Ammonia test strips

[Nepherael]

Exactly. The way nitrite reacts with fish is by stopping them from getting oxygen. I actually bought a second air pump and put two of them on my airstone with a T bar just to make sure. Still lost one fish during the nitrite cycle I believe but yeah if nitrite shoots real high just remember you can put up to 5x prime for nitrite spikes.

Just keep up with the water changes and dosing you'll be done in no time.

Even after my cycle finished I was so used to doing water changes I did them almost every day for another week, then every other day lol. Now of course everything is fine and I test the water every once in a while and clean once or twice a week. I have enough filtration on it that I could probably go longer but I like the hands on part of it (even if sometimes I just absolutely don't want to do it)

Sent from my Droid Incredible using the Monster Aquaria Network app

 

[MaiaDee]

Ok. I appreciate the help. My confidence level is getting better and you might actually be right that it will be ok

I totally get liking the hands on part. We tend to be very hands on with all our pets. Homemade dog food for the beasts, cat is getting toilet trained, and we're really looking forward to a stabilized tank so we can start learning about live plants and breeding. Yes, we may be slightly nuts. But, hey, it keeps us outta trouble!

 

[Nepherael]

Lol I would love to teach my cats to toilet train. If there's one thing I hate doing it is litter cleaning.

Ive considered doing homemade food of my fish but even though it seems pretty basic I'd worry that they're still not getting the nutrition they need. I just bought this great frozen cichlid diet for my Angels and they are coloring up so well.

Yeah you're good man. That's why I've been telling you it'll all turn out ok, to boost your confidence a bit because you're handling it pretty well.

Once it's cycled you'll have a lot fun messing with plants and rescaping. I'm about ready to rescape mine because I'm jealous of the sand in my girlfriends that we just set up a couple days ago when mine just has pea gravel in it lol

 

[MaiaDee]

Yeah, I want sand too. Never considered it for freshwater before I started reading posts on AC. Looks so cool!

Toilet training the cat isn't all that hard, just time consuming. Also is easier to do if you have two bathrooms (we don't). We learned what to do by googleing it.

Homemade dog food is really easy and so much better than the store stuff. Ours get either chicken breasts or ground beef (cooked, no spices or salt) cut up with frozen veggies (carrots and broccoli are their favorite, but avoid corn as it has absolutely no nutritional value) and either oatmeal, brown rice, or scrambled eggs to bulk it up a bit. Before we started doing this, my 9 year old rott/lab mix was getting creaky. After a few months, she acts like a puppy sometimes and their coats are absolutely beautiful and shiny. Everyone comments how good our dogs look. So, while it's a bit of work, the nutrition is definitely not an issue and they LOVE it.