High Nitrates day 10 - water change??

I'm on Day 10 of cycle. I used fish food & Tetra SafeStart to get started. I do have plants & a hitchhiker MTS snail. The rocks are Aquarium rocks & inert.

On day 7 test results were:

Ammonia 2.5ppm
Nitrite 0.20ppm

Today, day 10, they are:

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 2.0ppm (or more very hard to judge)
Nitrate 40ppm (my tap water is 20ppm though)

I think I need to add more ammonia (fish food - I couldn't source ammonia) but with my high Nitrates do I need to do a water change first??

Cycle advise from here:
If at any time after the first ammonia addition (Dose #1) you test and ammonia is under .75 ppm and nitrite is clearly over 2 ppm, it is time to add more ammonia (Dose #2). Add the same full amount as you did the first time. Now, begin to test the ammonia and nitrite levels every other day. (You should be seeing nitrate soon if you have the kit.)

Plants:
Java Fern
Lagenandra meeboldii red
Echinodorus'Reni'
Hygrophila corymbosa
Cryptocoryne Beckettii'Petchii'
Limnophila sessiliflora
Christmas moss x2
Java Moss
Spiky moss (dying)
Riccia fluitans (dying)

Don't bother testing for nitrates until after the tank has cycled because nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

Wait until the ammonia and nitrite have both gone up and come back down to 0ppm, then start testing nitrate.

Colin_T said:

Don't bother testing for nitrates until after the tank has cycled because nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

Wait until the ammonia and nitrite have both gone up and come back down to 0ppm, then start testing nitrate.

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With Ammonia at 0.25 & nitrite around 2ppm should I add more ammonia? I wasn't sure if the advise statement was both ammonia below AND nitrate clearly above 2 or if it was either situation.

It's an 'and' statement. Ammonia must be below 0.75 (which yours is) and nitrite "clearly over 2.0" it's hard to tell from the photo whether your nitrite is at 2.0 or over 2.0.

essjay said:

It's an 'and' statement. Ammonia must be below 0.75 (which yours is) and nitrite "clearly over 2.0" it's hard to tell from the photo whether your nitrite is at 2.0 or over 2.0.

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Yes it's very tight call with the 2.0 but I could test again tomorrow and see how it's doing. Or just add some food now. Man I really wish I had the ammonia liquid. Be a lot easier.

Don’t worry about nitrate at this point at all, in fact the API tests for nitrate is actually the least accurate test, especially for 10-20ppm as it happens!!

Photos of test results are hard to read at the best of times but does give a rough idea.

I find that the flash on the camera or phone makes It hard to see exactly what colour the test results are as it’s different to the surrounding light.

What I normally do for reading results is use the under unit lights in the kitchen or even the hob cooker extractor fan light and use a plain sheet of a4 paper behind the test tubes on a rack and this gives a constant basis for lighting for reading test results rather than relying on daylight as this can constantly change due to weather and time of day and this can make it hard to make a determination as to what colour the results are.

But anyway, I digress, it does look like nitrite is near or at about 2ppm, you be the judge of this as as I mentioned before it hard for us to tell exactly what readings are from a photo, and then follow the article which states -

“Continue testing every 3 days (Days 10, 13etc).

If at any time after the first ammonia addition (Dose #1) you test and ammonia isunder .75 ppm and nitrite is clearly over2 ppm, it is time to add more ammonia (Dose #2).”

Now due to the fact that you use fish food to produce ammonia, I would perhaps dose this now as it takes a little time for the food to break down and by the time it’s broken down into ammonia the nitrite reading should then be at 2ppm or above.

In theory anyway.

I’ve never had to use food for ammonia so am unsure exactly how long or how much food will produce into ammonia.

Am lucky I guess, as access to ammonia in UK is pretty easily accessible so I understand your situation for using food as a ammonia source, should be fine though as long as you dose near enough exactly what you need for the cycle process.

Thanks. Yes normally I use the torch on my phone or go outside in good natural light. I think you're right - food now as it'll be tomorrow before it's breaking down. It's gonna be tricky now to get additional doses right. But there's growth in my plants and some bacteria action going on.

AilyNC said:

It's gonna be tricky now to get additional doses right.

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Just try and do your best, that all we can ask of you to do, think you’ve done pretty good so far

Ah you're ceri supportive we'll see how the ammonia tests tomorrow. I bet my snail us quite happy with the food