New Tank With Fish :(

[Essjay]

Actually the fish only went in the tank 3 days ago (thread started Monday and fish added 'last Friday'), so it won't be cycled yet. Given that this is a 250 litre tank, those fish won't be raising the ammonia level very fast in such a large volume. As for the nitrate, the OP says he added a plant fertiliser.

Troptank, could you have a look at your plant fertiliser pack and see if there is any nitrate in there? It should say somewhere what's in it.

 

[the_lock_man]

high natrate basically means your water is dirty. its dirty becuasen your filter bacteria hasnt been given enough time to grow, so it isnt dealing with waste properly.

Sorry mate, but that part is rubbish. We don't grow any bacteria which will process nitrate. As Dies said, nitrate is a good thing.

I must admit I'm quite surprised to see 0ammonia and 0nitrite, even after only 3 days.

 

[lloyd]

high natrate basically means your water is dirty. its dirty becuasen your filter bacteria hasnt been given enough time to grow, so it isnt dealing with waste properly. you would find with a new tank that your ammonia will spike and your nitrite will spike before your nitrate. as your filter bacteria grows ammonia will drop first then nitrite wich is what has happened in your case, however you are still left with high nitrate that is bad for your fish.Ammonia and nitrite are worst for your fish so it is good that they both read low but because you have alot of fish in your new tank and your filter isnt mature enough yet nitrate is very high. to lower it just keeping adding clean water like i said and over time your filter will mature and deal with the waste.

Im not very good at explaining things but if you google the nitrogen cycle in aquariums you should find all the info you need

Nitrate doesnt indicate that the bacteria hasnt had time to grow. It indicates that there is bacteria converting ammonia to less toxic substances. Nitrates are good. I shows that his filter is doing what it is supposed to. Nitrate should never be zero. If it is, then you can make the claim that his tank isnt cycled. By the looks of the results (Am: 0 Nitrite: 0 and NitrAte: 80+) it looks like it is cycling nicely. I am glad to see that his Ammonia and NITRITES are zero as he only added the fish 9 days ago and he hasnt had a large spike.

It appears i stand heavily corrected. Would i not be right in assuming that a well cycled tank would have very low to non existing nitrate???

 

[the_lock_man]

high natrate basically means your water is dirty. its dirty becuasen your filter bacteria hasnt been given enough time to grow, so it isnt dealing with waste properly. you would find with a new tank that your ammonia will spike and your nitrite will spike before your nitrate. as your filter bacteria grows ammonia will drop first then nitrite wich is what has happened in your case, however you are still left with high nitrate that is bad for your fish.Ammonia and nitrite are worst for your fish so it is good that they both read low but because you have alot of fish in your new tank and your filter isnt mature enough yet nitrate is very high. to lower it just keeping adding clean water like i said and over time your filter will mature and deal with the waste.

Im not very good at explaining things but if you google the nitrogen cycle in aquariums you should find all the info you need

Nitrate doesnt indicate that the bacteria hasnt had time to grow. It indicates that there is bacteria converting ammonia to less toxic substances. Nitrates are good. I shows that his filter is doing what it is supposed to. Nitrate should never be zero. If it is, then you can make the claim that his tank isnt cycled. By the looks of the results (Am: 0 Nitrite: 0 and NitrAte: 80+) it looks like it is cycling nicely. I am glad to see that his Ammonia and NITRITES are zero as he only added the fish 9 days ago and he hasnt had a large spike.

It appears i stand heavily corrected. Would i not be right in assuming that a well cycled tank would have very low to non existing nitrate???

You would be wrong. Nitrate is fine is sensible quantities (< 100ppm, although some species are less tolerant), so it is controlled by weekly water changes. The only way you would get 0 nitrates is in a heavily planted tank, where the plants absorb the nitrate.

 

[lloyd]

high natrate basically means your water is dirty. its dirty becuasen your filter bacteria hasnt been given enough time to grow, so it isnt dealing with waste properly.

Sorry mate, but that part is rubbish. We don't grow any bacteria which will process nitrate. As Dies said, nitrate is a good thing.

I must admit I'm quite surprised to see 0ammonia and 0nitrite, even after only 3 days.

I see. i stand corrected. should well cycled filter keep a tank nitrate free almost?

 

[lloyd]

high natrate basically means your water is dirty. its dirty becuasen your filter bacteria hasnt been given enough time to grow, so it isnt dealing with waste properly. you would find with a new tank that your ammonia will spike and your nitrite will spike before your nitrate. as your filter bacteria grows ammonia will drop first then nitrite wich is what has happened in your case, however you are still left with high nitrate that is bad for your fish.Ammonia and nitrite are worst for your fish so it is good that they both read low but because you have alot of fish in your new tank and your filter isnt mature enough yet nitrate is very high. to lower it just keeping adding clean water like i said and over time your filter will mature and deal with the waste.

Im not very good at explaining things but if you google the nitrogen cycle in aquariums you should find all the info you need

Nitrate doesnt indicate that the bacteria hasnt had time to grow. It indicates that there is bacteria converting ammonia to less toxic substances. Nitrates are good. I shows that his filter is doing what it is supposed to. Nitrate should never be zero. If it is, then you can make the claim that his tank isnt cycled. By the looks of the results (Am: 0 Nitrite: 0 and NitrAte: 80+) it looks like it is cycling nicely. I am glad to see that his Ammonia and NITRITES are zero as he only added the fish 9 days ago and he hasnt had a large spike.

It appears i stand heavily corrected. Would i not be right in assuming that a well cycled tank would have very low to non existing nitrate???

You would be wrong. Nitrate is fine is sensible quantities (< 100ppm, although some species are less tolerant), so it is controlled by weekly water changes. The only way you would get 0 nitrates is in a heavily planted tank, where the plants absorb the nitrate.

i see. i always assumed that when a filter deals with ammonia then nitrite, then it deals with nitrate. is there no link between them then?

 

[the_lock_man]

high natrate basically means your water is dirty. its dirty becuasen your filter bacteria hasnt been given enough time to grow, so it isnt dealing with waste properly.

Sorry mate, but that part is rubbish. We don't grow any bacteria which will process nitrate. As Dies said, nitrate is a good thing.

I must admit I'm quite surprised to see 0ammonia and 0nitrite, even after only 3 days.

I see. i stand corrected. should well cycled filter keep a tank nitrate free almost?

Don't worry

I think I already answered you.

 

[Essjay]

Just to reiterate what lock man said, a mature filter removes ammonia by turning it to nitrite. It also removes nitrite by turning it to nitrate. It does not remove any nitrate. Nitrate is the end product of the nitrogen cycle and unless it is removed by some other means it will build up in the water. Ways of removing nitrate are by water changes and by having lots of live plants which will use it as fertiliser.

 

[lloyd]

Oh right i see. i did no all that i just assumed that a cycled filter would remove the nitrate as well. thanks for the advice

I would apologise for having my own conversation on some one elses post but i think it is benificial for the original poster to read lol

 

[troptank]

Actually the fish only went in the tank 3 days ago (thread started Monday and fish added 'last Friday'), so it won't be cycled yet. Given that this is a 250 litre tank, those fish won't be raising the ammonia level very fast in such a large volume. As for the nitrate, the OP says he added a plant fertiliser.

Troptank, could you have a look at your plant fertiliser pack and see if there is any nitrate in there? It should say somewhere what's in it.

hi
it was freebie stuff i got with a couple of plants at pets at home (i know pets at home arent the best but its the closest LFS to me and that's 60 miles away)
doesn't say ingredients on bottle (can only be bad then lol )

i ordered 500ml of nutrafin plant fertilizer that will arrive tomorrow, along with 500ml of aqua plus.

http/www.petsathome.com/shop/love-fish-plant-fertiliser-aquarium-treatment-57288

i`ll do some more tests now and post my results. give me 10mins

 

[troptank]

ok here is the results from tonight, looks the same as last night, maybe less nitrates?

and heres a pic of the tank why not eh?

its actually 240l not 250l like i said previous, (typo)

 

[troptank]

tonight's water reading is exactly the same as last night.

 

[SaTiVa1984]

Have you tested your tap water nitrate reading?

The ammonia and nitrite levels look like 0 which is a great, but your nitrate level still look a tad high.

How often are you doing the water changes, and how much are you changing?

 

[troptank]

hi
this is my water from the tap.
good or bad? lol

Hi mate, thats my water from tap, not too bad?
Haven't done a water change yet was planning it for tomorrow / Friday.


Edit: ah it never included my pic in the quote. It's on page one of this thread.

 

[SaTiVa1984]

Ah i must of missed that sorry, the nitrate from tap looks fine.

The nitrates in the tank are a little high tho, like the others have said, it could really do with a water change when you get chance.