It's been a week now since I got the tank and today I planted 
I'm getting some eyebrow-raising numbers with the cycle. I have two fish in the tank, I added the second one on Thursday because I wasn't getting any real readings with just one fish. After adding the second fish my parameters went way out of wack, I was registering pretty high levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I did big water changes Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then come Monday the levels are back to what they were last Tuesday. Zero nitrite, zero nitrate, and .25 ammonia. Same thing today.
Another odd thing (perhaps the cause of my problems) is that the PH raised. I can't think of any real legitimate reason for it to do so. I added some driftwood last week (well cleaned) but removed it the following day because it started growing white stuff on it. I did two huge water changes since then as well. That's the only thing that changed within the tank. I started with 7.6ph and now I have 8.2. I let the wood dry out for a few days and staralized it again today by boiling it for about 15 minutes before adding it again with my plants.
I am thinking my decision to add a second fish was bad, and that I set my cycle back a few days. I'm just going to keep testing and keep watching it to see when the nitrites and nitrates come back.
I'm getting some eyebrow-raising numbers with the cycle. I have two fish in the tank, I added the second one on Thursday because I wasn't getting any real readings with just one fish. After adding the second fish my parameters went way out of wack, I was registering pretty high levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I did big water changes Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then come Monday the levels are back to what they were last Tuesday. Zero nitrite, zero nitrate, and .25 ammonia. Same thing today. Another odd thing (perhaps the cause of my problems) is that the PH raised. I can't think of any real legitimate reason for it to do so. I added some driftwood last week (well cleaned) but removed it the following day because it started growing white stuff on it. I did two huge water changes since then as well. That's the only thing that changed within the tank. I started with 7.6ph and now I have 8.2. I let the wood dry out for a few days and staralized it again today by boiling it for about 15 minutes before adding it again with my plants.
I am thinking my decision to add a second fish was bad, and that I set my cycle back a few days. I'm just going to keep testing and keep watching it to see when the nitrites and nitrates come back.
