My Very First Test

[OzeN]

Right i got my API Freshwater master test kit today so ithought id test the water straight away.. and here is what iv found

Amonia 0.50
Nitrate 160
Nitrite 0-0.25
Ph 7.6

and my tap water Ph 7.4

So there we go what do you recon people..

the tanks been established for about 5 days now...


thanks

 

[Miss Wiggle]

do you have fish in or are you cycling fishlessly?

can you also test your tap water and give us those readings for a baseline.

 

[OzeN]

ohh do you need the nitrate and nitrite and amonia from the tap wter as well?

and i have one fish in there that i got with a plant... lol

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup as you're doing a fish-in cycle we need to know what your tap water is so we have something to measure your tank's progress against. the nitrate is awfully high so I'm wondering if your tap water is also very high, i've never seen tap water with above 40ppm in it though and one fish shouldn't be producing that much nitrate in 5 days so the nitrate test may be wrong. it's pretty fiddly and you have to be very exact with the time shaking the bottles and so on, can you re-do the nitrate test on the tank as well just to confirm.

 

[Corleone]

Tap water's helpful - most of the time it's not too important, but in some cases (such as high ammonia in your tap water) it will influence the course of action.

Are you sure you read your nitrate correctly? 160 is an extreme level for such a new tank - the other stats look about par for the course, but should be lowered ASAP, ammonia and nitrite should be maintained below 0.25 as much as possible.

 

[OzeN]

Right here are my resoults..
i have retested the tank water for Nitrate and its 20 instead of 160...

and my tap water is
Amonia 0
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0-0.25

hope this helps


i have also read in a few places that when you are doing a fish in cycle that you should have a few fish.. ist his correct

and im still doing 20% water changes every day.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

that sounds much more reasonable for nitrate!

right your goal for now then is to do as many water changes as it takes to bring both ammonia and nitrite under 0.25ppm every day. now the ammonia is a bit above this now so I'd do one big water change (80%) now to get that right down, then you should be able to maintain with smaller changes each day until it can keep itself at 0. The nitrite in the tank at the moment is from your tap water, if your tap water has 0.25ppm nitrite then water changes will never get it below 0.25 so that's your goal for now, eventually the nitrite will drop down to 0 in the tank by itself. when both ammonia and nitrite can hold steady at 0,0 for 2 days without any water changes you are cycled.

you keep monitoring daily for a week or so afterwards to make sure it's all ok, sometimes you get a little blip afterwards, then after that you can drop down to a regular routine of 30% water change once a week.

 

[OzeN]

ok brilliant.. will follow you instructions.. thanks for your help... il also keep testing the water every day and keep a record of it..

thanks

 

[doresy]

You are off to a great start.....you listen!

If your nitrates really WERE 160 from the tap then I bet you would have a lovely green lawn in the garden

Anyway, I see you are in good hands

 

[OzeN]

right iv done a 80% water change and here are the resoults after the water change

Amonia 0.25
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0
Ph 7.2


Should i do more big chnages like this or go back to the 20 % chnages...

thanksss

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's always very hard to qualify that, what i'd suggest you do now is 24 hrs after the big change test the water and note it down, try a 20% change and then wait 1 hr, test the water again.

if after the 20% change the water params are back to what they are now then that is enough for today, if it's not then do another change. do this for a couple of days and you'll start to get a feel for the size water changes you need to get the water down to your target of less than 0.25ppm in ammonia and nitrite.

 

[OzeN]

tests today

Amonia 0.25
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0.25

Gona do a 20% water change and test it again in an hour or so...

ohh yer should i add more fish.. as iv read in a few places that you need like 6 fish to do a fish in cycle... what do you say?

 

[rabbut]

At the start, the fewer the better The less fish you have, the less ammonia and nitrite you have to deal with, and the less chance you have of loosing fish

If I remember, your hitch-hiker was ID'd as a Syondontis of some form?

If so, they prefur a mature tank, so realy, for that fishes sake, it is imperative that you keep on top of the ammonia and nitrite or you will loose him/her. The best way to do this in a fish-in cycle is to stock few fish and waterchange plenty

HTH
Rabbut

 

[OzeN]

yer i was thinking of getting a few neons or sumthing to go with him whilst the tank cycles and then il give them to a frinds of mine and get something else

 

[OzeN]

after the water change we have

amonia 0.25
nitrate about 7
nitrie less then 0.25

and what does ppm mean?