i tought i fishless cycled, did i?

[ArkyLady]

You only have to add enough conditioner to treat the amount of water you're replacing, not the whole tanks volume. Don't worry too much about using the exact right amount of conditioner. I try to err on the side of using a little too much rather than not enough. As long as you don't go overboard, you won't harm the fish by using a little too much.

You want the water you're adding to the tanks to be as close to the temp of the water in your tank as you can get it, within a few degrees anyway. Adding 50 degree water would lower your overall tank temp quite a bit and could be stressful (or fatal) to the fish.

Since you'll be doing a lot of water changes during the cycle, I would just use warm water straight from the tap (dechlorinated of course).

 

[anonapersona]

Yes, use warm water to mix with the bucket until it feels the same as the tank water. You can use a thermometer but you will be within one degree just using your hand. Then when temp is right, add dechlorinator to treat the bucket volume, swish to mix, then pour into the tank.

 

[jonny p]

update

im still getting amonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrates 0.

when i test for amonia can i interpolate between the colours on the card im using master tet kit, and the colour card has bright yellow for zero and a tint of green for .25ppm the colour im getting is kinda in between the two so does this mean im getting a reading between 0 and .25 or is it just my eyes acting up?

the male sword tail is not as active anymore, when i put the fish in first he was forever chasing the females and dancing and swiming after them and swiming backwards to show off, and copying there every move (it was great to watch). do they go through stages of breading, like being in Heat or is there something up with him?

the other male never chased the females but i think he's too young his sabre is a lot smaller than the other males, is this why?