First week water results

[Characf]

The guppies have decimated my vallisneria, bitten two long strands in half? Is this normal behaviour or are they hungry? I've only been giving tiny pinches every morning for obvious reasons. Annoying

 

[Characf]

Update on fish tests.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
PH - 8
Nitrate - 20

When I tested Tuesday evening after my 75% water change my Nitrates were down to 0? No ammonia spike? What's causing my Nitrates to rise? Surely if its cycled correctly the plants would eat ammonia before coverted to Nitrate and the fact im 0 or nitrite and ammonia do you think something is causing this to rise?

 

[Characf]

Update on fish tests.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
PH - 8
Nitrate - 20

When I tested Tuesday evening after my 75% water change my Nitrates were down to 0? No ammonia spike? What's causing my Nitrates to rise? Surely if its cycled correctly the plants would eat ammonia before coverted to Nitrate and the fact im 0 or nitrite and ammonia do you think something is causing this to rise?

Unless of course the plants are converting the ammonia and nitrite into Nitrate? I thought they'd just eat the ammonia before it's converted

 

[Essjay]

The nitrate test is not that accurate. My son, who used to work as an analyst for a water testing company, was highly amused by our testers.

Plants do take up ammonia and turn it into protein rather than nitrite and on to nitrate. But if the plants can't manage all the ammonia, bacteria will turn the left over into nitrite and on to nitrate.
I know you have high nitrate in your tap water, how is the prefiltering coping with that? Do you test the filtered water before it goes in the tank?

 

[Characf]

The nitrate test is not that accurate. My son, who used to work as an analyst for a water testing company, was highly amused by our testers.

Plants do take up ammonia and turn it into protein rather than nitrite and on to nitrate. But if the plants can't manage all the ammonia, bacteria will turn the left over into nitrite and on to nitrate.
I know you have high nitrate in your tap water, how is the prefiltering coping with that? Do you test the filtered water before it goes in the tank?

Yeah I was testing the filtered water every 10 buckets and it was 0

 

[Essjay]

If nitrate is increasing when the source water (from the nitrate filter) is zero, something is making it. It's either from ammonia made by the fish, or it's being added with some additive.
The plants may not be removing all the ammonia so the bacteria are converting the left over through nitrite to nitrate, though you don't have enough fish yet to get nitrate that high in a few days.
Remind me - are you using a plant fertiliser which contains nitrate?

 

[Characf]

If nitrate is increasing when the source water (from the nitrate filter) is zero, something is making it. It's either from ammonia made by the fish, or it's being added with some additive.
The plants may not be removing all the ammonia so the bacteria are converting the left over through nitrite to nitrate, though you don't have enough fish yet to get nitrate that high in a few days.
Remind me - are you using a plant fertiliser which contains nitrate?

Nope don't use fertiliser anymore, no chemicals added.

 

[Essjay]

In that case I suspect it's the tester as nitrate testers are known to be not very accurate. As long as you have zero ammonia and zero niitrie, and nitrate stays below 20 ppm I wouldn't worry.


But keep on testing the filtered water so you know when the nitrazorb is exhausted and needs recharging.

 

[Characf]

Streamable Video

Watch this video on Streamable.

streamable.com

Video here, you maybe able to pick up on strange behaviours