Originally Posted by Gunnie

When you say achieved result, I assume you are saying that your ammonia was 0, your nitrite was 0 and you had nitrates.* If my assumption is correct, you then would have done a massive water change to get rid of high nitrates, and added fish immediately.* If you did not add fish for awhile (within 24 hours), it's possible your bacteria started to die off because it didn't have a food source, and then later, you added fish, and the bacteria had to play catch up.* Am I describing what happened?

Once you get your ammonia level back to zero, you should watch your nitrates, and when they get at 20 or above, do a water change.* Continue to monitor your nitrates until they get at 20 again, and that will tell you how often to change your water.* I do a 50% water change weekly whether they need it or not.* Water changes will also depend on what kind of fish you have, and the stocking level of your tank.* *
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yeah thats pretty much it i did a 50%water change the day before the fish arrived just to have things ready for the fish and then took the readings of 0.25ppm nh3 have done another big water change since then and things are back to normal i think somebody else was feeding them aswell as my self my girlfriend has confessed to feeding them because she likes to see them darting about after food , the tank has since become a girl free zone and hopefully that will rectify things thanks for your advice]