Happy tank, happy tank!! :)

**themusician** · 09-30-2007, 04:15 AM

I finally have a happy tank!! I'm probably going to get a dozen "I told you so"s, but I still had to post my good news. ;)

So on Wednesday I wrote to you all in enormous frustration because I had been getting the exact same water test readings in my tank for over a week. Even though I had changed how I was adding ammonia, nothing was going up or down or showing any effect whatsoever. The strangest thing was that after I did a 75% water change at your suggestion, I STILL got the exact same test results. Very bizarre.

On Thursday I took water samples to my LFS for them to test and they also got the same results. They didn't know what to tell me, and just told me I needed to wait longer. Didn't even try to address the strange readings I got after changing the water in my tank.

Anyway, long story long, I was not going to test my tank for a week because I was so tired of getting the same thing. I made it all of two days instead because I'm impatient, BUT, when I tested my water tonight...no ammonia and no nitrites!! My cycle is done!!! I'm going to check tomorrow just to be sure, but it just took two days for everything to turn around.

I don't know if you're even still reading, but that's not the only reason why my tank is happy. My LFS is having fall clearance sale so today I went shopping. My tank now has a 65W light (instead of 15W), fancy mounting legs, a glass cover (that I may not use...I really like the open top), a CO2 system, and several types of Flourish (I only need the basic one, but it was a $16.99 kit for $4.25...I just couldn't pass it up). I lost a couple leaves off my big sword plant in the last couple of days so I'm hoping that all this new equipment will make all my plants perk up and start to grow.

Fish will be coming in a couple of days (I'll probably be back with some more questions before then, but I think I've said quite enough here), and then I'll post pictures of the whole new fancy set up.

Cheers!

**squirt_12** · 09-30-2007, 04:17 AM

Great job with the tank....lol....and yes i read it all.
What kind of fish are you getting??
Also what size of tank is it>?

**Nick89** · 09-30-2007, 04:18 AM

Cool, I have no idea right now how to do the cycle but I read somewhere that there is an ammonia spike. Again i have no idea maybe someone else will know more than me.

**themusician** · 09-30-2007, 04:22 AM

It's a 20 gallon high tank. I think for now I just want a peaceful community tank to ease me into the hobby. I'm thinking a combination of platys, lemon tetras, and cory cats, plus maybe one other depending on space. I need to do some research on shrimp because just today my husband was saying he thought shrimp were cool and I should get some. So I need to figure out if I can. ;)

The rebel in me wants to get something a little more obscure or interesting than run of the mill platys and tetras and such, but I don't know if that's a good idea while I'm just learning. We'll see. ;)

**Nick89** · 09-30-2007, 04:25 AM

Well in a 20 gallon, you could have a convict cichlid. Very aggressive and stay around 6''-7'' max.

**themusician** · 09-30-2007, 04:25 AM

Originally Posted by AquaKid329

Cool, I have no idea right now how to do the cycle but I read somewhere that there is an ammonia spike. Again i have no idea maybe someone else will know more than me.

There are several really good articles stickied to the tops of the different forums. You can also just do a google search. Basically, the fish create ammonia (which is toxic). Eventually bacteria grow which eat the ammonia and create nitrites (also toxic). More bacteria grows to eat the nitrites and create nitrates (not great for fish in high doses but not nearly as toxic as the others). So you see an ammonia spike followed by a nitrite spike followed by a nitrate spike. Once the ammonia and nitrite are down to zero, you've cycled your tank.

I did a fishless cycle which is basically the same thing except that you add the ammonia yourself and let the tank cycle before you add any fish to it. It's a lot easier on the fish to do it that way.

**squirt_12** · 09-30-2007, 04:25 AM

' something a little more obscure ' when you say this do you mean something like a ciclid (sp?)???

**themusician** · 09-30-2007, 04:26 AM

Originally Posted by AquaKid329

Well in a 20 gallon, you could have a convict cichlid. Very aggressive and stay around 6''-7'' max.

Yeah, I think I have decided that I prefer more smaller fish to fewer bigger fish. Again, that may change as I go, but that's what I'm inclined to do for now.

**themusician** · 09-30-2007, 04:29 AM

Originally Posted by squirt_12

' something a little more obscure ' when you say this do you mean something like a ciclid (sp?)???

Honestly, I don't really know. I've only done research on the peaceful community fish so I don't know much else about the others. I just flip back and forth between thinking the community fish are pretty and colorful to thinking they're boring because everyone has them. I like being unique and different. ;)

The one thing I do know (if I'm right about this) about cichlids is that they don't really do well with plants and do much better with a rocky tank. I love my plants and I don't think I can give them up now. ;)