Well my well water isn't all that great. Its high in sulfur and it has a tendency to turn things orange after awhile. That is why we have the reverse osmosis. When I saw spring water I guess I thought it was water straight from a spring. I should have known better. I have city tap water in a jug now and I have some conditioner to put in it. I will do a 25% water change this morning.

Will I have to add more fish to get the tank to cycle or is the one good enough?

Yeah, I should have gone back to the top of the thread to refresh myself on your stuff. If it were me I would try doing 50/50 RO/tap water and see how that worked. I would also set your tap water up in buckets or in a new plastic garbage can (depending on how much water you need) and letting the water gas out for a day before adding to your tank. I would do it that way and see how it worked out and adjust as needed. Just what I would do.

Also, make sure that whatever water conditioner you're using states that it detoxifies heavy metals. Just not sure if all do that.

Thanks Jrman83. I will give that a try and check to make sure that the conditioner will take care of the heavy metals. Thanks

Oh will I need more fish for the cycle?

Ok I did a 30% water change on Thursday. I checked today and I now have some variations.

pH: 7.4-7.5
NH3: 1.0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

How high should I let the NH3 get before I should do a WC?

If it stays at 1 or below it should be fine. If it gets much higher I'd do a water change. Same for nitrites if you ever see any show up.

Thanks again jrman83. I appreciate all your help.

I think I will get 2 more fish to keep things going. Good idea? I read some where that you should have 3 or 4 fish while cycling.

A few more would be good. You only have 1 in there, right?

Yep just the one guppy. Thought of another question. Should I be adding air to the tank? Right now it only gets what the filter return water gives it.

Things are happening. I just ran todays numbers:

pH: 7.4-7.5
NH3: 1.0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 1 or 2 (It wasn't 0 which was yellow. It had a slight orange color to it.)

Not a requirement. Filter will provide plenty of air. Largely personal preference. It does help add air to the tank, but your filter provides more than it will.

I know what you mean by not quite yellow. Good.

Air bubbles look nice, and many people feel that they improve on water quality. I've succeeded with and without air kits, so I wouldn't say they're mandatory, but they sure don't hurt unless you have far too much of course. The waterfall of the filter return will keep the water adequately oxygenated so long as the water remains at a reasonable temperature. The colder water is, the more oxygen it can hold, and the warmer the water is, the less oxygen it can hold.

However when aquarists grow plants, they will often use all submerged pumps and no air bubblers to reduce water disturbances at the surface. They employ these methods to keep more CO2 in the water, as surface disturbances increase the rate that which these gases dissipate into the atmosphere.

Great thanks for the info guys. I will keep you updated and thanks again.

Hi guys. I know its been a while but I wanted to again say thank you for all your time and help. I now have a tank full of very happy fish. Not to mention Both kids now have tanks in their room, which makes a total of three tanks. (A 10 gal, 2.5 gal, and a 1 Gal.) I have finally convinced my wife we should go Bigger. lol She wants a saltwater tank, but I think it may be a bit more expensive and time consuming then I am willing to do right now. I'm kinda leaning towards African Cichlids. Maybe in a 55 gal tank. Her is a pic of our tank. Thanks again.

nice looking tank there, You've come a long way in a little under a year huh. see a little patients goes a long way. nice of you to post pic and update so the people that helped ya know you did good

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90 gallon, 1 Iridescent shark, 2 Pleco, 3 Goldfish, 5 Cory cats, 2 Nerite snails
5 gallon hex, Blue Crowntail Betta, 1 nerite snail,

Thanks hanky. Yeah a little patience sure goes a long way. The least I could do is post a pic. It wouldn't look anything like it does if it wasn't for their help. I have a learned a lot from this forum and I am very glad that I found it.