LFS water parameters

[G_Sharky]

I just purchase a couple of fish today and decided to check the water from my LFS for ph first and found out that it's similar to ph i have, but to my surprise when I decided to check for nitrites is wasn't at 0 it was 0.1 Is it because the bag wasn't filtered and the fish took a lot of crap on my way home or the LFS tank isn't cycled? I just noticed today that all the LFS tanks are running with individual filter which is good at least ICH won't spread to all their fishies...Why isn't it at 0?

 

[Bol]

I wouldn't think a reading of 0.1 ppm would be unusual for a short time, especially in a store tank (which tend to be overcrowded).

My ten gallon tank at home sometimes measures "trace" for a day or so, and then corrects itself fairly quickly.

 

[guppymonkey]

The nitrites were probably high because most stores cram fish into their tanks. Then obviously they sell some fish and others die. The filter ends up constantly cycling as the ammonia levels rise and fall with the level of fish in the tanks. Nitrite of 0.1 isn't bad for a pet store. The only way a store could maintain a level of zero would be to have a flow-through system where the water would be constantly replaced with new water.