Alright, here is my situation:
I started my first tank about 3 to 4 weeks ago. Previous to that I had only owned a betta in a 1 gallon bowl, no filtration, etc. Well to get set up I went to the small LFS that I worked at as a cashier for a short amount of time.. hoping that they would be more helpful because of this. I think it's also important to point out that I didn't find this forum until after I got fish. So I ended up going the fishy cycling route simply because I did not know there was another alternative. On top of that, after telling the lfs employee (and one of the managers) the fish I was hoping to eventually have in the tank she suggested I go with the cory cats saying that "they're pretty hardy." To clarify, she knew it was a new tank. I have sinced learned that cories are a pretty poor choice for a cycling tank.
As of now, my water levels are: ammonia .8-1.0 ppm; nitrites: 0; nitrates: 5-10 ppm; pH: right around 7, maybe 7.2. (all with API liquid freshwater test kit)
I have one amazon sword, one small java fern (which brought in pond snails, I left only 2 small ones in the tank), w/a 15 watt fluorescent aquarium lamp (sufficient for the 15 gallon?), and a penn-plax cascade 400 internal canister filter. The tank is kept at 79/80 degrees.
The water conditioner that I'm currently using is Kent's ammonia detox. I was previously overfeeding but have since last week have cut back to one shrimp pellet every other day (for 3 cories)
For the past week and a half I've been doing daily or every other day 20% water changes. One employee at a different fish store told me that when I'm waiting for the bacteria to establish I shouldn't vacuum the gravel.. but he also told me no water changes for a few weeks which seems wrong...
So my questions are:
Where in the cycling process am I? I have read through a bunch of different posts, articles, etc but am still slightly confused.
I should be doing frequent water changes at this point, right? Especially with the cories?
Should I be vacuuming the gravel?
Is it completely irresponsible to keep the cories in there or will they be Ok with a lot of water changes?
The cory cats look healthy overall, very active, eating.. only thing I noticd is that their barbels are short which I presume is from living in a cycling tank. Argh... sure would have been nice if they had told me they aren't good for cycling... i still would have bought fish from them, just different ones! I'm not particularly into torturing my adorable fish :shakehead:. So any advice would be really really great!
I started my first tank about 3 to 4 weeks ago. Previous to that I had only owned a betta in a 1 gallon bowl, no filtration, etc. Well to get set up I went to the small LFS that I worked at as a cashier for a short amount of time.. hoping that they would be more helpful because of this. I think it's also important to point out that I didn't find this forum until after I got fish. So I ended up going the fishy cycling route simply because I did not know there was another alternative. On top of that, after telling the lfs employee (and one of the managers) the fish I was hoping to eventually have in the tank she suggested I go with the cory cats saying that "they're pretty hardy." To clarify, she knew it was a new tank. I have sinced learned that cories are a pretty poor choice for a cycling tank.
As of now, my water levels are: ammonia .8-1.0 ppm; nitrites: 0; nitrates: 5-10 ppm; pH: right around 7, maybe 7.2. (all with API liquid freshwater test kit)
I have one amazon sword, one small java fern (which brought in pond snails, I left only 2 small ones in the tank), w/a 15 watt fluorescent aquarium lamp (sufficient for the 15 gallon?), and a penn-plax cascade 400 internal canister filter. The tank is kept at 79/80 degrees.
The water conditioner that I'm currently using is Kent's ammonia detox. I was previously overfeeding but have since last week have cut back to one shrimp pellet every other day (for 3 cories)
For the past week and a half I've been doing daily or every other day 20% water changes. One employee at a different fish store told me that when I'm waiting for the bacteria to establish I shouldn't vacuum the gravel.. but he also told me no water changes for a few weeks which seems wrong...
So my questions are:
Where in the cycling process am I? I have read through a bunch of different posts, articles, etc but am still slightly confused.
I should be doing frequent water changes at this point, right? Especially with the cories?
Should I be vacuuming the gravel?
Is it completely irresponsible to keep the cories in there or will they be Ok with a lot of water changes?
The cory cats look healthy overall, very active, eating.. only thing I noticd is that their barbels are short which I presume is from living in a cycling tank. Argh... sure would have been nice if they had told me they aren't good for cycling... i still would have bought fish from them, just different ones! I'm not particularly into torturing my adorable fish :shakehead:. So any advice would be really really great!