Water Quality Successes and Problems

October 11— What have you learned about water quality in your ecosystem?  Tell me about your problems and successes with water quality.

I have learned the testing the water quality in an aquarium's ecosystem is very important to create balance. A balanced ecosystem is critical to the health and the survival of my fish and it's a very important cycle that needs to be tracked to ensure the best results possible. Cycling can actually take 4 to 6 weeks to complete though. My problems and success with water quality, I have more problems than successes probably. I constantly have high nitrate levels, and the ammonia fluctuates here and there. I never have any problem with temperature though. My fish are very healthy and plump and active but I believe the dead plant material in the bottom and stuff creates a higher nitrate level than desired. I need to syphon out the bottom, prune my plants back and make sure that there is no decay in there and see if that fixes my problem. Or if I wanted to, just continually add bacterial supplement every week to keep a healthy cycle going, which seems to be working pretty fine. Also the filter cartridge should possibly be changed, it is very filthy!