New Fish

[Frost]

Hello.

Just been to my LFS to get my fish because my tank is fully cycled (been processing 5ppm of amonia to 0ammonia and nitrite in about 4 hours).

Before i went to the fish store i did a 90% water change to get rid of my 40ppm nitrates, ive just got back after buying my fish and it appears after testing, my nitrates are still exactly the same....40ppm. Also nitrites are now at 3ppm(used to be 0) but ammonia is at 0. My tap water has 0ppm amonia, nirtire and nitrate - what could have caused this.

I'm now floating my fish (6 Harlequins) and im worried for their health when i introduce them to the tank.

I'm absolutely bamboozled as to where all the nitrite and nitrate come from since ive been to my LFS.

I was careful when i did my water change that i kept my filter media in some water than i had siphoned out and i didnt put the filter media back in the tank until the tempereature reached about 22'c. I hope i havn't screwed my bacteria up or something, i'd be devistated.

Poor fish. 10 mins left until i introduce them to my tank.

Frost

 

[ennbee]

You should have waited a few days and kept checking that the parameters were still ok. I usually wait a week just to be sure.

 

[Frost]

You should have waited a few days and kept checking that the parameters were still ok. I usually wait a week just to be sure.

It has been fully cycled for over a week. Do you mean i should have waited a week after my water change?

 

[ennbee]

You didn't say it had been cycled for a week. One thing I am wondering about is whether you remembered to dechlorinate the water when you did your water change. It is easy to forget even the simplest of routine things. Don't forget chlorine can kill bacteria aswell as fish.

 

[Frost]

You didn't say it had been cycled for a week. One thing I am wondering about is whether you remembered to dechlorinate the water when you did your water change. It is easy to forget even the simplest of routine things. Don't forget chlorine can kill bacteria aswell as fish.

Yep, fully dechlorinated all my water. Just left my fish into the tank, they seem to be swimming round in a shoal but all squashed up into one corner of my tank. I'm hoping that when i test the water again later on tonight i'll get better readings.

Thanks for replying.

 

[ennbee]

Fingers crossed for you.

 

[rdd1952]

If it had been cycled for a week and there wasn't any nitrite before you did the water change, there definitely shouldn't have been any after unless it came from the tap water o the test tubes were dirty. Even if there was nitrite before hand if you changed 90% of the water, it should be all but gone unless you added more ammonia or there was something in the tank that was rotting and creating ammonia.

You've probably already done it but I would test the water again just to be sure. Clean the test tubes good by using a paper towel twisted to go down in the tube. Just use plain water, no soap. Also, on the nitrate kits,, bottle 2 can develop lunps which can throw the test results off. That is the purpose to shaking them for 30 seconds before adding them to the test tube.

 

[Frost]

it should be all but gone unless you added more ammonia or there was something in the tank that was rotting and creating ammonia.

I did add more ammonia after my water change as suggested in one of my other posts, but only up to what should have been 2.5ppm (15drops) (35 normally takes it to 4.5-5ppm).

I've just done a test again and its looking dire!

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 5 (could be off the chart)
Nitrate 40-60ish

What the heck is going on!

I would have been better leaving the water that i cycled with for a month rather than changing it for fresh water.

Should i do a water change and try and get some of these nitrites and nitrates down?

Thanks

Frost

 

[rdd1952]

When you did the water change, you shouldn't have added more ammonia unless it was going to be at least 12 hours before you got fish. It does sound as if the tank processed the ammonia into nitrite though. But if when you checked, there was no ammonia and the nitrite was 3 ppm, I don't understand how it could have gone even higher to 5 ppm. There wasn't anything in there to create more nitrite.

I would definitely do another water change to get them down. If you still haven't added the fish, do a 90 to 100 percent WC. If you added the fish, do something like 50% depending on how close your tap pH is to the tank pH. If they are very close, you could go on up to 75%. The main thing is to not raise/lower the pH too much with the WC.

 

[Frost]

When you did the water change, you shouldn't have added more ammonia unless it was going to be at least 12 hours before you got fish. It does sound as if the tank processed the ammonia into nitrite though. But if when you checked, there was no ammonia and the nitrite was 3 ppm, I don't understand how it could have gone even higher to 5 ppm. There wasn't anything in there to create more nitrite.

I would definitely do another water change to get them down. If you still haven't added the fish, do a 90 to 100 percent WC. If you added the fish, do something like 50% depending on how close your tap pH is to the tank pH. If they are very close, you could go on up to 75%. The main thing is to not raise/lower the pH too much with the WC.

Thanks a lot.

I'm afraid my fish are already in the water

I shall do a buckets water change tonight, then a couple more in the morning (fingers crossed my fish will last that long - poor little buggers).

Frost

 

[rdd1952]

Fortunately, nitrite isn't nearly as toxic as ammonia and if you get it down in the next 24 hours, they should be ok as long as they are the hardier type.

 

[Yazan]

f this still continuse you could do a 10% water change each day. Did you rinse your filter media in the tank water?

 

[Frost]

Did you rinse your filter media in the tank water?

Yes, i have an internal filter. So when i did my water change i siphoned some water out into a bucket and put all my filter media in that while i did the rest of my 90% water change. The media would have been in the bucket for around 30-40mins maximum and in that time I did actually remove some much from the filter that had gotten into it but i would highly doubt it was enough to remove that much bacteria.

I just got up, so ill be doing a water test in a minute, wish me luck.

Frost

 

[Miss Wiggle]

in the week after it finished cycling and before you added fish did you keep adding your 5ppm ammonia every day?

 

[Frost]

in the week after it finished cycling and before you added fish did you keep adding your 5ppm ammonia every day?

At least 5ppm was added every day, but at some points when i was going away for 2 days i'd put in 50 drops instead of the 35(for 5ppm) probably making it to around 7-8ppm. It seemed the bacteria was perfect until i changed the water. It could remove 5ppm ammonia from the water in about 4 hours with no trace of nitrites at all.

Anyway back to my testing, ill post the results in 10 mins.

Frost