My Tank Readings Are O.k. Aren't They?

[oneblondebrow]

Hi all,

I recently got myself a nice new juwel 180 aquarium which has now been running since Wednesday, I also have a 48 liter tank running, I cut the Cycled media of the cycled tank in half and added 1 half to the juwel filter and left the other half in the original 48 liter tank, I have also transferred 3 peppered cory's and 6 zebra danio's to the new tank (leaving 6 black neon tetra's and 3 neon tetra's in the old tank), I have just tested the water for both tanks and the reading are as follows...

TANK 1 180 liter (running 5 days)

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
PH 7.6
Temp = 25 degrees

TANK 2 48 Liter (running for 6 months)

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
PH 7.6
Temp = 25 Degrees

I have tested my tapwater and that also has Ammonia of 0.25 so im not sure if the API testing kit is wrong or if this is just that my tapwater has traces of ammonia? If this amount is in my tapwater then it would explain the constant 0.25 readings wouldn't it?

Also TANK 1 is medium planted and TANK 2 is lightly planted so the Nitrate's are a good food source for them aren't they?

Whats the max Nitrate i should see before water change?

Many thanks

 

[fishyfriendz]

Hi all,

I recently got myself a nice new juwel 180 aquarium which has now been running since Wednesday, I also have a 48 liter tank running, I cut the Cycled media of the cycled tank in half and added 1 half to the juwel filter and left the other half in the original 48 liter tank, I have also transferred 3 peppered cory's and 6 zebra danio's to the new tank (leaving 6 black neon tetra's and 3 neon tetra's in the old tank), I have just tested the water for both tanks and the reading are as follows...

TANK 1 180 liter (running 5 days)

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
PH 7.6
Temp = 25 degrees

TANK 2 48 Liter (running for 6 months)

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
PH 7.6
Temp = 25 Degrees

I have tested my tapwater and that also has Ammonia of 0.25 so im not sure if the API testing kit is wrong or if this is just that my tapwater has traces of ammonia? If this amount is in my tapwater then it would explain the constant 0.25 readings wouldn't it?

Also TANK 1 is medium planted and TANK 2 is lightly planted so the Nitrate's are a good food source for them aren't they?

Whats the max Nitrate i should see before water change?

Many thanks

Hi


According to my test kit manual the max nitrate before a water change is .50. Your ammonia should be eaten by your nitrates no matter how they are introduced. So if you have ammonia plus nitrates you have a spike/imbalance and must continue to change water and test daily. Ideal is 0 0 0 or so my research tells me!

 

[oneblondebrow]

just tested both tanks with those 6 in 1 test strips and these say that both tanks ammonia is 0ppm, i wonder if it is the testing kit that has the issue?

 

[Fish_Newb]

Test strips are generally not used as they are incredibly inaccurate! I would suggest following the liquid readings unless someone can give you a sound explanation to the contary!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, fish_newb is correct, the strips are worse than bad, they are misleading. Only go by your liquid readings.

Since you are showing 0.25ppm ammonia in your tap water, you have to be aware that smaller but much more frequent water changes will be preferred in situations where water changing is advised. Fish-In cycling is considerably more difficult when ammonia is pre-present.

You are in a Fish-In cycling situation in Tank 1. The 6 zebras and 3 cories are in a sizable tank but I'd expect their bioload could show up at any moment in your testing. Of course, any time you have ammonia present you are starting the damage process on the gills, but at 0.25ppm you are also at the start of the range where you could possibly lose fish during the fish-in cycling process and thus make the process less effective.

The normal goal in Fish-In cycling is to figure out a percentage and frequency of water changes (using good technique) that will keep your ammonia and nitrite(NO2) levels below 0.25ppm until you can be back home again to change water. Normally, once you figure out the right pattern, this means the toxins are working their way up from close to zero ppm to a high of 0.25ppm within about 12 hours given people usually being only able to be home morning and evening for the testing and/or water changing.

In your case you won't be able to be down in this safe range but instead will need to maintain things as close to 0.25 as possible. The gill damage will be larger as a result but you're already started on the path. One thing to be ready for is using good technique for the water changes. You want to dose a good conditioner (Seachem Prime would be our best example, or Amquel+ is also good) at 1.5x to 2x whatever the dosing instructions are but not more than 2x. You want to roughly temperature match the return water. This can be judged with your hand and will be good enough. Luckily, ammonia is one of the quicker tests, so really, probably more ammonia tests and more water changing will be the pattern you'll need.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Essjay]

Waterdrop, if you remember a couple of months ago, it was found that people reading the API ammonia test in fluorescent light got a false positive due to the green tint of the light.

Oneblondbrow, what is the light in the room where you are doing the test? If it's fluorescent, it could be affecting the colour matching, so compare the colours under an incandescent light bulb, or natural daylight.

Of course, if you are already doing this, the above doesn't apply.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, that's true. The Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs as they get called in US) were supposed to be even worse at doing this. WD

 

[oneblondebrow]

ok now this is strange, after testing the ammonia levels today and leaving it for 5 minutes as instructed be the api test kit the colour indicated 0.25ppm (green), i left it in the test tube for about 2 hours and just had another look and it now indicates 0ppm (yellow). which one should i believe as surely the ammonia level would not have gone down to nothing within 2 hours?

 

[waterdrop]

Liquid chemistry tests should be considered to have no meaning other than the minute the test designer tells you to take the reading. Use a timer and only consider the color when the beeper goes off. Its better not to consider it a loose thing.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[oneblondebrow]

Oh man, This means that my tank has still not cycled even with an over 6 month old media in it, Any idea how long this will tank to actually cycle?

 

[waterdrop]

Well, you've only been at it for one week. One week might stand as one of our record fastest cyclings with MM but its probably not the average. It may take your MM a while to "take" in its new home. Just don't go changing things on it and it should come around for you. Do you have any other MM you could "clean" in the water of the new tank?

~~waterdrop~~
Edit: typo

 

[oneblondebrow]

Nope, I am using the mature media i had in my old tank, The old tank used to have an Ammonia reading of 0.25ppm as well and that tank had been cycling for over 6 months.

 

[waterdrop]

Oh man, I hate the cycles where the tap water has ammonia. I -always- forget that that is the case and don't consider it in my responses.

OK, so, realize that one thing that -should- happen should be that once the filter is cycled, it will be able to drop that 0.25ppm reading to zero ppm even though the source is your tap water.

The fact that you never got rid of the ammonia in the previous tank is concerning.. Perhaps, since its a small 48L/12G it may have had a smaller filter not quite up to the task of handling whatever bioload you had in there? Were you stocked out around the inch guideline or past?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[oneblondebrow]

In the 48 liter tank i have 2 x zebra danios, 6 x black neon tetra's, 4 x neon tetra's, 1 x cherry barb, 3 x peppered cory's, i am pretty sure this would not have been to much bioload to for the filter to handle.