so it's only been 9 full days, well, just think, some peeps wait less than 5 mins, they buy a tank, full it water, fill it fish.....poor fish, have to live with ammonia and nitrite for weeks, those that dont die will be stressed and disease prone and (according to stuff i read) possibly hamred for life, especially their gills from the constant ammonia poisoning.

i guess what i am saying your tank might not be ready, the readongs do confuse somewhat, but there has definitely been some culturing of bacteria, i think it would not be that far fetched for you to do a 75% water change with conditioned tap water, and add a few fish......

PS: nitrite can come down fast if your filters are mature, your may well be mature? not sure. They wont be fully mature thats for sure.

I had my filters off by accident one night, nitrite in the morning was about 0.50 and then after filters back on, nitrite was 0.0 within a few hours

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I`ll keep a close eye on the levels, and if all is stable by sunday, I`ll be hot footing it to the Lfs! How can I bring the Ph down, is this only possible with one of those RO units, or can I achieve lower reading another way? Peat or more bogwood, or by using chemical additive? should I lower the temp? its at 80 at the mo, but should i turn it down, what temp is best?

pH at 7.6 is fine, there's only a small minority of fish i think that really need to be kept at a lower pH than that (tropical freshwater) i mean.

it's not wirth the hassle trying to lower it (unless you fork out for RO) thats my opinion based on my knowledge and interactions with other more experienced peeps,

what happens is when you try to lower it through chemicals or even other means like peat in filter, you can create a water parameter that is unstable both in pH and hardness which is not good for the fish, you'll be constantly faffing about adding things and testing for pH

best thing in my opinion is to leave it be and try to base your selection of fish on those that are proven or recommended to be comfortable at that pH (which basically leaves you with a choice of 100's of different types of fish!!!!)

Temp, i'd say 77-80 is the general range for most trops, again, depends a little on what you going to keep, can't go too far wrong with 77-80 though

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dont let that tank go longer than 24 hrs without an ammonia source, be it a tiny bit of food or actually adding some fish

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the prawns are still at the bottom of the tank, should I put some fresh ones in? I`ll test water in the morning, and do a 75% water change and then test again. then If its cool, I`ll go and get some fish. Is it worthwhile getting a phosphate and hardness test kits?
I will tell the guys at the Lfs what my levels are, they should advise me on what fish will be ok for my water quality.
I cant wait! one more sleep till my new arrivals,(fingers crossed of course!)
Is it best to put new fish in with the lights off, so they can acclimatise in the darkness?

I agree with fry lover check on Sunday and if OK add a couple of zebra danios or similar quite hardy fish .

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senile old git

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I dont want to keep bugging you guys, but its really really appreciated, its nice to get advice from people who actually own trops, and know the little tricks of the trade.
Can anyone recommend a good book for any future queries? I will of course still come to the experts if I`m not sure!
I just want to thank everyone who has replied to my queries, I couldnt have done it without you! Mmwaahh XXX

thats fine Sally

sometimes Grandad can kick off with peeps who ask a lot of questions, but generally its all cool x x x

just joking about Grandad of course

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THATS RATHER HARSH OF YOU YOU YOUNG WHIPPERSNAPPER
EVERY ONE HERE KNOWS OLD GRANDADS JUST A PUSSYCAT , lol


and you ask all the questions you like fishie fingers the boys are loving it .

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senile old git