Frylover thats a very good link on the use of Amonia (Best i have read).........we will have fishie up and running in no time at all !

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she is in safe hands with me and you Popey

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Thank you so much for your advice, that link was just the sort of concise walk through procedure I was looking for.
I was unaware I needed to add ammonia to the tank, I took readings of the water (with water conditioner added as per instructions) when I first filled the tank, the gravel had already been used, but I had rinsed it thoroughly, the bogwood and rocks I scrubbed before putting in, the filter media was all new also, the test results were 8.0ppm for ammonia which is rather high considering everything in there was clean, I guess my next step will be to test my tap water?
As of today 3rd May, the results are Ph 7.6
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrite 2.0
Nitrate 40
Something is obviously happening because the ammonia reading is coming down, should I just leave things to develop and see what happens?

Are these results headed in the right direction ammonia wise? or should I do a partial water change, and start the ammonia adding procedure as per that link you sent?

Sorry, you guys will get so sick of me asking all these questions! you`ll probably say forget the fish, get yourself a hamster!!!( i`ll empty the water first of course, they dont swim too well!!)

I`ve just tested the tap water, the results were surprising to me, not what I expected at all!
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 20ppm
PH 7.6
Not sure where the ammonia reading is coming from? is there any in the aqua safe or the cycle I added at the very start? confused as to where the ammonia has come from? what do you think?

That's what i was wondering!

There won't be any in the aqua safe or cycle.

I would suggest a faulty test kit, but you have used it for the tap water and got 0, so is a strange one!

Would there have been something in the gravel, uneaten food or something?

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That's what i would expect from your tap-water, what test kit are you using (sorry if you have already stated this)

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Master Test Kit by Aquarium pharmaceuticals inc

okay, good thats a decent kit.

I take it your nitrite reading from the tank is purple (ish) on the colour chart?

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Thats right, thats a 2.0 on the little card that comes with the kit. I guess this will start to go a darker purple once the ammonia reading comes down to a yellow colour on the card, 0ppm.
Do I need to get some ammonia do you think to help the process along? I guess there must have been some ammonia lurking somewhere, the only place I can think is like you said, from the gravel, but I did ensure it was running clear water when I rinsed it. Curious, said alice?!!!

yeh bizaare, must there must have been ammonia somewhere, because you are getting high nitrite readings, so the filter media is processing the ammonia, hence the ammonia is going down.

it usually takes longer for the nitrite consuming bacteria to develop, hence when cycling a tank, ammonia usually rises and drops quite quickly (matter of a few days in my experience) and then nitrite rises, but then can take anything up to 21 days in my experience for the nitrite to come down to 0.

i think one thing to consider now Alice is to ensure there is some continuing ammonia source for your filter media. Just a little bit, have you got any fish food lying about, as you dont have to get pure ammonia.

i would not advise adding too much ammonia (as in food) as your tank is already half-way or thereabouts through the cycling process. If you add too much ammonia now it would make your cycling process uneccessarily long.

basically, once your ammonia level in tank gets to zero on a test kit during the cycling you then need to continue to provide the filter with a "food source" i.e. ammonia, this could be done by

(a) using fish food, pure ammonia or something like prawns

(b) adding fish (just one or two) fish excrete ammonia through their gills and poop!


I would suggest only adding fish once Nitrite hits 0, this will mean your fish go into the tank with good water quality already in place.

Once your ammonia and nitrite are at 0 you are good to go! I would advise stocking slowly to check just how "bedded in" the filter bacteria are.

The key is the continuos ammonia source, or you start to lose bacteria from the filter and risk going back to square 1

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