Hey guys, I really need help badly. I’ll try to give as much information as possible.
So my tank has been cycling for 23 days. At day 15 I changed the entire aquascape. Added new rocks, but kept half of the previous rocks so that I could still have some of the beneficial bacteria. After changing the aqua scape my test kits results were
Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 20ppm
Ph 7.8
(still the same as before just that the nitrate dropped by 20ppm)
On day 20 my test kits results showed,
0-0.25ppm ammonia - was skeptical about the ammonia because I heard api test kits might show inaccurate results. But I posted a thread asking wether my tank was cycled and everyone said yes. Still I wanted to wait for a few days to see if the ammonia would go down
0ppm nitrite
40ppm nitrate
so after 2 days(yesterday) I went out to buy a different test kit by salifert. Went back home and tested the ammonia and it showed zero so I’m like yayyyy my tank is cycled I get to go to collect my pair of clownfish that my LFS had been holding for me. And obviously before adding livestock you would always want to make sure everything is stable, so I dosed around 1-2ppm of ammonia last night to see if the bacteria would convert it into nitrate.
next day(today) I tested my tank again.
Salifert
ammonia 0ppm
Api test kit
ammonia 1ppm
Nitrite 2-5ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
I’m like BRUHHHH…. UGHHHHHHH I’m so fustrated!! I don’t know which test kit to follow.
so what I’m trying to ask is, did I cause a mini cycle cause I dosed ammonia or maybe the tank crashed? Or is the test kit really just **** and giving me inaccurate results.
bacteria I’m using is microbacter start xlm by brightwell.
So my tank has been cycling for 23 days. At day 15 I changed the entire aquascape. Added new rocks, but kept half of the previous rocks so that I could still have some of the beneficial bacteria. After changing the aqua scape my test kits results were
Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 20ppm
Ph 7.8
(still the same as before just that the nitrate dropped by 20ppm)
On day 20 my test kits results showed,
0-0.25ppm ammonia - was skeptical about the ammonia because I heard api test kits might show inaccurate results. But I posted a thread asking wether my tank was cycled and everyone said yes. Still I wanted to wait for a few days to see if the ammonia would go down
0ppm nitrite
40ppm nitrate
so after 2 days(yesterday) I went out to buy a different test kit by salifert. Went back home and tested the ammonia and it showed zero so I’m like yayyyy my tank is cycled I get to go to collect my pair of clownfish that my LFS had been holding for me. And obviously before adding livestock you would always want to make sure everything is stable, so I dosed around 1-2ppm of ammonia last night to see if the bacteria would convert it into nitrate.
next day(today) I tested my tank again.
Salifert
ammonia 0ppm
Api test kit
ammonia 1ppm
Nitrite 2-5ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
I’m like BRUHHHH…. UGHHHHHHH I’m so fustrated!! I don’t know which test kit to follow.
so what I’m trying to ask is, did I cause a mini cycle cause I dosed ammonia or maybe the tank crashed? Or is the test kit really just **** and giving me inaccurate results.
bacteria I’m using is microbacter start xlm by brightwell.