though you have sand; if that's what's on the bottom hold the siphon tube half an inch above the sand and make small circling movements. This will lift the poop etc off the sand to where the siphon can suck it up. If you push the siphon tube into sand like you do with gravel, it'll...

This is from our fishless cycling method but it also applies to a tank containing fish - Distilled water has zero KH, and as MaloK pointed out, it is also likely to have low pH.

Nitrite has begun to show up, so test ammonia and nitrite again in 3 days. The latest readings have not reached the targets for adding more ammonia, so it's a waiting game now to reach those targets.

It is a chocolate gourami, Sphaerichthys osphromenoides https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/sphaerichthys-osphromenoides

Tanks don't need to be cycled for plants - they don't make ammonia so there's no need to grow bacteria which 'eat' ammonia which is what cycling is about. But plants do have water requirements like fish do - some plants do well in soft water, others do well in hard water, so like with fish we...

Congratulations :hooray:

The Quick Start may account for it. Many of these bottled bacteria contain the correct ammonia eaters, though I have no idea if this brand is one of them. I would not add any more ammonia yet as you cannot know the ppm ammonia when it was added. Follow the method on here. You should be...

It depends. Saturday to yesterday is 4 days. Could you tell is if you've done any of the following - Have you added any bottled bacteria? If so, which brand? Have you put any media from another tank in there? Are there any live plants in the tank? Or have you just put brand new substrate, maybe...

Did you wait 30 minutes after adding the ammonia before testing? That 30 minutes is to allow the filter to move everything round so the ammonia is thoroughly mixed in. Testing too soon after adding ammonia could mean you hit a pocket of ammonia and get a reading that's too high, or testing a bit...

I have a collection of syringes from 10 ml down to 3 - a mixed pack from Amazon. And 1 ml babies' medicine dosing syringes from the local pharmacy. (I even use a 1 ml pipette to make up orchid fertiliser, I never use the cap to do that. As I said, that's just me)