New Tank Chemical Test

[ryansfish5g]

(Also posted this with some pictures in the pictures area)
OKAY, so I decided to invest in a tank test kit. I am afraid I will obsessively test my tank now....
If anyone could help tell me what these results mean:
So I started my tank on 11-16-03
Added BIO-Spira and 3 fish on 11-17-03
These tests were on 11-21-03
TEMP - 82 F
water is semi-cloudy
slight odor from filter, but not water
Ammonia - 1 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
pH - 7.6
GH - 143.2 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm
High range pH - 7.4

Do I need to lower my pH?
Also, did the bio-spira not work b/c I have no nitrates and slight ammonia???

(see somethin growin on my filter, click the link below)
Pictures of Tank Test Kit and More
Click Here for General Pictures of My New Tank

 

[sandyd]

Sounds to me like you are in the beginning of the cycle, i am not sure about the Bio Spira as I have never used it. Sorry. As for your ph, i would not mess with it at all. All of those chemicals that they sell you to make it "normal" put way too much stress on your fish. Most fish can adapt to any ph, IMO. Ph is not something that you really want to play with, the best ph for your fish is a stable ph, them more it changes, the more stress your fish are going to be under. I am sure someone else will be along with a remark on the Bio Spira.
Sandy

 

[ryansfish5g]

Sounds to me like you are in the beginning of the cycle, i am not sure about the Bio Spira as I have never used it. Sorry. As for your ph, i would not mess with it at all. All of those chemicals that they sell you to make it "normal" put way too much stress on your fish. Most fish can adapt to any ph, IMO. Ph is not something that you really want to play with, the best ph for your fish is a stable ph, them more it changes, the more stress your fish are going to be under. I am sure someone else will be along with a remark on the Bio Spira.
Sandy

thanks; I do think you are right about the beginning of the cycle, which sucks b/c the bio-spira cost me $10 and I have heard nothing but good things about it....

I guess I will keep testing and see what happens.

 

[aschueler]

From not doing enough research, I started my tank without any cycling at all. Hold your tongues, because I know better now.

I added the bio spira stuff about 8 days after I had fish in the tank (3 young cichlids in a 29 gal); at the time, I had ammonia levels around 3 ppm and zero nitrate/nitrite. That was about 7-10 days ago.

It took a couple of days, but the ammonia dropped, and is now zero; 2-3 days after adding it, I got both a nitrate and nitrite spike, strangely enough, that is now dropping lower and lower. I have done about 4-5 water changes of 20-80% each time since starting.

Fish have done well, thank God.

So. My experience with the bio spira stuff is that it seems to speed the cycling along (2 weeks or so instead of 6 weeks), but overnight cycling is probably BS. It's better than nothing, for sure.

 

[ryansfish5g]

I forgot about this link I read on BIO-SPIRA:
BIO-SPIRA experiment someone did

If you click on his total chemistry graph, you can see that the ammonia didn't appear until about 6 days after having added the fish and bio-spira. So what this means to me is: yeah, my tank didn't cycle yet; BUT, the bio-spira still could be helping to speed the cycle along. I will keep running tests and let ya'll know what happens.

The guy at the LFS was like, "Yeah, this stuff works overnight, you can add all your fish tommorrow." So, I don't think that is really true; however, let's say that I added those fish...I would have gotten an ammonia spike larger and sooner, followed by a larger and sooner nitrite spike, followed by a larger and sooner increase in nitrate.....IF the BIO-SPIRA worked....and then the tank would have either cycled and leveled out, or gone spiraling out of control b/c the bio-spira didn't work.....

I am gonna take the slow route and see if my tank cycles the way it is. I wouldn't want to add more fish and have them all die just to test the bio-spira/LFS guy's theory.

Any more comments are welcome!

 

[ryansfish5g]

From not doing enough research, I started my tank without any cycling at all. Hold your tongues, because I know better now.

I added the bio spira stuff about 8 days after I had fish in the tank (3 young cichlids in a 29 gal); at the time, I had ammonia levels around 3 ppm and zero nitrate/nitrite. That was about 7-10 days ago.

It took a couple of days, but the ammonia dropped, and is now zero; 2-3 days after adding it, I got both a nitrate and nitrite spike, strangely enough, that is now dropping lower and lower. I have done about 4-5 water changes of 20-80% each time since starting.

Fish have done well, thank God.

So. My experience with the bio spira stuff is that it seems to speed the cycling along (2 weeks or so instead of 6 weeks), but overnight cycling is probably BS. It's better than nothing, for sure.

thanks for your input

QUESTION:
In your case, did you change the water to lower the ammonia level?

I don't think I should do water changes right? As long as the ammonia doesn't get out of control.....and if I start seeing nitrite, then I know the bacteria is there and it will cycle with enough time...

 

[aschueler]

Did the water changes when ammonia or nitrite got too high, or when the bottom started to look nasty.

My cichlids are messy eaters.

Personally, I am unconcerned over removing the bacteria I added, mostly because there is a slime coating over almost everything in the water, and I am sure they have colonized the filter as well. Even with aggressive gravel vacuuming, I haven't been able to remove all the gunk that is in there.


[I might add that any uneaten food sitting on the bottom kept making me think of slowly leaching poison as it sat there decomposing....it started to bug me...and don't forget, this is my first attempt to, so take my experience with a grain of salt]


Today was the 80% water change, mostly because I am going out of town and wanted to clean the hell out of it. Afterward, ammonia is at zero, nitrite and nitrate I can't recall exactly, but lower than I have seen it so far (near the lower limits of detection), tested approx 3-4 hrs after the water change.

If you have ammonia there for the bacteria to eat after you have added them, they will flourish. That's simple microbiology --> if you feed them they will grow.

 

[ryansfish5g]

Did the water changes when ammonia or nitrite got too high, or when the bottom started to look nasty.

My cichlids are messy eaters.

Personally, I am unconcerned over removing the bacteria I added, mostly because there is a slime coating over almost everything in the water, and I am sure they have colonized the filter as well. Even with aggressive gravel vacuuming, I haven't been able to remove all the gunk that is in there.


[I might add that any uneaten food sitting on the bottom kept making me think of slowly leaching poison as it sat there decomposing....it started to bug me...and don't forget, this is my first attempt to, so take my experience with a grain of salt]


Today was the 80% water change, mostly because I am going out of town and wanted to clean the hell out of it. Afterward, ammonia is at zero, nitrite and nitrate I can't recall exactly, but lower than I have seen it so far (near the lower limits of detection), tested approx 3-4 hrs after the water change.

If you have ammonia there for the bacteria to eat after you have added them, they will flourish. That's simple microbiology --> if you feed them they will grow.

Thanks for the info, this is essentially my first tank also (I had one when I was 12, but I don't remember it).

I will do some more testing tonight and post the results here.

 

[ryansfish5g]

These tests were on 11-23-03
TEMP - 82 F
water is lightly-cloudy
slight odor from filter, but not water
Ammonia - 1.5 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm


hmmm, was expecting a little nitrite by now....
that bio-spira sure is taking its time, I will test again on wednesday.

 

[Lithril]

As long as there was no chlorine in the water the biospira should kick in soon, it takes a while for it to colonise the gravel and filter and then start multiplying. If there was any chance of any chlorine at all being in the water then the bacteria will be dead.

The main problem with large test kits is it worries people, its good to know your pH etc but I wouldn't worry about altering it at this point, adding chemicals can often cause more problems and stress on the fish then the actual pH.

 

[ryansfish5g]

As long as there was no chlorine in the water the biospira should kick in soon, it takes a while for it to colonise the gravel and filter and then start multiplying. If there was any chance of any chlorine at all being in the water then the bacteria will be dead.

The main problem with large test kits is it worries people, its good to know your pH etc but I wouldn't worry about altering it at this point, adding chemicals can often cause more problems and stress on the fish then the actual pH.

Thanks for the comments. I think you are right about the pH. It was nice to see what it was and I will test it again, but I am not gonna worry about it unless it is extremely off.

I still think the bio-spira could cycle the tank faster than normal....If it is less than 3 weeks I will be happy. I will keep updating the post here with my ammonia/nitrite/nitrate test results.

 

[Bol]

Good luck with your tank, Ryan.

I used Bio-Spira, and also saw a few 'test reports' that people posted. I was sort of disturbed that my tank (a 46g one, with lots of live plants) seemed to completely cycle in eight or nine days.

One question, you said your Bio-Spira cost $10, so I assume you got a 1 oz. package. How much of it did you put in the tank?

 

[ryansfish5g]

Good luck with your tank, Ryan.

I used Bio-Spira, and also saw a few 'test reports' that people posted. I was sort of disturbed that my tank (a 46g one, with lots of live plants) seemed to completely cycle in eight or nine days.

One question, you said your Bio-Spira cost $10, so I assume you got a 1 oz. package. How much of it did you put in the tank?

Yes, I got the 1 oz. package. So yeah, I put in tooo much, 1/2 the packet when I added the fish. 1/2 the packet the next day. The LFS guy said you could add as much as you want, and on the packet I think it says there is no way to over do it. So, I don't think I reallly did a bad thing by adding all of it, maybe I could have spaced it out better though.

Thanks for the input!

 

[ryansfish5g]

and the results are in......BIO-SPIRA WORKS!!!

These tests were on 11-29-03
TEMP - 82 F
water is clear
slight odor from filter, but not water
Ammonia - >>.25 ppm
Nitrite - >>.25 ppm
Nitrate - >5 ppm

(>> means less-than:less-than which equates to much lower than .25 but not 0)
(> simply means less than)

I take these results to mean that the tank is pretty much cycled. The BIO-wheel is off-colored, which the manual says indicates bacterial colonization.
So the tank cycled in roughly 12 days which is much less than the 4-6 weeks it would supposedly take without BIO-Spira. I do think that if I had added a full-load of fish to the tank all at once, it may have cycled faster as the good bacteria would have had more food!

I think I will add 2 pygmy cories now, and then declare this tank FULL. After watching the HEX for awhile, I definitely think you can keep more fish in rectangular tanks of the same volume. The reason for this being that fish swim side to side, as people have told me, and now I have experienced. I am hoping the cories will stay near the bottom, as the other fish don't spend too much time there.