Ammonia & Nitrite Spike
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If you are doing 15% x 2 that only equals 30% changed daily. 25% daily hasn't made a dent in your levels, so i'm thinking that won't really help. I'm thinking you should stick with your 25% twice a day for the time being. That would be 50% of the water changed daily and you might be able to get those levels to come down.
ajhainey
Fish Fanatic
have you tested your 'RO' water? With one fish those levels seem very high to me..maybe you are being had? Or maybe one of your test kits is broken??
Anyway second what luxum said; even if the RO water is proper RO you shouldn't use it on its own as it sucks at buffering. Whats up with your tap water?
When I read around when setting up my tank it seemed concensus was something like:
Ammonia <0.5ppm ok <1ppm tolerable >2ppm Help! Change water! >3ppm Lethal! Change water lots and lots!
Nitrite <1ppm ok <2ppm tolerable >2ppm Help!
Nitrate <25ppm of <50ppm tolerable >70ppm Help!
Although lower is better for all!
IMO You need to concentrate on getting nitrite and ammonia under 2ppm if you want the fish to avoid poisioning and that means lots of water changes, and worry about the cycle later. In my nitrite spike I had to do up to 3 20% changes a day (~50% overall) for 3 days in the middle.
I would recommend
1) Check the parameters of the water you are putting into the tank
2) Start buffering the Ro by diluting it with some other harder water source
3) 3 20% water changes a day till ammonia/nitrite under 2ppm
4) Then 2 20% water changes a dayuntil its under 1ppm
Good Luck!
aj xx
Anyway second what luxum said; even if the RO water is proper RO you shouldn't use it on its own as it sucks at buffering. Whats up with your tap water?
When I read around when setting up my tank it seemed concensus was something like:
Ammonia <0.5ppm ok <1ppm tolerable >2ppm Help! Change water! >3ppm Lethal! Change water lots and lots!
Nitrite <1ppm ok <2ppm tolerable >2ppm Help!
Nitrate <25ppm of <50ppm tolerable >70ppm Help!
Although lower is better for all!
IMO You need to concentrate on getting nitrite and ammonia under 2ppm if you want the fish to avoid poisioning and that means lots of water changes, and worry about the cycle later. In my nitrite spike I had to do up to 3 20% changes a day (~50% overall) for 3 days in the middle.
I would recommend
1) Check the parameters of the water you are putting into the tank
2) Start buffering the Ro by diluting it with some other harder water source
3) 3 20% water changes a day till ammonia/nitrite under 2ppm
4) Then 2 20% water changes a dayuntil its under 1ppm
Good Luck!
aj xx
If your levels are that high your bacteria is getting too much food and I've read that it can inhibit growth of good bacteria. I'd start changing a bit more then 25% a day since your levels aren't dropping. I would do 50% or greater water changes a day w/ vacuuming of any food, feed my fish a lot less, clean the filter pads really good. Don't know what else to do. Check levels on water source I guess...
This is what I've been doing. All of my water is safe. Also, I managed to lower my Ammonia levels to .25 (safe). Phew. However, my Nitrite levels are still off chart, and nitrate levels are about 40ppm.ger87410 said:
OK two questions:
First, what is RO water??
and second, when I change my water, am I suppose to vacuum the gravel? I've been doing a little section of it each day so I dont' kill the bacteria, but honestly, how am I going to cycle my tank if I never give the water a chance to grow bacteria?
First, what is RO water??
and second, when I change my water, am I suppose to vacuum the gravel? I've been doing a little section of it each day so I dont' kill the bacteria, but honestly, how am I going to cycle my tank if I never give the water a chance to grow bacteria?
ajhainey
Fish Fanatic
Ro is reverse osmosis water..didn't you say earlier you were using that instead of normal tap water???
As for vac-cing - I didn't I just fed very carefully (1 flake at a time) so nothing got dropped in the first place....don't know what the offcial line is...
How is the tank looking now? water params ok again etc?
aj xx
As for vac-cing - I didn't I just fed very carefully (1 flake at a time) so nothing got dropped in the first place....don't know what the offcial line is...
How is the tank looking now? water params ok again etc?
aj xx
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