[aaronjunited]

Here is my tap water parameters before adding fish

high range PH - 7.4
nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate - 5.0ppm
ammonia - 0.25ppm

KH = 71.6ppm - 4°dKH
GH = 143.2ppm - 8°dKH

I plan to keep mbuna. How can i get the right parameters form this position?

Here is the report from my water company.

Any suggestions and thoughts would be helpfull.

This is my set-up, suggestions on the rock formation would be gratefull.

 

[Glaneon]

Is that a 20L or a 40L?
Rocks are okay, I'd push them back against the back of the tank.

You need to be able to cycle out that ammonia in 24 hours. I know .25 aint much, but it should be 0.

Have you fishless cycled your tank already or is this part-way through that process?

You're probably going to want to stick with single species Saulosi or Demasoni.

 

[aaronjunited]

Its a 130L tank, 4ft long. Was thinking off moving them back a bit, i want to add more aswell.

Going with labs, dems and greshakei.
Been advised on this already by a lot of people.

I was going to fishless cycyle, but i got tetra safestart, and everyone is telling me to use it instead of cycling. What do you mean by cycling out the ammonia in 24 hours?

Others have told me i shouldnt have ammonia coming from my tap water, my water company said they dont use chloramines, so it couldnt be ammonium, the non toxic form of ammonia.
Only thing that could be giving me ammonia in my water is the pipes in the house that feed the water. My test kit is in date and i havent added ammonia or nothing, so it has to be pipes.

What do i do.

 

[Glaneon]

You can use the SafeStart, I've used another brand successfully. Still took me 15 days to cycle mine.

Immediately after adding safe start you should see ammonia (likely a safe, not fish killing reading, but the kind that creates the good bacteria) - if not, it's not really doing the job of creating good bacteria.

24 hours after adding SafeStart you should see no ammonia. Your bacteria should be able to knock out that last little bit of ammonia from your tap.

As long as you have nitrates appearing to climb with no ammonia and no nitrite; you should be fine. The only way to be sure is a small dose (2ppm) of ammonia and make sure it goes away.

 

[aaronjunited]

Ok so when i add the safestart, i should throw in the safestart, test 10 minutes later for ammonia.
Retest the next day and i should see no ammonia, then watch for nitrates climbing.
If there appears to be no ammonia then my bacteria is removing it.

And then add some ammonia to see if it disapears, then this means my bacteria is going good.

Am i right lol?

 

[Glaneon]

Yup.

 

[aaronjunited]

ok thanks for that. See i forgot the benificial bacteria removes ammonia and turns it into nitrite then nitrate.

And after the cycle, you will form time to time get some ammonia and nitrite in the water, and thats what doing water changes is for. You'l always have nitrate as this is the end product, but it should be kept low.