Hello Everyone!

**fishter1213** · 12-05-2012, 03:06 AM

just wanted to say hello to all the other fish enthusiasts out there! I have just recently (maybe 3-4 weeks ago) acquired a 20 gallon long tank my friend had no use for. I used to own a 10 gallon when I was much younger, however my family got rid of it after some years.

I have some idea of what I'm doing (I hope!) since I have been doing as much research as I can, however I think I may need some extra help when it comes to certain aspects of the tank such as cycling and what chemicals I can use to help detoxify the ammonia in the water and speed up the overall cycle.

Unfortunately before I did any research I got excited and went out and grabbed a couple of guppies from my lfs before I had allowed any cycling to take place. Once I realized my mistake I decided to add several plants to the equation since I read that plants can help with the cycle somewhat. I have an anubias, a java fern, some wisteria, an amazon and a rosette sword. I have been feeding the plants with a combo of Flourish and api co2 booster.

The plants are doing well for the most part, however now my cycle is really starting to kick into gear and nitrites as well as ammonia and nitrates have started to rise somewhat. I noticed my water get cloudy overnight so I've been watching them with an api master test kit and doing water changes everyday (using prime to dechlorinate the new water).

The cloudy water started 2-3 days ago and I have been able to keep nitrites to about .5 ppm, nitrates at about 5 ppm, and my ammonia is hovering around 0-.25 ppm. Is there anything else I can do that I forgot about eg something to speed up the process or something to prevent my fish from getting sick?

Sorry for the wall of text(or if this is the wrong place to post

), but thank you to anyone who has any advice to offer. If anyone needs any more info please let me know and I will get it to you asap!