Stress Level NITRITES & LOW Alkalinity

[Gennifer]

Okay, please bear with us, we are new to this testing thing. (Fish too!)

We bought a 10g tank for Christmas and have since added a few new family members. After reading in these forums, we decided we needed to get a testing kit because we had been overrun with brown algae in the last few days, and we were curious about our water anyway. (We've lost a few fish)

We bought the JUNGLE brand Freshwater strips and these are our results:

NITRATES = 30
NITRITES = 3.0
GH = 75 Soft
KH = 30
pH = 7

According to the bottle, our Nitrite level is between STRESS/DANGER level and our KH is considered quite low. Can anyone tell me why we are where we are, and what we need to do about these? I'm guessing all looks good except Nitrites and KH?? Thanks for all your help!!

~ Gennifer

 

[dirtydogg]

New Tank Syndrome *Pinned at the top of this forum*

 

[freddyk]

You can use the addition of baking soda (the plain household stuff) to raise that KH as a cheap and effective method. How much depends on the water, so experimenting in a seperate container first is a good idea. You would then need to add it with every water change. The GH won't change, the PH may rise a bit.