Nitrate at nil

[Essjay]

At 4 drops per gallon, 80 drops is the amount for 20 gallons. That's 75.7 litres and your 125 litre tank should hold more than that unless you have unusually large pieces of wood or rocks.
80 drops is fine.

 

[Country joe]

@Country joe Not sure where you are in the UK, my tap nitrates are about 40ppm ... Got a filter to sort that and are now at 0

Hi, I'm more worried about nitrites, than nitrates.

 

[Country joe]

At 4 drops per gallon, 80 drops is the amount for 20 gallons. That's 75.7 litres and your 125 litre tank should hold more than that unless you have unusually large pieces of wood or rocks.
80 drops is fine.

Do you think I'm getting there, I might have to get more ammonia, I hope not.

 

[Essjay]

The last stage, growing the nitrite eaters, often seems to take forever then one day it'll be zero the day after adding ammonia.

 

[FishyD]

hi Essjay, my nitrite reading after 24 hrs is 1.0, I don't know if I'm adding too much ammonia, taking 10% of for gravel, rocks, wood etc and 4 drops per US gallons, I added 80 drops, is this to many for a 27,5 UK gallon tank,
I will add more ammonia tomorrow as I'm sure then the nitrite will be nil I'm wondering if I'm getting there, my wife says I should put in Tadpoles, lol.

Nitrite processing is typically the longest part of a cycle. It shoudn't be necessary, but it is completely OK to cut an ammonia dose back to satisfy your curiosity. I would try to not let the tank spend too much times at ammonia zero level though until cycle is complete.

 

[Country joe]

I think I could be getting there, today the nitrite was 0.5 and nitrate .25, I expect the nitrite to be nil about 4 pm today I will dose ammonia, and fingers crossed could be nil in 24 hours, but I see a couple of fish keepers on here say, if the nitrate is nil, your tank is not cycled.

 

[Essjay]

During a fishless cycle nitrate builds up in the water, which is why a huge water change change is done when the cycle has finished, to reset nitrate to the same as the source water (usually tap water). With a fishless cycle there should be nitrate in the water before the huge water change.
With a fish-in cycle, it depends on the amount of nitrate in the source water. Places where nitrate in tap water is high can never show zero nitrate just by doing water changes. To get tank nitrate lower than tap nitrate, the water has to be treated to remove nitrate, for example prefiltering with a nitrate removing resin before adding the water to the tank.

I have 2 tanks which have been running for years. Both test zero for nitrate - in other words, the colour on the tester chart looks like zero to me. My tap nitrate tests at somewhere between the zero and 5 ppm colours and my water company gives my nitrate as 3 ppm. So I can get very low nitrate just by doing water changes.
Both tanks also have a lot of plants and I can only assume that they are removing that last bit of nitrate from tap water when I do a water change.

nitrate .25

Did you mean ammonia or nitrate? My nitrate tester has only zero and 5 ppm colours, it can't read read 0.25.

 

[Country joe]

During a fishless cycle nitrate builds up in the water, which is why a huge water change change is done when the cycle has finished, to reset nitrate to the same as the source water (usually tap water). With a fishless cycle there should be nitrate in the water before the huge water change.
With a fish-in cycle, it depends on the amount of nitrate in the source water. Places where nitrate in tap water is high can never show zero nitrate just by doing water changes. To get tank nitrate lower than tap nitrate, the water has to be treated to remove nitrate, for example prefiltering with a nitrate removing resin before adding the water to the tank.

I have 2 tanks which have been running for years. Both test zero for nitrate - in other words, the colour on the tester chart looks like zero to me. My tap nitrate tests at somewhere between the zero and 5 ppm colours and my water company gives my nitrate as 3 ppm. So I can get very low nitrate just by doing water changes.
Both tanks also have a lot of plants and I can only assume that they are removing that last bit of nitrate from tap water when I do a water change.





Did you mean ammonia or nitrate? My nitrate tester has only zero and 5 ppm colours, it can't read read 0.25.

Nitrate 2.5 NT labs tester.

 

[Country joe]

4pm today, small water test,
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
PH 7.5
today tap water test,
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 7.5
GH 8
KH 7.
And I have 12 live plants in a 125 tank.
I've added 80 drops of ammonia, and in 24 hours do another water test, and if my nitrite and nitrate levels are nil, can I finally add fish ? I will carry on doing a 25% water change once every two weeks.

 

[Essjay]

Yes, you can add fish.

But 25% every 2 weeks isn't really enough long term when the tank is fully stocked. A minimum of 25% every week is better, with 50% a week being even better still.