Hello. Newbie here - it is our first time with tropical fish.
We have a 100l tank and it's been running for a week. We used a dechlorinator and in the tank we have 5 live tropica easy plants, 2 large rocks, 1 small rock, 1 piece of bogwood, and small sized gravel. The rock looks like it is 2 different types (one cream/ light brown in tone and the other grey). We soaked the bog wood for a week and the water was clear before it went in the tank, the rock and gravel were rinsed well.
We visited several aquatic shops in preparation for getting the tank and nobody warned us that having unusual levels would be a risk with a new tank. They each said, set it up, wait a few days and add fish.
We went to buy our first fish today and were disappointed to fail our water test. Our Nitrites were too high for one thing. We bought a liquid test kit and have so far tested our tap water and the tank water again. We have since done a large (75% ish) water change and retested a few hours after that to get another baseline for moving forward.
The shop said it could be something in the gravel even though we thoroughly rinsed it. We're really confused and wanted to ask for any advice on what we do next. We are prepared to put the effort in to get this right but feel a bit lost as to our next steps...
Here are the results:
Home test before water change - PH 8.0, Ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 1.0, Nitrate 7.5
Tap water, nothing added - PH 7.0, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 7.5
Tank water 2 hours after large water change - PH 7.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 7.5
We have also noticed that the paler rock seems to have some black spots and we cant say whether they have always been there.
We have a 100l tank and it's been running for a week. We used a dechlorinator and in the tank we have 5 live tropica easy plants, 2 large rocks, 1 small rock, 1 piece of bogwood, and small sized gravel. The rock looks like it is 2 different types (one cream/ light brown in tone and the other grey). We soaked the bog wood for a week and the water was clear before it went in the tank, the rock and gravel were rinsed well.
We visited several aquatic shops in preparation for getting the tank and nobody warned us that having unusual levels would be a risk with a new tank. They each said, set it up, wait a few days and add fish.
We went to buy our first fish today and were disappointed to fail our water test. Our Nitrites were too high for one thing. We bought a liquid test kit and have so far tested our tap water and the tank water again. We have since done a large (75% ish) water change and retested a few hours after that to get another baseline for moving forward.
The shop said it could be something in the gravel even though we thoroughly rinsed it. We're really confused and wanted to ask for any advice on what we do next. We are prepared to put the effort in to get this right but feel a bit lost as to our next steps...
Here are the results:
Home test before water change - PH 8.0, Ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 1.0, Nitrate 7.5
Tap water, nothing added - PH 7.0, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 7.5
Tank water 2 hours after large water change - PH 7.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 7.5
We have also noticed that the paler rock seems to have some black spots and we cant say whether they have always been there.