0.25ppm ammonia, 0 Nitrites, 5ppm Nitrates

[Andiford]

Hi guys I'm looking for some advice.
I used ATM freshwater Colony to our 30 gallon tank 12 days ago. A few hours after dosing I added 6 platies.

Fish are all looking healthy and active and happy. I'm doing daily water checks and I'm finally seeing Nitrates appear after one day of very minimal nitrites.

Water parameters today are
Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5ppm
Temp 24C
PH 7.8

I'm curious about the nitrites. Does the zero value mean that they are being converted to nitrates as they should?

Will my ammonia levels reduce to zero with daily water changes?
I'm feeding the fish minimally just now but platies do poop ? like crazy!

Thanks for any advice offered.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

The zero value might just mean that they haven't showed up in the tank at all yet. You might still be in the ammonia stage and nitrites will appear next. Or you might have one of those cycles where you don't ever see nitrites show up. I had this happen in my tank. I did a fishless cycle with ammonia and eventually added Tetra Safe Start. Within a few days 3 - 4 ppm of ammonia would convert to 0 in 24 hours and nitrates were about 10 or so. I never saw nitrites show up.

But, yes - definitely stick with your daily water changes if you are seeing any ammonia at all.

 

[Andiford]

Thanks for your advice. Nitrites finally appeared last night.
Ammonia 1ppm
Nitrites 0.25
Nitrates about 7ppm

I did a 10% water change and I'll check this morning. Could it be that the cycle is just slow because of the size of the tank and only 6 platies just now?

Thanks again ??

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Thanks for your advice. Nitrites finally appeared last night.
Ammonia 1ppm
Nitrites 0.25
Nitrates about 7ppm

I did a 10% water change and I'll check this morning. Could it be that the cycle is just slow because of the size of the tank and only 6 platies just now?

Thanks again ??

Since you have fish in the tank, you need to be doing daily water changes of more than 10%. If you just measured 1 ppm ammonia do a big water change immediately. Even .25 ppm is very bad for your fish. If you have something like Seachem Prime you can add that to bind to the ammonia and make it less toxic for the fish until the cycle completes. But definitely do a bigger water change as soon as you can. I'd do about 50% maybe a tad more.