Fish In Cycle

[This Old Spouse]

Why do you think 40 ppm is "very high" for nitrates? I wouldn't worry unless they were twice that.

 

[OldMan47]

I am reading that as 80ppm, not 40 ppm. Unless tap water has very high nitrates, that dose require a water change Spouse.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Since he had it placed next to the 40 ppm mark, that's what I thought the reading was. But at 80, yes, it would call for a water change.

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

It looks like you have very high nitrates but otherwise things are coming along just fine. The only thing I see wrong is the need for a water change for nitrates. It looks like you have the ammonia and nitrites under control.

Hi, OldMan47.

Here's a quick update.

I tested my tap water yesterday evening and it does have a Nitrate reading around 40ppm! I am now questioning the Nitrate reading of 0.15 ppm in my initial post, I think it may have been inaccurate. I could have misread the result due to not placing the test tube against the card next to the color bars (lesson learned).

Also I think the pH in the aquarium test looks a shade darker, what do you think? If it is then something is buffering. The zeolit or carbon (or both) maybe. The biological alfagrog media is an inert, man-made material that will not alter the water pH.

Test results for May, 09 2012.

Aquarium parameters:

Tapwater treated with Tetra Aquasafe:

I am a little concerned, but got to leave for now as lunch time is almost over.

Dean.

Edit:
Do you think I should change the Zeolit & Carbon for something like Seachem Purigen to take down the Nitrates? Only thing is it removes Ammonia too. Or Seachem Prime water conditioner, which i believe is better than the Tetra Aquasafe i'm currently using.

 

[OldMan47]

Zeolite will remove minerals and may or may not affect your pH. I don't think I would use any zeolite in a livebearer tank, livebearers in general like lots of minerals in their water. If I remember right you are keeping goodeids.

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

Zeolite will remove minerals and may or may not affect your pH. I don't think I would use any zeolite in a livebearer tank, livebearers in general like lots of minerals in their water. If I remember right you are keeping goodeids.

Hi, OldMan47. I have an half moon betta, would that be considered goodeids?

Reef-One states their chemical media zeolit & carbon helps reduce nitrate and phosphate, and leaves the biological bacteria to take care of the ammonia and nitrite, but
they don't specify anything else. In my experience it doesn't do a very good job and when it's exhausted i will not be replacing.

Ok out of desperation I acquired some Tetra Easy Balance from a friend who no longer has an aquarium. He says it should reduce the Nitrate. The description states it reduces nitrate, phosphate and stablizes pH and the date stamp is /14 so i figured i'd give it a shot. However after use I'm not sure if i've made the right choice while my tank is still most likely cycling. Anyways it's raised the pH and has reduced the nitrate, so it's seems to be a catch 22 situation.

Ultimately I need chemical media that helps reduce nitrate and phosphate, but dosn't alter the pH or take out minerals.

Test results for May/10/12 :
Temp 25.5c
pH 8.3?
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40 ppm ?

Todays Test resutls below:
Temp 25.5c
pH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30/40 ppm ? (it definitely has more of an orange look to it)

Cheers, Dean.

 

[TheJ0kerrr]

If your tap water has 40ppm nitrate, then the only thing I see to reduce them are plants...lots of them. Now you don't have a very large tank for that, but I'd still look into it and see what you can do.

Keep in mine, i'm a newbie...just something i'd make some research on if I were in your situation.

Your PH is what i'd start worrying about though... 8.4 is getting a little scary IMO.

 

[JDs4me]

this newbie is tempted to say (so I am) there's too much mucking about going on here...get rid of the zeolite, get rid of the carbon, don't add chemical goo that is shifting other parameters in the wrong direction and isn't needed anyway, and who knows you might actually be nearly cycled here??

And don't worry about the 40ppm nitrates as it seems the consensus is its not a huge problem until it gets to around 80...my water is 40ppm nitrates out of the tap at times and I figure a good old water change a couple of times a week will keep it in check.

I repeat, newbie speaking here - I adhere to the don't mess with something that don't need to be messed with!!

Chin up mate, you're nearly there methinks! The ammonia and nitrite look bang on!

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

Haha ok newbies

JDs4me the zeolite / carbon was added from the very start. It was included with the aquarium as part of the filtration system. Reef-One's advice is not to use during a fishless cycle, but seeing im doing a fish-in i figured it would be better to use it to help remove ammonia (although i don't think the zeolite is very effective tbh).

Dean.

 

[OldMan47]

In general, the advice from JDs is on target. The less messing about you do, the better able we will be to help you. Additives and chemical filtration are seldom very effective but they will throw the readings way off to confuse us. A water change is almost always a better choice than any chemical addition at all.

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

In general, the advice from JDs is on target. The less messing about you do, the better able we will be to help you. Additives and chemical filtration are seldom very effective but they will throw the readings way off to confuse us. A water change is almost always a better choice than any chemical addition at all.

OldMan47, I was on a mission to reduce the nitrate level below 40 ppm after you stated it looked 80 ppm.

Looking at the nitrate chart I think 10 - 20 ppm (orange) and the 40 - 80 ppm (red) look very similar, which sometimes makes the end result difficult to decipher. I guess the safe thing to do in this case would be to split the difference or take the higher reading.

Edit: I forgot to add, there's been no water change's for 3 days!

Todays water parameters:
Temp 25.5c
pH 7.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40 ppm

Cheers,
Dean.

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

Todays results:

Dean.

 

[OldMan47]

You are right about the test results being difficult to interpret. I am reading your very latest test as around 40 ppm to 80 ppm but I may be a bit off since color rendition in a picture is never quite as good as what you can see in person. The ammonia also is seeing something more than a zero, I think it looks a lot like 0.25 ppm. The nitrites look like a solid zero and the high range pH reading of 7.4 is what I am seeing. Do you have any normal range pH tests? I know they go up to a 7.4 reading so I would expect a match there.

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

You are right about the test results being difficult to interpret. I am reading your very latest test as around 40 ppm to 80 ppm but I may be a bit off since color rendition in a picture is never quite as good as what you can see in person. The ammonia also is seeing something more than a zero, I think it looks a lot like 0.25 ppm. The nitrites look like a solid zero and the high range pH reading of 7.4 is what I am seeing. Do you have any normal range pH tests? I know they go up to a 7.4 reading so I would expect a match there.

Oldman47,

I was starting to question if there were traces of ammonia on the latest results so I changed 20l of water this evening. Anyhow the traces of ammonia would suggest that my tank is not yet fully cycled, correct?

Todays results before pwc.

Normal ph test (after pwc)

Dean.

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

I took a picture without the flash enabled, and the colors are a lot closer to what i'm actually seeing, not exact, but closer.

Test results for 5/15/12:

Temp 25.5c
pH 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitite 0
Nitrate 30-35 ppm ? (not quite 40ppm)

With flash:

Dean.