Preyhunter

Mine does this as well after a water change, though maybe not as bad. Mine clears after about 3 days with a floss pad in the HOB that stays there. I was just noticing that mine had haze yesterday and is crystal now.

Ordered fish online Sunday so that they could be shipped early in the week. They shipped on Wednesday (WA to TX). Here it is Sunday again and my fish are sitting in a USPS facility somewhere.

Did the water change, going to do more tests when I get a chance. I don't guess it really matters what that nitrite reading was since I will be testing again soon. I will dose ammonia after testing today, then test again tomorrow and maybe do a few more water changes over the coming days to handle the nitrates. I SHOULD be good to go soon I suspect.

Ammonia: .25 Nitrites: see pic Nitrates: 80+ Time for a water change. What does it look like the nitrites are in the pic? I think I'm about there. Nitrates shot up way high in a short time. Need to see what happens after the water change.

I'm at a conversion rate of 1ppm ammonia/day and have been for a couple of weeks. Nitrites always at 2ppm. I left ammonia at 0 for 24 hours and nitrites did not change. I thought my nitrite number would decrease after depleting ammonia, but it didn't. Ammonia conversion rate did not change when I started adding it back after leaving it at 0, still at 1ppm/day. Nitrates have slowly climbed over time but been at 20 for a while. I'll test all 3 params tomorrow to see where I'm sitting.

All of the ammonia increases have been from me adding it. I expect ammonia to be at or near 0 when I test pre-change tomorrow. It was at 1ppm today.

I didn't do a water change, but I did skip the ammonia dosing. The ammonia went to 0, nitrites have not moved from 2ppm no matter what I do. Haven't checked nitrates since Fri (been sick and had gout since the weekend so I've been a little lax). I'll check all params tomorrow. If I see 2ppm nitrites again tomorrow, I'm tempted to do a sizable water change just to see if that number changes at all. I'm sick of seeing 2ppm, it's the bane of my existence these days. I'm curious to see if the water change would drop it below 2ppm and then if it will go back to 2ppm after a day or two.

Your discus tank is absolutely beautiful as others have said. Really makes me want to set up a discus tank at some point.

29g aquarium AquaClear 50 with prefilter, 2 foam sponges and bioballs wave maker Water params today with API Master Test Kit. I would normally add ammonia to bring it up to 1-2ppm range at this point. Today I will not do that and test again tomorrow to see if anything changes. Everything below has been steady for over a week except for ammonia. If no change, I will do a water change and go from there. Not really a question, just documenting what's going on. Temp 78.0 pH 8.2 Ammonia .25 Nitrite 2.0 Nitrate 20

Here's the excuse I'm using...I've never done plants in the past and it seemed like a little too much for me getting back into the hobby after a long layoff, and they create more variables and less control as I'm trying to start this tank. I do plan to plant the tank once I get it up and running.

I'm dosing the tank with ammonia to 2ppm every other day and the BB is processing it at a rate of about 1ppm/day. What's weird to me is that the nitrites don't budge from what I can tell is between 2 and 5ppm. They have been at that level for at least a week. That tells me that there is some conversion to nitrates (at about 20ppm last check) but the nitrites aren't dropping. Is this normal in a new cycling and I just need to be patient while the nitrite converting BB multiply or something? It's just strange to me that the level has remained the same for so long.

Nice story. I always had red tail black sharks in the past myself. Cool looking fish in my opinion. I told myself that I wouldn't be going that route now that I'm back in the hobby, but I'm probably lying to myself. That's a lot of myselfs, I apologize.

Orandas and Black Moors get pretty big when fully mature, they don't maneuver very well, and they are dirty fish. Larger tanks address all three of those concerns.

Excellent info! I've never used live plants in an aquarium before but plan to in the near future. The plant info you provided in this post will help me to decide how I want to proceed when the time comes. Thanks!

I would say 20g is the minimum for one, a 29g would be better. I'd go with 10g more for each additional, so a 40g (or larger) would be ideal for the fish. Those are for the fish to grow into. While they are small, smaller tanks are ok with plans to upgrade. I had a red cap once upon a time. He was my favorite. He was in a 10g at the time that I lost him in a tank stand mishap. I was so bummed. I plan to have another in the near future.