Hi! New and confused

[Fish]

27C will be ok, but yes, keep your eye on the plants, some can be a bit fussy about temp.

I dropped the heater down to 25 last night and moved the plant forward very slightly. I spent £60 on the plants so don’t want them to die

[Fish]

No one needs to reply as I’m sure you’re all sick of me But posting this to log it too. So yesterday the ammonia dropped to nearly zero and nitrites were present so I added more ammonia. Tested it today and the ammonia was back to zero already Nitrites stayed the same and didn’t lower, but out of interest I tested the nitrates today before adding more ammonia, and they are showing already I wasn't expecting to see any until the nitrites started to drop!

[fr499y]

Excellent news! Now its the daily nitrite and ammonia tests and topping up to 2ppm

[plankton]

...and check your tapwater nitrates to see where you're starting from.

[Fish]

...and check your tapwater nitrates to see where you're starting from.

I’ve just done this now, but struggling with the colour. I’ve realised today if I place the tube completely against a white back ground with the window light in front it then the colour is a lot more saturated than if I hold the tube with a gap between it and the paper.

Against paper:






With a gap:






Either way, is that a lot of nitrates for straight out of the tap, water?

[plankton]

It's not too bad. That's about 20ppm, maybe a bit less - a lot of people get 40ppm. I'm lucky as it doesn't register much.
20ppm and below is fine, below 40 is ok, above that gets a bit unhelpful for the fish. Some fish, like blue rams and discus do not like it above 20ppm, but most fish are ok with 40 and below. Shrimp also like low nitrates.
If you use ferts for the plants you may find it creeps up, but those nitrates aren't as bad as the ones from the cycle.

[Fish]

I have thought fertiliser for the plants but haven’t used it just yet.

My ammonia is still going down every day after adding dr Tim’s. But I’m a bit worried my nitrites are too high and wondering if I should do a partial water change?

[Gingerlove05]

No need the nitrites stay high for around 10+ days before dropping off the other end of the scale, more or less overnight. It does feel like it’s doing nothing for a while.
IIRC 1ppm ammonia produces 2.5ppm nitrite approximately.
I’m not sure if Dr Tims contains any of the nitrite munchers

[Fish]

No need the nitrites stay high for around 10+ days before dropping off the other end of the scale, more or less overnight. It does feel like it’s doing nothing for a while.
IIRC 1ppm ammonia produces 2.5ppm nitrite approximately.
I’m not sure if Dr Tims contains any of the nitrite munchers

Thank you. The one I have is just ammonia but I do have nitrates showing. I’m just not testing that daily as it’s a pain to do!

[plankton]

Sounds like it's working fine.