Long story short I want a pet fish (obviously) and bought a fish tank that’s like 45 litres (11 gallons??) around 3-4 weeks ago.
I wanted to start cycling it straight away using Dr Tim’s ammonia but couldn’t because my test kit wasn’t coming until like, 3 weeks later and I didn’t want to risk anything. So while waiting I used fluval stratum and added plants, drift wood, and now floaters like five minutes ago- it’s growing okay- not as pretty as the aquariums in r/plantedtank , it’s actually hideous, but we move on.
Anyway, I received my test kit today and obviously dropped everything to test the water and finally start my cycle with my ammonia ,but I just got super confused with the results? Like, my ammonia is at 0 but my nitrites and nitrates are through the roof high. Is that normal? I’ve been doing water changes weekly? Should I add the Dr Tim’s ammonia even if it’s at 0 and start the cycle? Why are the nitrites and nitrates so high? Should I add bacteria? I bought seachem stability. Would that work? My pH looks fine, I think? I cannot read the pH thing at all it looks like all the colours in the 6.8-7.6 range.
Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
Posted by ab1348d
2 Comments
If you had plants, driftwood, and stratum for 3 weeks, there’s definitely gonna be some rotting biological material. You started your cycle early by introducing all that biological material. It looks like you’re halfway done through the cycle!
Do a water change and start dosing only a little ammonia, keep a close eye on those params until you have 0/0 on ammonia and nitrite. This shouldn’t take long at all because, like I said, you seem to have a small bacterial colony already in.
I’m new to this myself but I believe this is a great thing. I think this is the final stage of your tank cycling. Listen to the other more experienced people though.