Good, I'm glad you feel some things have started to clear up.
I'll try to answer some more questions and you still have several problems to work on.
Ammonia in the water supply is pretty common. Remember, these are *parts per million* we're talking about, in your case a quarter or a half of one part per million -- this is not the kind of ammonia that's going to bother humans in any way. But for fish it is indeed significant, which is why we have biological filters and why we fishless cycle.
It turns out not to be an issue for a fishkeeper because once the filter has cycled, it has more than enough power to quickly remove the 0.25ppm or 0.50ppm of ammonia in the tap water. Its just something you have to be aware of when adding some ammonia for a fishless cycle (if you were doing that, which you're not currently) because it means you'll actually add slightly less ammonia to acheive the desired concentration in the tank. It also means that later, after your aquarium is running normally, it will be slightly more desirable to do two smaller water changes instead of one big water change in those circumstances where this can be reasonably done. A smaller water change exposes the fish to less ammonia of course and then the filter removes it.
OK, so back to your fishless cycle. To the extent that you are getting higher than 0.25ppm (in other words if the 0.50 ppm is for real) then yes, that's not great for that last guppy and it again means using a higher -frequency- and a lower -percentage- of tap water in your fish-in cycle water changes will be desirable. So where one person might do a giant water change, getting them to zero ammonia and giving them two days to get back to 0.25ppm, you might have to do one each day or twice a day but make them smaller, so that the new ammonia coming in from the tap will be more diluted by your tank water that's already there.
Now about this fishless cycle. Its really a pretty helpless affair now I'm afraid. One small guppy is really just going to make the fish-in cycling process extremely slow. Its going to be loads better for you to find a way to re-home this last guppy and do a proper fishless cycle. I'm sure there's going to be some way to find either a local fish shop (you can promise them you'll come in and buy some fish and supplies in return!) or some other hobbyist who will take a single guppy.
OK, yet another problem: the Whisper filter! I think we should get some discussion going among the members about this. I think we've had this discussion before. There are some ways to make these things work, although they don't have much biofiltration capacity I don't think. It may be that some people slit the carbon paks and dump out the carbon and replace it with sponge or ceramics. Perhaps there's a way to get some ceramic rings into this thing, I think we've said that before but this filter worries me.
Finally, I think you asked about the getting the "nitrite processing bacteria" (the N-Bacs as we say for short) going. The thing you have to understand about these strange chemoautolithotrophic bacteria is that they are just plain slow to grow, and luckily they are also tough and slow to die once you've got a good colony grown. What I like to tell people is to remember that at its best, this hobby is all about slowing down, relaxing, getting away from computers and cell phones and noisy normal life and just taking your time! And getting it all set up and going in the first few months is the first test of whether you can make youself have the patience to do this! Yes, we like to do various little things to optimize our cycles, but in reality these things just often take up around 2 months to get all worked out. Of course, its only this once and then you'll have bacteria for as long as you keep tanks running and will be able to clone any new tanks without going through another fishless cycle.
OK, hopefully I've given you enough to chew on for a while,
~~waterdrop~~
/www.elmersaquarium.com/images/112whisper_Filter.jpg
thanks.
/www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm). Is that a standard or does this bottle have a different concentration?
