Sudden Ammonia Problem With New Tank

[cane76]

it seems to me your tank has almost cycled or is just beggining the cycle and judging by those results you dont have much to worry about.
im hesitant to suggest this but i would do a small water change to help bring the ammonia down and keep feeding to a minimum like you said
i am still curious why there is no nitrate reading a almost cycled tank should have a reading

 

[Miss Wiggle]

id get a new test kit and retest everything
miss wiggle lets say his nitrates are 0 out of the tap,since the nitrite reading is also 0 wouldnt that indicate they are being converted into nitrates?so he should still be getting a nitrate reading shouldnt he?
just to add i am asking you this not telling you

yeah your quite right cane. the lack of nitrate reading would therefore indicate no cycling has taken place so far (lord only knows what's happened the last 2 weeks) and this is now the start of the ammonia spike at the start of the cycling process.

sorry i'm being a bit slack with my water chemistry knowledge today, dosed up on painkillers and i'm gonna blame them hampering my brain capacity!

yes i do think you should be gravel vaccing, just pick up poo and uneaten food, you've enough fish in there to create enough ammonia to get the tank cycling, leaving the tank floor dirty will only give you excess ammonia and your bottom feeders like the cories are more prone to illness if the substrate is left dirty.

i always struggle with the concept of feeding during the cycling process......

in one way the more you feed the more ammonia will be produced and as you don't have the capacity to turn the ammonia into nitrate yet this could be bad for the fish.
on the other hand the fish need to be producing ammonia to cycle the tank so holding back or cutting down on feeding will only inhibit production of ammonia and therefore slow down the cycling process and the longer they're exposed to ammonia and nitrite the worse it is.

i just don't know on that one to be honest?!?

so your tank is now starting to cycle, keep up the daily testing and 10% changes until ammonia and ntirite both read 0 consistently.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

has the nitrate reading been 0 all through or has it gone down to 0 after the water change?

i'm really puzzled!

 

[cane76]

im baffled too when you say your test results have been really good up until now what do you mean exactly?is this the first time youve had a ammonia reading?if the tanks been running with fish for 3 weeks surely he should of had a nitrite and ammonia reading by now?

 

[Dutchie]

Yeah I'm totally confused about ti all and I've really had a crash course in all this over the past 3-4 weeks..........

Just when I thought I understood it all this now suddenly happens...........ummmmm thanks Cane

 

[Miss Wiggle]

im baffled too when you say your test results have been really good up until now what do you mean exactly?is this the first time youve had a ammonia reading?if the tanks been running with fish for 3 weeks surely he should of had a nitrite and ammonia reading by now?

Yeah, all I can think of is that is started cycling, something has now happened to stop it and kill the bacteria and it's started again? that's why I asked earlier if te filter had also been cleaned and if dechlorinator had been used, that's all I can think of that would wipe it all out?

 

[Dutchie]

Nope Nitrate and Nitrite seem to have been 0 since the start..............at least when I got the test kit.........fortnight ago..........

I did put a batch of good bacteria in from the lfs......maybe this helped cycle the tank faster??!!

I will do what you all suggest and keep up the 10% water change daily until its down to 0...........
Does it make a difference that I'm in Australia?? They do say Melbourne water is one of the best in the world...........not sure how true this is though??

Damned if I understand all this now............and i need to prove to my wife that I can do this or else no 48Gallon for me in next 8-10 weeks...........DAMN!!!!!

I will feed them enough so that all food is gone in about a minute.................and see how I go.......

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I did put a batch of good bacteria in from the lfs......maybe this helped cycle the tank faster??!!

what exactly do you mean by this? was it a product in a bottle if so what was it called and how was it stored in the shop (i.e. on the shelf or in the fridge)? or was it some water from they're tanks or media from they're filters?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Nitrate test kits are notoriously bad, it's possible for false readings.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Nitrate test kits are notoriously bad, it's possible for false readings.

I know but the API ones are (IMO) the best of a bad bunch. I won't take a reading as gospel but at least as an indication of the area it's in!

 

[Dutchie]

Firstly, once again a big thankyou all for your quick feedback......it really is muchly appreciated.......

I only hope that with experience I too can help out newbies later on.

O'K, it was a large bag with liquid in it...........I did not ask other then the shop saying to put this in the tank as its good bacteria....

Just thinking about it, I do have a reasonable sized live plant on a brown piece of wood purchased from the shop.........(apologies for the discriptions......like Miss Wiggles I'm on painkillers at the moment for Kidney Stones, yet again).........

I think it simply starting its cycling hence the sudden spike............

What sort of Nitrate reading should I be looking for??
Once cycling is finished, am I right in assuming everything should read 0 except for Ph at 7.0??

Sorry for all these questions but undortunately I need reconfirmation to all that I have learnt in past month.........(and I'm old!!!)

Ohhh forgot to mention...........becuase I'm old, please type slowly cause I can't read fast !!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......Sorry, I could'nt help myself..........

 

[Miss Wiggle]

no problem, i like to help! you've certinaly got me confused on this one though!

i suspect what they've given you is water from they're tanks. many moons ago in the world of fishkeeping it was common practice to start a tank with someone's old water from they're tank, this was supposed to contain the good bacteria and make your first few weeks cycling easier.

however we know now that the bacteria is sessile meaning it doesn't live just floating around in the water, it sticks to decor, gravel and most importantly your filter media. so giving you water from they're tanks isn't going to do a hell of a lot except risk cross contamination.

unfortunately it's a fairly common mis conception that the bacteria lives in the water so they thought they were giving you bacteria when they weren't.

unfortunately that doesn't really make things any clearer!

I think it simply starting its cycling hence the sudden spike............

What sort of Nitrate reading should I be looking for??
Once cycling is finished, am I right in assuming everything should read 0 except for Ph at 7.0??

Sorry for all these questions but undortunately I need reconfirmation to all that I have learnt in past month.........(and I'm old!!!)

Ohhh forgot to mention...........becuase I'm old, please type slowly cause I can't read fast !!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......Sorry, I could'nt help myself..........

it wouldn't be just starting now..... no way would a tank have had fish in for 2 weeks and not started cycling

ph can vary but around 7 is best for a standard community set up, you should also have a nitrate reading of under 40ppm (actually there's a lot of dispute over what is an acceptable level of nitrate, but i won't get into that, 40ppm is safe)

 

[Dutchie]

Umm something perhaps tells me I'm either reading the test incorrectly then, or doing something wrong somewhere......

I have attached a copy of the manual and the colour chart........
With Ammonia, I get a reading of 2.0 ppm......

Now I have a 28 litre tank................am I then suppose to perhaps multiply this 2.0 X 28? THis then gives a ready of 56 parts..........
If this is the case its not explained in the manual as you can see......

Am I on to something here perhaps!!!!


Damn how do I insert a jpeg??

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i don't think your supposed to multpily the reading by anything!!!

the api test should give you a reading in ppm, that's all we need to know!

 

[Dutchie]

O'K...so much for that then............on the card then the readings are 0, .25, .50, 1.0, etc up to 8.0 ppm (mg/L)

My reading for my tank i get 2.0.......

Can anyone explain this then..........the manual says in an established tank it should read 0.
In a new tank it could spike to 4.0 and suddenly drop due to cycling..........