29 gallon freshwater
1 angel, 6 black phantom tetra, 6 blood finned tetra, 3 weather loaches.
Ph: 7.2
Ammonia: 0.5 ppm, can only get it to go to .25 ppm with a PWC
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
hardness: 150-180 (cant remember what scale, LFS measured it for me)
Ok, so I have had my tank set up since the middle of January. I have only seen ammonia levels and nitrates, never any nitrites. I'm starting to wonder if I'm getting a false positive reading of ammonia. I thought that ammonia started, then nitrites, THEN nitrates... from what I've been reading at least. I have never seen any appearance of a reading of nitrites in my tank... EVER!
I have been doing PWC's about every other day (about 10 gallons each time), and only one cleaning a week do I take all my decor out and vacuum the gravel (assumed that this would help the bacteria grow).
There is this white/greyish film that is starting to grow on my filter media, is this bacteria? or just build up from my water?
Any ideas of what the heck is going on?
Any and all ideas appreciated...
1 angel, 6 black phantom tetra, 6 blood finned tetra, 3 weather loaches.
Ph: 7.2
Ammonia: 0.5 ppm, can only get it to go to .25 ppm with a PWC
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
hardness: 150-180 (cant remember what scale, LFS measured it for me)
Ok, so I have had my tank set up since the middle of January. I have only seen ammonia levels and nitrates, never any nitrites. I'm starting to wonder if I'm getting a false positive reading of ammonia. I thought that ammonia started, then nitrites, THEN nitrates... from what I've been reading at least. I have never seen any appearance of a reading of nitrites in my tank... EVER!
I have been doing PWC's about every other day (about 10 gallons each time), and only one cleaning a week do I take all my decor out and vacuum the gravel (assumed that this would help the bacteria grow).
There is this white/greyish film that is starting to grow on my filter media, is this bacteria? or just build up from my water?
Any ideas of what the heck is going on?
Any and all ideas appreciated...