Nitrate & Ammonia Water Change

[oscarivan]

Hi everyone I have 55 gallons tank with south american cichlids I did a water change this morning 25% I use Prime and Seachem stability 8 hours later I did a water test with API:
Ammonia was reading 1.0 ppm
Nitrite = 1.0 ppm
Nitrate = 5.0 ppm
Ph = 7.6

do I need to do any water changes soon? or hold on need some advice plz thanks and very appreciated.

 

[Colin_T]

How long has the tank been running for?

You want ammonia and nitrite on 0ppm at all times, and nitrate as close to 0ppm as possible, and under 20ppm at all times.

If you want to dilute things in the aquarium, do a big (75-80%) water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the levels are 0. Just make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If you do a 25% water change, you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change, you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change, you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF

Wait a full 24 hours between WCs and testing.

You are most likely in the midst of a fish-in cycle, see that section of the article here: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycle-your-tank-a-complete-guide-for-beginners.475055/

 

[10 Tanks]

Hi everyone I have 55 gallons tank with south american cichlids I did a water change this morning 25% I use Prime and Seachem stability 8 hours later I did a water test with API:
Ammonia was reading 1.0 ppm
Nitrite = 1.0 ppm
Nitrate = 5.0 ppm
Ph = 7.6

do I need to do any water changes soon? or hold on need some advice plz thanks and very appreciated.

Hello oscar. If you do the math, a 25 percent water change will leave 75 percent of the dissolved toxins still in the water. By the next water change, those toxins will increase and your fish will be living in more of their own waste. As we know, the build up of the waste material in the water will weaken the fishes' immune system. If you want your fish to be their healthiest, you could gradually increase the amount of water you're changing. Ideally, you want to remove and replace half the water every few days, so there's not time for the waste material to build up to toxic levels.

I manage a 55 gallon tank for a local government office and it's well stocked with fish. I change half the water twice a week. There's never been a trace of ammonia or nitrite in the water and nitrate is less than 5 ppm. The fish are active and healthy. If you want to extend the life of your fish, then change a lot of tank water and change it every few days.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[oscarivan]

Thank you guys for the answers will follow these methods very appreciated

 

[bigboss223a]

Alternately, if you add a large number of plants and conditions are right for them to grow, they may reduce the nitrates in the water. Floating plants are especially good for this as they will not be limited by the amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in the water.
truecaller mod apk latest version

 

[Essjay]

Plants usually reduce nitrate by taking up the ammonia made by the fish so bacteria cannot turn it into nitrite then nitrate.
When nitrate in tap water is high, plants usually have little impact on this.

 

[oscarivan]

I did order some plants so hopefully, this will help with that thank you, guys ")

 

[Ichthys]

Wait a full 24 hours between WCs and testing.

The waters will be thoroughly mixed in a few minutes, so why you would need to wait any longer?

 

[Slaphppy7]

The waters will be thoroughly mixed in a few minutes, so why you would need to wait any longer?

Using the API Master Test kit, ammonia (harmful) that has been converted to ammonium (harmless) with a good water conditioner will still register as ammonia; the test kit does not differentiate between the two. Treated tap water will introduce ammonia (chlorine or chloramine).

After 24 hours, the beneficial bacteria (and plants) will have consumed the ammonium, so "ammonia" should not test positive.

This will vary, depending on the maturity of the tank, how heavy the ammonia load is, and whether or not the tank is cycled.

 

[Essjay]

The waters will be thoroughly mixed in a few minutes, so why you would need to wait any longer?

The OP said he uses Prime. Seachem says Prime causes inaccurate reading if ammonia is measured soon after addition so to wait 24 hours before testing for ammonia.
From Seachem's website, the Prime FAQs -

I am going to assume that you were using a liquid based reagent test kit (Nessler based, silica). Any type of reducing agent or ammonia binder (dechlorinators, etc) will give you a false positive. You can avoid this by .......... or you can wait to test, Prime® dissipates from your system within 24 hours.

 

[Ichthys]

The OP said he uses Prime. Seachem says Prime causes inaccurate reading if ammonia is measured soon after addition so to wait 24 hours before testing for ammonia.
From Seachem's website, the Prime FAQs -

Fair enough, I didn’t know that because I don’t use Prime. Actually I’ve always used Haloex and I can say with certainty (ime) that Haloex does not give false readings.
Prime seems “too good to be true” for me. I don’t like the fact that new products are being discovered and introduced to the market simply to cover up bad fishkeeping. You can dump fish into ammonia these days because of Prime. In the good old days we didn’t need it because we cycled the tank properly first. These days you don’t need to. The hobby is going backwards imo, and the ones that suffer are the fish.

 

[Essjay]

I don't use Prime either, I use API Tap Water Conditioner which contains just thiosuphate and EDTA. Nothing to detoxify anything, nothing to 'stimulate the slime coat'.