I'm confused.....

[enchanted]

I thought when a tank completes cycling you have 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and some Nitrates.

I have:
Ammonia 0 (been through that spike )
Nitrite 0 (that spike appears to have ended today. )
Nitrates 0 ??

I know plants use Nitrate, but that much?

 

[Tempestuousfury]

No, they don't use it all up unless you have almost no fish and plants crowding the tank.

Probably an error somewhere in taking or viewing results.

 

[enchanted]

I tested five times.

Same results every time. Guess I need to go to the LFS tomorrow and have them test.

I have:
4x Tropic Sunset Hygro
1x Giant Hygro
6x Primrose
1x Anubias Nana
Various Micro Sword (split)
2x Dwarf Sag
2x Java Fern
1x Crypt (not sure which crypt)

Fish I have
3x Guppies
1x Pleco
8x Cories

55 Gallon Tank
1x Pengiun 330 w/ Biowheels
1x Aquatech 20/40 w/ bacterial addon filter.....

 

[enchanted]

Let me explain better.

I tested this morning.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite .5
Nitrate 1.5 or so (very low in between 0 and 5.0)

I did my water change and tested about half an hour later.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite .25
Nitrate there, but so little it barely registered, maybe .5

This is about 8 hours later.

All 0

 

[enchanted]

Okay. My Primrose has been showing signs of this nitrogen deficiency possibly for the last few days.

http/www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

Based of that site and what it says are the symptons.

Is it a possibility that the plants are using all the Nitrate in the water? If so, how do I combat this? The only thing I can think of is to add more fish. I don't mind doing that if the tank is truly cycled. Especially now that I have removed my "disease" which turned out to be other fish.

I just retested again (about 1 1/2 hours later)

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
PH = 7.8

(I was off earlier, used the low instead of high test on the PH).

 

[skimpy]

Hi ddreams,

I'm sure you know this but just checking anyway

NitrAtes can sometimes be difficult to test accurately, I do not know which make of test kit you have but for example with the API test kit you must shake bottle number 2 for 30 seconds before adding drops and then shake the test tube for 60 seconds. When I first tried testing I did not get the shaking right and my results were 0. Once I got the shaking right the results changed completely.

Are you shaking properly (sorry could not resist).

edit: p.s. how often are you doing water changes cos that is the other thing that drastically reduces nitrAtes.

 

[karrihug]

by looking at your list of plants and fish, i would say your plants are using all the nitrate. i noticed your nitrite is not at 0. has it gone through its spike? if so you are very close to cycled. i am assuming you cycled with fish in which case you do need to add more fish to ultimatly produce more nitrate, but do so slowly so as not to overload your bio filter. in a 55 you should be good with 2 or 3 a week, just keep up your water testing so any small spikes can be dealt with.

alternatively, i think there are fertilizers that are fish safe that will raise nitrates, but that is something you might want to ask about in the plant forum.

hth
karri

 

[enchanted]

Basically yesterday it's like the cycle suddenly ended.

Nitrites plummeted to 0. The Nitrates were a small amount (barely registering) but they also plummeted to 0.

Nitrates also require you to turn the bottle upside down a few times after adding solution 1. See, I read directions. I've tested before with positive results.

This mornings tests are:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
PH = 7.8

 

[janedee]

Am I being thick here ? (nothing unusual lol) but I thought that the ideal scenario was nil nil nil, and that with the right plants feeding off the nitrate that is what you want.

Having said that when I cycled (with fish) I had to wait for 5 days before my nitrates started appearing after the nitrite had gone to zero - I figured there was something up with my testing kit - but it was fine - just took a few days to appear.

Jane

 

[skimpy]

Actually Janedee you have a point. ddreams if you think about it she may be right. NitrAtes are the waste product of the Nitrobacter bacteria, the bacteria that removes the NitrIte. So perhaps it takes a little while to go through their system, and add that to the fact that the plants may remove the first signs of the NitrAte aswell.

I think that as your Ammonia and NitrIte are at last at zero, relax for a day and concentrate on celebrating that fact. Give it a day or so and then test again. ddreams if you are like me you can get paranoid about testing and that is not too good. Regular testing is good, but say testing 2/3 times per day is not so good, may be fine for the fish, but can make humans paranoid.

I know that when I started to calm down the testing a little I felt less stressed and it all worked a lot better for me (and especially my family). If fish are doing OK and toxins are down go have a drink and celebrate

 

[enchanted]

Only one problem. I have plants that appear to be possibly suffering from Nitrogen deficiency.

I figured I would add three more guppys, since all the readings are zero, to make up for the ones I lost and to help make up for pull the danios out.

 

[skimpy]

You say you plants appear to be suffering from nitrogen defeciency, are the symptoms that leaves are turning yellow. If so (and i'm really no expert) this happened to mine for a while but they are growing really well now. I do like my plants to look good but I must admit for me personally if i get a plant that dies (I have had two that died) I just replaced it with a different type. I suppose I'm not too bothered about the life of the plant. The one's that died seem to be in direct contact with the bubbles and they did not like that too much. Anyway when you nitrAte kick in it should give the plants the nitrogen they need, so I'd say not to worry to much and wait and see. In the meantime give the plants some food once a week, it certainly improved my plants when I started feeding them.

Go with the guppies, good luck, just watch tests just incase little spike occurs, but it shouldn't cos you have not increased your load have you, just some out, and some in.

Hope you see your nitrAtes soon

 

[enchanted]

Well, I got 2 females and 1 male to add the tank. All green cobra.

Means I still only have:
6 Guppys
8 Corys
3 Otos
1 Pleco.

In a 55G. No where near overstocked.

LFS tested same results:

0
0
0
7.8

 

[skimpy]

Never heard of green cobra (even though I keep guppies), just looked it up on the web.

WOW they are great looking fish, really pretty sick: envy envy). Yeah you have plenty of room, (lucky thing) have you decided what else you are gonna get ???

Love to see pics of tank (and green cobra guppies) if you get chance.

Edit spelling

 

[enchanted]

I will post pics in the next few days. Waiting on a new camera to arrive w/ the memory card.

Ebay Special.