Hello,
I am brand new to this. My son gave me his used 5 gal fluval setup. It had been sitting dry for months. A week ago, I set this up with his old sand, his old previously live rock, store bought saltwater, filter stuff, and a tube of some bacteria stuff he brought.
I ordered a test kit, received it yesterday.
yesterday : pH 8.0, ammonia 2.0, nitrite .20, nitrate 0.0
today : pH 8.0, ammonia 4.0, nitrite .50, nitrate 5.0
I also ordered a refractometer which has not arrived yet.
I see some small dead algae flakes floating around so I guess this is what is decaying to start the cycle. My question now is should I do a water change at some point or let it go and just keep testing?
I plan on setting up a larger system, I am using this basically to get familiar with testing, cycling etc. while I read up and plan. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
I am brand new to this. My son gave me his used 5 gal fluval setup. It had been sitting dry for months. A week ago, I set this up with his old sand, his old previously live rock, store bought saltwater, filter stuff, and a tube of some bacteria stuff he brought.
I ordered a test kit, received it yesterday.
yesterday : pH 8.0, ammonia 2.0, nitrite .20, nitrate 0.0
today : pH 8.0, ammonia 4.0, nitrite .50, nitrate 5.0
I also ordered a refractometer which has not arrived yet.
I see some small dead algae flakes floating around so I guess this is what is decaying to start the cycle. My question now is should I do a water change at some point or let it go and just keep testing?
I plan on setting up a larger system, I am using this basically to get familiar with testing, cycling etc. while I read up and plan. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.