My New Tank

sorry it's a little hard to follow exactly whats going on, you've added the first 5ppm of ammonia and it's now nearly 0.... right?

if so then add another 5ppm and keep monitoring, it'll drop down again and then you top it back up keep doing this until the ammonia drops to 0 in 12 hrs, then you start worrying about the nitrite, it'll most likely be sky high at this point you keep adding ammonia every day until it drops down to 0. when both ammonia and nitrite read 0 after 12 hrs then the cycle is done. :good:

what you have to remember while cycling is your trying to make a 'soup' with the right conditions to grow bacteria in, bacteria don't need the same things as fish do so for now the bacteria are your priority, they actually do best with a pH around 8ish, so droping it down to 6 now would cause problems with your cycle.

at any rate people put too much importance on pH levels for fish, the vast majority of community trops will be absolutely fne at 7.5 and adjusting pH is hrd to get right, it easily becomes unstable and starts fluctuating. a fluctuating pH will do infinetely more damage than a stable one a point or two higher or lower than 'ideal'. so in about 95% of cases the advice is to leave the pH well alone.

if yo can give us an idea of the fish you want to keep then we'l let you kow if there's any need to ajdust the pH or not.
 
super thanks,

will leave the PH alone

Once again thanks
 
Adding to what WD said, if you are in a fishless cycle, as it seems, you do not want your pH in the 6s even if that is a final target some day. The cycle will progress faster at the 7.5 that you already have. As far as fish, my home pH is about 7.8 and all of my fish do well in that water. I do keep a few that the recommended pH is in the 6.5 range and they are also fine in my 7.8. The only time that I adjust is when trying to breed certain fish, and I always check first to make sure it is really needed because, as WD pointed out, it often isn't and maintaining a specific water parameter that is not a tap value can be a bit of a pain.
 
i will therfore not be tampering with the waters ph

I will soon be taking suggestions for first fish, I have read numerous threads of folk putting Guppy's first and Molly's but will be looking for other suggestions, I will be looking for my tank to reflect me lol. So would like some unusual but easy to keep species.

Toodle Pip
 
So would like some unusual but easy to keep species.

Rules out Guppies then :shifty: Or store bought ones at least. They are that imbred that all their strength has gone, and they are often hard now for "expert" aquarists to keep in well established tanks :sad: I would wait untill your tank has been going for 6 months with fish in before you try your hand at them, and where possible, get locally bred fish to increase your chances of success...
 
So would like some unusual but easy to keep species.

Rules out Guppies then :shifty: Or store bought ones at least. They are that imbred that all their strength has gone, and they are often hard now for "expert" aquarists to keep in well established tanks :sad: I would wait untill your tank has been going for 6 months with fish in before you try your hand at them, and where possible, get locally bred fish to increase your chances of success...


thank you
 
I also find mollies have their own oddities, so at the risk of groans from fellow members (since we've had a dozen threads of these same hardy fish for some reason this weekend, lol) I'll mention that zebra danios, leopard danios, rasbora heteromorpha and male platies are certainly among the hardiest around for starting out a tank. Rummy noses come to mind if I'm remembering right as a good beginner fish.. perhaps someone could confirm that? Cories can also come in soon, perhaps at third month ideally.

~~waterdrop~~
 
Rummy noses can be as iffy as Neons, Cardinals and Guppies WD, I think you must be confusing them with the other tetras...
 

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