Setting up

[Ellerocks]

I have 2 black more goldfish in a small tank, so I purchased a used 40 gal tank and I am trying to set it up. But I don't know if my ph and ammonia levels are to high to put them into the tank, I never had this problem with the small tank, my Ph level is at 7.2 and my ph high range is 8.2 the ammonia is 1.0. I tried putting ph down stuff in the tank I got from pet store, but it has done nothing. I've been trying to do this for almost 2 weeks now. I also have some live plants in there. Any help would be great my babies need more space, I have only been keeping fish for 6 months.

 

[Colin_T]

Goldfish need a pH above 7.0 so don't adjust it.

If you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the levels are 0ppm.

 

[Ellerocks]

ok so this was new water, i did the water change, still high ammonia, at 1 so i added some stuff from pet store, and got it down to .025 which i guess is still to high?

 

[Colin_T]

what stuff did you add from the pet shop?

check your tap water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

 

[ClownLurch]

My water comes out of the tap reading 0.25 for ammonia and 10 for nitrates. Maybe you’ve something like that happening?

 

[P J]

Hi Eller,
You must have zero ammonia and nitrate in your tank, if you have already purchased a filter run this for about two months minimum and buy a test kit, checking the water conditions every three days or so, it will normally take up to eight weeks for the tank to mature or cycle, don’t put any fish in the tank until the nitrate and ammonia is 0 ppm. Wait a week and check water conditions are stable for at least a week until stable. If you need to do a water change use AquaSafe or similar conditioner to remove chlorines from your water supply, there should be zero ammonia and nitrite in the water supply. Just changing your water without maturing the tank correctly will not help you reach a stable condition, if your Water supply has ammonia at 1 ppm you should report this to the supplier and EPA, don’t drink it, this water it is not potable!
Hope you can get this working well. I checked three local rivers and a lake last week in my area for nitrite they were all zero, there is something seriously wrong with your supply. Nitrates in your tank up to 40ppm are fine, and add more plants they really help. PJ

 

[Essjay]

Nitrate does not need to be zero, just below 20 ppm. But ammonia and nitrite (with an A not a second I) do need to be zero.

UK legislation allows up to 0.5 ppm ammonia, 0.1 ppm nitrite and 50 ppm nitrate in drinking water. Ammonia occurs where chloramine is used to disinfect the mains water as that's a chlorine and ammonia joined together.

 

[Ellerocks]

Ok right out of my tap water, my nitrite, nitrate and ammonia is 0ppm. the ph is at 7.6 and the ph high is 7.8. this is straight out of the tap.
I did a 75% water change today and even after that, the tanks readings are Ph 7.6 and ph high 7.8. ammonia is .50, nitrite and nitrate are 0.
So I am guessing the only thing i need to get under control is the ammonia. I have 2 live plants in there.

In the smaller tank which they are in at the moment I have 2 mystery snails and 2 Blackmores, the nitrate is out of control, I have done a 50 % water change and it did nothing. I am going to do another water change today, I just did it 2 days ago.

 

[Ellerocks]

what stuff did you add from the pet shop?

check your tap water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

Ok right out of my tap water, my nitrite, nitrate and ammonia is 0ppm. the ph is at 7.6 and the ph high is 7.8. this is straight out of the tap. from pet store I used python multi purpose bio clean, API ph down, and Nutrafin aqua plus

 

[Essjay]

Nitrate gets high for a few reasons
Too many fish, creating a lot of ammonia which is converted to a lot of nitrate
Over feeding the fish - left over food decomposes to make ammonia which is converted to nitrate
Not enough water changes, or water changes not large enough so nitrate builds up.
Not cleaning the brown goo out of the filter - this is fish poop, uneaten food etc which is broken down to amnina then converted into nitrate.

2 goldfish in a small tank is the reason for the high nitrate.



If your water is hard, it will also have high KH which stops the pH changing. Since goldfish prefer a high pH, please stop using the pH down.


Does the 40 gallon with the ammonia of 1.0 have any fish in it at all? If not, where is the ammonia coming from?

 

[Ellerocks]

no i do not have any fish in it yet, i got it second hand, so i am not sure where the ammonia is coming from. and its at .50, not 1.0. i am trying to set it up for the fish. i bought a brand new filter for it. and have had it running now for at least 3 weeks in the tank. still dont know what to do, I did not put the ph down since i did a water change.

 

[Ellerocks]

did another 75% water change and finally i have the ammonia down.

 

[Ellerocks]

so still haven't added the fish, i thought the ammonia was at 0 so i had to wait for my daughter to come home, and the color so close, its actually at .25