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Thanks for your support Littlefish. I will definitely keep you posted. Nice to have people to share problems with.

Hi everyone. I've been testing my tank water nearly every day, in the hope that the ammonia will have started to drop. But so far, it has stayed at 3 ppm. for almost 2 weeks now.
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
PH 7.3
KH 5dG........same as it comes out the tap
GH 10dG......same as it comes out the tap

I would have thought that I would have had a drop in ammonia by now, or am I being too impatient?

I changed the filter in my betta's tank a few months ago and fishless cycled it first. The ammonia reading started to drop on day 28. And it was day 48 before I had double zero's after adding a full dose of ammonia. You just need to wait a bit longer.

Do you have any bicarbonate of soda in the cupboard? If you do (or go out and buy some) remove a bit of tank water and add bicarb at the rate of 1 x 5ml spoonful for every 25 litres water, dissolve in the bit of water and pour into the tank. That will boost your KH and hopefully help the cycle along. It will also increase the pH a bit. The filter bacteria multiply faster in higher pH, and they need a source or inorganic carbon - the bicarb. At the end of the cycle you will do a big water change which will remove the bicarb before you get fish.

OK Sue, Thanks. I will get some Bi- carb and give it a go. Fingers crossed!

Hi paddy, I've got the temperature at 29/30 as I've read that the bacteria colonise quicker at higher temperature.

Unfortunately, paddy, I don't know anyone with a fish tank. I have heard good things about Tetra safestart, but I am undecided whether to use it or not.

When my tank arrived, it had sponges, polywool, carbon and ceramic hoops in it. I have removed the carbon and will be replacing it with more biological media. I could have just bought more ceramic hoops, but decided to go with Biohome Plus, which is made of sintered glass and has a large surface area. The product also comes with some bacteria encased in gel "balls".that go into the filter to help start the cycle.

 Whilst I remain sceptical, I will try it and see what happens. This should arrive on Monday. At least when the bacteria start to multiply, there will be more for them to cling onto.........that's the theory anyway!

Thanks for the support, Paddy, much appreciated.

I used Tetra Safestart at the beginning too, and also tend to put a blob of it on new filter sponge on the rare occasion that I ever change that, with the new filter sponge in alongside mature filter sponge.  I do think it helped / helps and I don't think it can do any harm.

Fishless cycling can take a while, I'm afraid. Mine took 7 weeks when I cycled a sponge filter for the betta's tank earlier this year. Your KH (you said 10 deg) is plenty high enough, though if that was done with a strip test it might be worth getting a shop to test a sample of your tap water (not tank).

I'm afraid the tank is too small for angelfish. The smallest recommended size is 100cm wide x 40cm  front to back x 50cm tall. And Bolivian rams need a tank with a footprint at least 90 x 45 cm. Even allowing for your tank being square rather then rectangular, there still isn't a big enough footprint. Figures from Seriously Fish.

However, your tank is plenty big enough for a pair of apistogrammas; they need 60 x 30 cm minimum and your tank has a much bigger footprint than that. With bottom dwelling fish, it's the area of the tank base that is important rather than the length or height. Ignore the fact that the CC says the tank is too small; most 55 cm long tanks are only 30cm front to back, which is too small. The CC is programmed with standard tank shapes not square ones.
The hardiest and easiest to find in shops are cockatoo cichlids (Apistogramma cacatuoides) and Agassiz's apistos (A. agassizii) Both come in several colour patterns, though the females are always yellow. Because they are cave spawners, you would need caves of some sort, though they aren't fussy what they are made of - plastic ornaments, hollows in wood, even upside down terracotta plant pots with a hole cut in the rim. Even with just one female you'd need more than one cave to make them happy.
And your GH is fine for these apistos, though some of the rarer species need softer water (very soft!)
Read up on how to tell males from females.


You can use a hose to refill provided you add the dechlorinator for the full volume of the tank right at the start and add a few kettles of boiling water as the hose is trickling water in. Not too much hot water, you don't want to overdo it. If you can contrapt something to hold the hose so that you can leave it, then pour the kettle water into the stream of cold water coming out of the hose, that would take the chill of the new water. The tank doesn't need to end up at 25^o as soon as the tank is filled, just warmer than cold water.

I have kept apistos with loaches. In my experience the aggression is more from the female if they have spawned. Yes, they will chase fish that get too near the breeding site but none of mine ever actually made contact. They just swam straight at the intruder until it swam away.
Cories don't understand about territory which means they will wander back. But that is no worse than loaches which do understand about territory but can't resist a free meal when they see one 

What was the water source you used to fill the tank Trish? And did you do anything to that water before it went into the tank?