90ltrs external filter planted tank

pair dwarf gourami
18 neon tetra
3 peppered cory

????

Can you give us the latest water readings? I'd probably say you were overstocked but then I like to understock all my tanks. Makes it more pleasant for the fish and for me either way you shouldn't have 3 corys. Either 6 (which you don't have room for) or none. They are very social fish and need to be in a shoal.

Ph 7.2
Amonia as clos eto zero as i can get slight colour tinge to the test
Nitrate reading as zero closer to zero than the next reading
Nitrite also reading as zero as previous.

as for the cory's i rescued the tank from the skip and the fish from the toilet they seem happy enough playing in the filter outlet and chasing eachother around the tank was thinking of puting a mirror in the corner where they spend most of there time at rest to make them feel more secure.

Your nitrate is zero? The corys really would be better off in a shoal.

I know i dont have the room for more and the LFS wont take them as they are about 3 years old i have been trying to rehome them but i have had no joy as yet

the reading on the test shows the reading close to zero the colour is not dark enough bold enough to be read as anything higher.

How old is your test kit?

3-4 weeks i was using test strips for ages. i did have a red algae outbrake the tail end of last week so lots of cleaning and a 25% water change would this account for the low reading?

What are your tap water readings for nitrate? And what test kit are you using?

Very unusual to have 0 Nitrate, especially in a tank as densely stocked as yours.

I'm with Fishy on this one, may be best to move the cories on if you can't up the shoal size, you never truly know how a cory should act until you see them in larger numbers. Have you tried posting on here to see if anyone locally can take them?

Don't put a mirror in the tank with gourami, you'll only incense the male, he'll treat the reflection as a rival.

i'll give the mirror a miss then. i cant remember what my tap water readings are i'll get some tests done asap (stand for 24hrs) and i'll test again tonight to see if it is close to zero or if it was a bumb test,

i'll stick an add on here as soon as i can,

or if i reduce the number of tetra to say 12 could i increase the shoal to 6?

API Nitrate shake bottle#2 for 30 seconds otherwise you get a false or zero reading.