Hi all,
I have a new 35 gal saltwater tank running with a dwarf porcupine puffer in it. The tank has been up for 6 weeks and the cycle is taking forever to finish. I know it isnt good to cycle a tank with fish in it but the wife saw this porc and just had to have it so Ive been working my butt of with water changes to keep the water paramaters within reason. I have a liquid test kit and have been checking ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph. I recently purchased an RO filter to have good water to start with. I have been using tap water and checked it with the test kit and it had 1ppm ammonia in it right out of the tap. So now with RO water the water is perfect(PH is only 7.4) but the salt mix beings it up to 7.8.
Question is my ammonia according to the test kit shows really dark green(8.0ppm+), yet my puffer shows no signs of any trouble, he happily swims around and eats (i feed every 2 days) Ive done 3 large water changes in the past 2 weeks(approx 25 gals) and nitrite is at .5 and nitrate is at 20 now(was 80) but the ammonia still registers off the chart(dark green 8.0ppm+)
How is this possible with the large water changes and the puffer showing no signs of distress?? I was thinking faulty test kit but it did show me 1ppm in my tap water and 0ppm in the RO water..
Am I missing something here..
Thanks Shane.:help:
I have a new 35 gal saltwater tank running with a dwarf porcupine puffer in it. The tank has been up for 6 weeks and the cycle is taking forever to finish. I know it isnt good to cycle a tank with fish in it but the wife saw this porc and just had to have it so Ive been working my butt of with water changes to keep the water paramaters within reason. I have a liquid test kit and have been checking ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph. I recently purchased an RO filter to have good water to start with. I have been using tap water and checked it with the test kit and it had 1ppm ammonia in it right out of the tap. So now with RO water the water is perfect(PH is only 7.4) but the salt mix beings it up to 7.8.
Question is my ammonia according to the test kit shows really dark green(8.0ppm+), yet my puffer shows no signs of any trouble, he happily swims around and eats (i feed every 2 days) Ive done 3 large water changes in the past 2 weeks(approx 25 gals) and nitrite is at .5 and nitrate is at 20 now(was 80) but the ammonia still registers off the chart(dark green 8.0ppm+)
How is this possible with the large water changes and the puffer showing no signs of distress?? I was thinking faulty test kit but it did show me 1ppm in my tap water and 0ppm in the RO water..
Am I missing something here..
Thanks Shane.:help: