Ammonia postive, Nitrite negative, Nitrate positive

[SinghDanio]

Hi Guys.

This is my first post, so "hi there" to you all!
I have a question about aquarium cycling.

TL : DR
New tank. Conditioned water. Added bacteria. Pet store said I could add fish 3 days later. Now 3 weeks later and want to interpret water parameters. Outlined at the bottom of post.


Let me give you a bit context:
So we decided to get ourselves an aquarium over lockdown 3.0 (we're in the UK) in order to peel the kids away from the TV and stimulate them in a more educational/sciencey kind of way. We went for the 105l Tetra Starter Line kit. It has a few decorative ornaments in there, along with some plastic plants (will go with live when I have a bit more experience). As I haven't kept fish since I was a kid (around 25 years ago now), I asked a rep at the big chain pet store about how to get everything started. Thinking that they would know their stuff, I went along with their advice:

• Condition the water with the Tetra Aquasafe that came in the box.
• Buy some Fluval Biological Enhancer and add for the next few days.
• Wait around 2-3 days before adding fish.

So after doing the above, we headed back to the store 3 days later and purchased 4 zebra danios - as this was the "offer" and we were told that more would overload the tank at this point. It was at this time that I started doing more research (I'd caught the aquarium bug) and found out more about biological filters and fishless cycling. To be honest I was now worried, as I'd read horror stories about ammonia spikes and fish dying. The fish were there now, though so I though the best thing to do was to start monitoring the chemistry. I bought the API master kit. After testing, there were no signs of any of the 3 nitrogen-cycle parameters.

The next problem that arose within the following days, was that the zebras had started nipping and chasing each other quite a lot - to the point that it seemed beyond playfulness. So I did a bit more research and found that zebras thrive best in groups of 6+. I gave it a week and half before we bought 4 more. Now that there were 8, they seemed a lot calmer. Testing throughout this period, I found that ammonia levels were reaching 0.25ppm, but nitrite and nitrate were 0. Somewhere during this period, I dumped in a 50ml bottle of Tetra Safestart. I was also doing 20% water changes every other day.

So today (3 weeks after fish being in tank), I did the another round of testing and found the following (pictures also attached):

• Ammonia between 0.25 and 0.50 ppm.
• Nitrite 0 ppm.
• Nitrate between 5.0 and 10 ppm.

Is this normal? There's ammonia and nitrate, but no nitrite. What should I do on a daily/weekly basis from now on?
I feel like I should do bigger water changes, but I don't want to upset the bacterial balance. Also, the Tetra filter has been running for 3 weeks and it recommends to change every 4 weeks. Do I do it? Or do I risk upsetting the bacterial balance again?

Thanks in advance for any advice. Sorry about the length of the post! Just wanted to be thorough.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

I used bacteria in a bottle and also did not ever see nitrite - just ammonia, then nitrates. So that might explain 0 nitrites.

The ammonia I'd be concerned about. If you have something like Seachem Prime I would dose that. And do a larger (maybe 30 - 50%) water change to get the ammonia level down.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to the forum.
Good advice above, test your water daily, if you read ANY ammonia, do a WC....and definitely get some Prime, best stuff out there, IMO...you will be doing a fish-in cycle, read up on it as much as you can

Seachem - Prime

www.seachem.com

 

[madmark285]

I used bacteria in a bottle and also did not ever see nitrite - just ammonia, then nitrates. So that might explain 0 nitrites.

If you added a colony of nitrite eating bacteria from the bottle, you should not see a spike in nitrites. Those little guys are hungry and are consuming the nitrites as fast as they are being produced.

Of course that's speculation on my part. I spiked my tank with ammonia twice (4 ppm) and added bacteria, I never saw nitrites above .25ppm.

 

[Slaphppy7]

If you added a colony of nitrite eating bacteria from the bottle, you should not see a spike in nitrites. Those little guys are hungry and are consuming the nitrites as fast as they are being produced.

Of course that's speculation on my part. I spiked my tank with ammonia twice (4 ppm) and added bacteria, I never saw nitrites above .25ppm.

Just depends on the amount of ammonia in the water, and the quality of the bacteria added...some lose effectiveness after sitting on a shelf over time...I always do fishless cycles, and don't add bottled bacteria, the bacteria we need occur naturally in our environment...IMO, no need to spend $ on it....AND, if you can steal some media from a filter that is already established/cycled, even better...

 

[Essjay]

Have you tested your tap water for nitrate? You may well find that the nitrate in the tank is the same as your tap water.

Tetra Safe Start is one of the better bacteria products but it won't work if it ever got too hot or too cold at any point between the factory and the shop.



The filter - according to the manual, the filter is the EasyCrystal FilterBox 600. The manual for that says it has a biogrid and a cartridge. The biogrid is not changed, and that's supposed to be home for bacteria. The cartridge contains carbon, which you don't need full time. You can do one of two things. Either keep the cartridges in there and just wash them in old tank water taken out during a water change. Or modify the cartridge. Cut the bag part open and empty out the carbon and replace the carbon with sponge, any make cut down to make it fit. Then just wash it. There will be some bacteria on the carbon, but there will also be a lot on the biogrid and the fabric part of the cartridge.

 

[rdd1952]

As Essjay said, test your tap water. Your readings are probably coming from there.

Aquasafe is only a dechlorinator and won't do anything to help cycle your tank and establish the bacteria colony you need to process fish waste. That can only be established in 2 ways: 1) with fish and water changes to keep the levels down or 2) without fish and introduction of a bacteria source such as bottled ammonia or fish food.

I'm not familiar with the Fluval product but I've never had much faith on the "bacteria in a bottle" products. In order for the bacteria to survive, they have to have a food source. Unless the bottle has ammonia or some type of food source inside, they have nothing to live off of and even if there is a source, unless that food is moving around and passing by them, like the water through a filter, they still can't process it.

Nitrifying bacteria aren't present in the water column so even if the bottles do contain bacteria, it's going to be attached to the inside of the bottle and if the bottle is simply sitting on the shelf with no movement, the ammonia isn't going to pass it to allow the bacteria to allow it to be processed. And even if it does, as soon as that ammonia or nitrite has been processed, the food supply is gone and the bacteria colony will begin to die off again from lack of food.

Get some good filter media (I've always used the Seachem Matrix) to insert into your cartridges. When you do water changes and have to change the filter bag (they will eventually become so worn they can't be used again), take out the media and put it in the new pack. Otherwise, when you throw away a cartridge, you throw away the vast majority of your bacteria colony and are in the cycling process again.

 

[madmark285]

we need occur naturally in our environment...IMO, no need to spend $ on it....AND, if you can steal some media from a filter that is already established/cycled, even better...

I tried to buy some used media from my LFS, no go. I have been working on my setup since October, I really didn't want to wait another couple months to cycle the tank naturally. The $16 for ammonia and bacteria was a trivally part of the overall cost. It took 8 days to cycle the tank and fish have been in the tank for 1 week.

Just to be safe, I stocked it too quickly, I am doing 25% water changes daily.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Makes perfect sense...that's one of the many reasons you need more than one tank, that way, you can borrow seeded media from your own self!

 

[eatyourpeas]

Makes perfect sense...that's one of the many reasons you need more than one tank, that way, you can borrow seeded media from your own self!

Me thinks you are a proponent of MTS... ?

 

[Slaphppy7]

ASTUTE observation, my friend....