Hi Need Help Desperatly.

[Ginge]

Yes probably did but its bacteria not needed as i went from 13 4" mbuna messy fish to what i had purched.

 

[Cheffi]

True....I'll just shut up then although imho I would still point the finger at the fish shop. After all, all of your water stats seem to have stayed perfectly fine. You didn't have far to take the fish from lfs to home. Think of your fish I had ginge and what they went through. All that time in those bags, travelling, being put into a newly cycled tank. Here we are 10 days later, water stats fine and all fish are in top condition.

 

[Bloo]

I don't think you're wrong Cheffi. And porous rocks do contain an awful lot of bacteria. Despite that fact that the bioload was significantly reduced dramatically. But I think it has more to do with the fact that the whole tank underwent such a massive change + the fact that the filter media was changed 3 weeks ago. A 3 week old filter is not a mature filter. In my opinion that takes a few months at least to mature fully and "settle".

 

[Ginge]

Media was changed but that time i did not clean the spounges because i remembered that all the rocks would be going and thought ahead.

 

[LucyHurst]

Asking them to use a liquid test would be a good idea, but since its the nitrates in question the AP liquid test kit is impossible to read when they are high so the results could be interpreted as anything!
I dont know about the tablet tests and how accurate they are but they usually use those in there for the freshwater tests (they use the liquid for marine only).