Test results

[Rodders]

Here are my test results, tanks been going for 5 weeks.
Nitrates (left) dont match the chart, but at a guess 10-20
Ammonia (middle) 0 Has been sky high, just came down this week, but the nitrites are high, so how has it gone down
Nitrites (right) sky high (filter bacteria cant be growing)

 

[iggy01]

How high are your nitrites ( sky high ) ? Seems like your tank is cycling ok to me . You can expect your nitrites to start falling soon seeing as you've got plenty of nitrate forming.

 

[Stryker]

First of all your ammonia drops as the first stage bacteria procecsses it. The result of that processing is nitrite. Given time the nitrite will drop as the bacteria that processes nitrites into nitrates grows.

Five weeks is a fair stretch though, seems its taking its time, just be patient.

BTW, did you use water conditioner when you filled the tank?

 

[bigfish]

This is wot i would expect your tests to look like, shows that your ammonia has come come down to almost nothing and the nitrite would be sky high like this.

I would however recommend small water changes to dilute the nitrite if you are cycling with fish, otherwise the nitrite will harm your fish by them not converting the homogolbin which carries oxygen around the body, may see increased gill beats, listlessness, not feeding, gulping at surface for oxygen etc. But if you are cycling with no fish then it wont do any harm.

Think it can take 6 to 8 weks to fully mature!!! but dont go and buy stacks of fish all in one go, go for 4 small fish like daino's and then wait two weeks before adding another small amount of fish, just so that your tank stays nice and stable and you shouldn't get spikes of ammonia or nitrite.

HTH

 

[Rodders]

I have seen some fast breathing gulping at surface, but i though gouramis did that anyway?
I screwed up at start, didnt know about cycling.
Ammonia levels have been really high, this is the first test when they have come down to 0.
Looks like things are starting to get back on track now
They deffinatley eat well though!!!!!!!!

edit, as for sky high- its darker than the darkest colour on the chart it seems