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That's not a very good mix of fish, honestly. It isn't about temperament, it's about water parameters. First, discus require extremely clean water and virtually no nitrates. A planted tank works well for them where the plants take up the excess nitrogen quickly. Meanwhile, goldfish aerie...

Yes the water change would lower the ammonia and nitrate. The nitrate doesn't matter... it's there just to show that the cycle is happening, nothing more. More importantly, in the long run nitrates need to be held as low as possible. And yes, it would lower ammonia as well. But, that is...

From that point, you'd probably be in 'snack dose' mode, every 3 or 4 days.

You are adding way too much ammonia and will eventually crash the cycle. With this much ammonia being added. It will also take longer, not just because of the inevitable crash, but also due to the excessive amount of nitrite that will be produced. I'd recommend following our cycling directions...

Plants will use ammonium and nitrate, but won't use nitrite.

I think the snout is far too long and narrow to be a BN. Most of them have far rounder snouts... this one nearly comes to a point. That said... who knows what it is? :dunno:

Nitrates can't go down, unless you do a water change or have some sort of denitrification process happening in your tank... More likely is that the nitrate reading is a bit unreliable. The nitrite... how high is it? I'd wait three days before adding any more ammonia and see where the nitrite...

Je ne parle que l'anglais, mais en utilisant Google translate ... Je vais essayer de vous aider. Les Gouramis ont besoin de plantes pour se cacher et utiliser pour la couverture. Avez-vous des plantes dans le réservoir? Plus de plantes contribuent généralement à l'agression, car les poissons...

You can upload directly to this site. Use the upload a file button.

Excellent effort to post pics, Vinny. Unfortunately, as with Nick, I can't see them (at home). The messsage says to update your account to allow 3rd party hosting.

This picture shows a java fern... and really makes the rhizome visible. When you said the "roots" did you mean a horizontal green stem (rhizome) and blackish-brown hairs (holdfasts)? Crypts roots are very much like what you would expect from a terrestrial plant... whitish and much thicker...

Hard to ID from the pic on my phone, but it looks like a large java fern to me.

Crypts are notorious for 'melting' when their water parameters change dramatically. They do usually bounce back, and rather quickly in many cases, but not in all cases. Not sure that crypts are the only ones, but they are likely the most infamous for it.

I'd be concerned keeping bala sharks. http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/balantiocheilos-melanopterus/ They should only be kept in HUGE tanks, and 75 gallons doesn't quite get to that size. 8feet x 2 feet is an absolute minimum for these fish. But, even then I'd still feel the tank were...

http://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/

Sounds exactly like a fish in cycle situation. What fish and how many are in the tank? Water changes to lower ammonia is the best course of action, but with the TSS added, you'll likely need to wait a few days to give them a chance to,colonize surfaces. The salt addition will help with...

I've never kept them, but have kept their slightly larger cousins... T. heteromorpha. T. hengeli have nearly identical needs and will thrive in a planted tank with a sub-7 pH. http://seriouslyfish.com/species/Trigonostigma-hengeli/

Welcome Corey. I commend you for your willingness to learn what is best for your fish. You got some very good information from Nick and essjay. Regarding the substrate for cories... as Nick says, sand is best (though, as essjay points out, this tank is actually too small for them to be...

Well, there's a lot here and it will take some unpacking. 1 - what is your tap water pH, if left to gas off after 24 hours? 2 - what sand is in the tank? The sand could be spiking the pH. 3 - if there is no lights on with the tank, there's no reason to add CO2 booster... and I'd suggest you...

Nope, nothing wrong. Things are going nicely. The best part of a fishless cycle... it can only ever go 'so' wrong. All is going well. :good:

Since you are referencing Walmart... I'd assume, you live in the US. ACE Hardware 1 quart http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1307957 1 gallon http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1272325

http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ Here ya go... the easiest and most foolproof way to go. ;) Oh, and welcome. :hi:

I agree with Demeter. Add a sponge filter attachment to the air stone. You are likely dealing with a fish-in cycle process. My guess is that there is a build up of ammonia in the tank, and even weekly 50% water changes weekly just won't fix that. The ammonia should be zero constantly, and...

Every tank is its own ecosystem... No two are the same.

With the milk crate, you can sleep easy.

Looks great. Just a side note for concern when adding rock to a tank and worrying about the floor of the tank not being able to handle it... Milk crate can be added under the sand and this will spread the weight of any rocks out so that it minimizes the load on any particular spot. With that...

This is one of the problems with the hobby at times... as our understanding changes, it takes a while for that information to percolate its way through to the vast majority of hobbyists. The bolded is inaccurate. That was the prevailing wisdom in the past, but it has been disproven. The...

I'd say stick to the amount you added to get to 1.5ppm.

The 1.5 ppm you added to increase the total to 2.5 ppm is a bit higher than I would have gone with the ammonia given you are using plants... the higher ammonia can cause trouble for plants, but these should be fine. For the future I'd only take it as high as 2 ppm, just to be safe.

I think it is cycled as well. The 0.25ppm reading could be a false reading. Have you tested and checked under natural light?

Shrimp pellets are a good option for cories. Cories are more scavenger than they are active eaters, they snuff their barbels in the substrate (preferably sand) looking for scraps to eat. New fish to a tank take a litttle time to learn how the food is delivered, but they do figure it out. As...

Rereading what you wrote initially, it seems I missed your original meaning. Yes, that way of cycling will help to speed up the process. It would be prudent to lower the ammonia dose to about 2ppm instead of 3 ppm.

That's actually the beauty of the fishless cycle... there's really not a whole lot of 'dealing' with anything. Step 1: Measure your tank's water volume (a rough estimate is fine - ~80% of the tank volume is likely). Step 2: Add the appropriate dose of ammonia based on your product. Step 3...

It appears to be L. repens.

It can happen, but there are easy ways to minimize it. 1 - keep the sand depth thin. 1-1.5 inches. 2 - Plants - plant roots will help oxygenate the area. 3 - Fish that stir it up a bit (cories are good at mixing the top layer) 4 - stir it up yourself on occasion, just a poke with a stick every...

This is the answer to your question @Byron

Honestly, with that limited stocking... you are likely ready now. But one more dose won't hurt anything.

In theory, a single drop from 3 ppm to double zeroes is a cycled tank. If you are concerned you could do two in a row, but there's no need to do it that way. What is your stocking going to be? Likely you will be stocking juvenile fish from a LFS, so you won't get the full ammonia...

http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Plant,%20Dwarf%20Lily.htm Generally red plants require more light than green. Please give some specs on your light fixture. The "WPG" rating is not a meaningful one any more. That's measures energy used by the bulb not the amount of light given. Also, there's...