hi! few teething problems...

[Sharkychris]

Hello all, I'm very new to this hobby and have had my first tank for about a month now, 10g and i cycled it with 6 small tiger barbs (started with 3 but they kinda picked on the little un so i got 3 more) The ammonia went up then down, nitrite went up then down and then nitrate went up, all well and good but the nitrate has just stuck at 10ppm for the last 7 days - should it not get higher? the tank is only lightly planted and i had'nt changed the water (due to the low nitrate).
And just to rub salt in ive noticed a few spots of ich on a few of them! In an attempt to knock this on the head I added some tetrafin ich med after changing 15% water, increased the temp to 26 ish, bunged an airstone in and am decreasing the light period. any advice? sorry bout long post but really don't want to loose them before ive started! Cheers

 

[tstenback]

sounds like you are cycled. If the levels of ammonia and nitrite are zero and you have nitrates then you are cycled my friend. You are doing fine with the ich just do a 10 - 15% water change every other day and if you can vacuum some of the gravel each time you do a water change. This will get rid of free swimming protozoa and the cycts on the bottom after they fal of the fish. HTH

 

[Sharkychris]

Cheers dude, the ammonia and nitrite are zero - they flicker up now and again tho but i guess that is too be expected. I'll keep the gravel vacumin up. Need to be carefull tho - sucked one of the little chaps up the other day U would have thought they'd stay away from great big grey whiring tubes...