I've read a lot of the newbie threads and just wanted to find out if I'm on the right track here. I set up my new 37 gallon freshwater tank (had a successful 20 gallon tank a few years ago but I am very rusty) a few days ago; I dosed the water with Nutrafin Cycle for 3 days and added 4 guppies yesterday.
I am using API's Freshwater Master Test Kit to test the water daily and until today the results were a high PH 8.8 or above (!!!), Ammonia 0, NO2 0 and NO3 0; today the PH is still the same, NO2 is 0 but I'm questioning the NO3 result - colour appears somewhere between 0 and 5.0 ppm. This does not even seem possible as it has only been a few days.
The water appears slightly cloudy but I've seen worse; nevertheless I did a 10% water change this morning; should I change a bigger percentage?
I'm concerned about the PH level but I've read that it is better to keep this stable rather than try to mess with it. My tap water reads in at 7.4, and this makes me wonder what is in my tank that is making the PH rise to such a high level? Could my sand or decorations be causing this? If so should I remove of add anything? I've read about the addition of peat but opinions seem to differ quite a lot about the impact of this method and I am not sure that I want to do this at this point, especially if it will not really help.
The guppies have now been in the water 24 hours and are still very lively and seem to be exploring their environment quite happily. I have 2 Cobra Guppies whose colour has not changed, and 2 Turquoise Guppies who have faded just a bit but are otherwise vigorous.
Finally the kit I purchased included an external filter (Aqueon QuietFlow 30); is this sufficient for my setup or should I be doing anything else to supplement the filtration?
I am using API's Freshwater Master Test Kit to test the water daily and until today the results were a high PH 8.8 or above (!!!), Ammonia 0, NO2 0 and NO3 0; today the PH is still the same, NO2 is 0 but I'm questioning the NO3 result - colour appears somewhere between 0 and 5.0 ppm. This does not even seem possible as it has only been a few days.
The water appears slightly cloudy but I've seen worse; nevertheless I did a 10% water change this morning; should I change a bigger percentage?
I'm concerned about the PH level but I've read that it is better to keep this stable rather than try to mess with it. My tap water reads in at 7.4, and this makes me wonder what is in my tank that is making the PH rise to such a high level? Could my sand or decorations be causing this? If so should I remove of add anything? I've read about the addition of peat but opinions seem to differ quite a lot about the impact of this method and I am not sure that I want to do this at this point, especially if it will not really help.
The guppies have now been in the water 24 hours and are still very lively and seem to be exploring their environment quite happily. I have 2 Cobra Guppies whose colour has not changed, and 2 Turquoise Guppies who have faded just a bit but are otherwise vigorous.
Finally the kit I purchased included an external filter (Aqueon QuietFlow 30); is this sufficient for my setup or should I be doing anything else to supplement the filtration?
