Problem

[simplysim]

Hi

I cant believe after telling you my tank has been running perfect, and i got advice about my plants... the other night I managed to get my plants under my rocks, but in the morning some of my fish didnt look right so i done a water test and my readings were 0.1mg/l nitrate and 0 Amonia, so i done a 30% water change, then yesterday I test again and its reads 0.1mg/l and 0.4 Amonia, so i do another 30% water change and i hoover up as much old food and also looked out for the neon that i lost in case this was causeing the problem.

This morning my readings are still the same so have done another 30% water change.. What am i doing wrong my tank has been fine all i did was secure my plants.

Can anyone advise me as to what i am doing wrong and what shall i do now.

Thanks

 

[JustKia]

0.1mg/l nitrAte isn't going to be a problem. So long as nitrAte says below ~40mg/l (or ppm) you should be OK, some people aim for below 10mg/l, but this will depend on what readings you get from your tap water - if you get 10mg/l from your tap water then your tank is always going to be over 10mg/l (unless you have a lot of plants using it up).
Do you actually mean nitrAte or do you mean nitrIte?

 

[simplysim]

Hi there, I have just check and i mean Nitrite not Nitrate.. I dont have a testing kit for Nitrate i was never offered one of these. So what do you think about my Nitrite readings?

Thanks

 

[JustKia]

Personally, I don't think 0.1mg/l is drastic. I mean it's not perfect but I don't think it's drastic. What's of more concern is the rise in ammonia.
When you do your water changes do you use a dechlorinator? Do you use cold water or temp match?
The missing neon could be causing the spike in ammonia - have you checked inside your filter?
For now though the best thing is to keep an eye on those stats and do water changes as neccessary (with dechlor'd water, pref temp matched if poss) and treat this as a mini cycle.

 

[simplysim]

I do have a dechlorinator, which i use when i do water changes, and I use temp match water. I have taken the filter out and rinsed the sponge in the tank water which i have taken out (i think this is the right way?) so i dont think its still there I thought maybe his body had been eaten as i cant find it.

Thanks for your help with this i will keep doing water changes and hope for the best.

Thanks

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes you've a mini cycle, when tanks are first running it's fairly common to get a little blip, there's loads of things that can cause this without you even doing anything wrong so don't panic.

it could be as little as some extra waste got stirred up when you tinkered with the planting.

test it every day and whenever you get a reading for ammonia or nitrite then do a water change, you can bump it up a bit to 40/50% comfortably if you like. it should go in a few days, maybe a week or two at most.