Test Results

[tomchurchman]

I'd appreciate any interpretation on the following results please:
Tap:
NH3 - negligable, possible trace
PH - 7.5
NO3 - 10
N02 - 0

Established (1yr plus) 80Ltr tropical, well planted, water changes using RO + trace only since Christmas:
NH3 - 0
PH - 6.5
NO3 - 10
NO2 - 0.1

New 240Ltr tropical, fish in cycling, well planted, 17 days old, 100% tap water:
NH3 - 0.6
PH - 7.5
NO3 - 10
NO2 - less than 0.1

 

[rdd1952]

Your NH3 & NO2 should always be zero. I'm not sure whay you are seeing nitrite in your established tank. Are you using strips or a liquid test kit? If strips, that could be the problem as they are terribly inaccurate. On the new tank, I would suggest doing a 50% water change as soon as possible to lower the ammonia. You really want to keep it and nitrite at or below .25 ppm until they finally drop to zero. Contrary to popular beief, keeping the low won't slow the cycling process but may actually speed it a little. Your pH is fine at about 7.5.

Any reason you switched to RO water? The slight trace of ammonia in the tap water won't be an issue, especially if you use a dechlor like Prime that neutalizes ammonia. And the pH of 7.5 from the tap is fine for most all community fish.

 

[tomchurchman]

I originally switched to RO on the advice of my LFS, because I was having Algae trouble and my tap water Phosphates were quite high. This was however about 1 month after moving house and I suspect, with hindsight, there may have been a re-cycling issue here. About a month after switching to RO and re-planting, the tank settled and has been far more stable than it was in its first 10 months of life. Because its only a small weekly water change and I only live about 2 miles from my LFS, who sell RO, I've continued using it.
My test kit is Nutrafin liquid.
As a thought, I took about 1/4 of my mature media from my 80Ltr and put it in the 240 to try and speed things up, this could have caused the Nitrite spike in the 80?
Water change is planned for tonight, I wasn't planning on 50% but I'll take your advice, I'm also just beginning to see the start of some Algae, hair on the glass and brown on some leaves. At least it will give the MTS's somthing to chew on!
Many thanks

 

[rdd1952]

I originally switched to RO on the advice of my LFS, because I was having Algae trouble and my tap water Phosphates were quite high. This was however about 1 month after moving house and I suspect, with hindsight, there may have been a re-cycling issue here. About a month after switching to RO and re-planting, the tank settled and has been far more stable than it was in its first 10 months of life. Because its only a small weekly water change and I only live about 2 miles from my LFS, who sell RO, I've continued using it.

Phosphates are very rarely a cause of algae. It sounds as if what you had was probably brown algae which is common in new tanks or tanks that have been taken down and set up again. I doubt the phosphates had anything to do with he algae being there or that the RO water had anything to do with it clearing up.

As a thought, I took about 1/4 of my mature media from my 80Ltr and put it in the 240 to try and speed things up, this could have caused the Nitrite spike in the 80?

There is only a minimal amount of beneficial bacteria in the substrate unless you have an under gravel filter. The majority of the bacteria is present where there is water flow, i.e. the filter. The only bacteria on the substrate would be right on the surface where there is a slight amount of water flow. I doubt moving the media had any impact on the nitrite and even at that, the bacteria will double their numbers in about 24 hours so even if you moved half your bacteria, the colony would be back to 100% in about a day.

Water change is planned for tonight, I wasn't planning on 50% but I'll take your advice, I'm also just beginning to see the start of some Algae, hair on the glass and brown on some leaves. At least it will give the MTS's somthing to chew on!

What is a MTS? I assume some type shark??? Different algae eaters eat different types of algae. It really depends on whether they will eat it or not. The brown algae will probably clear on it's own after the silicone has finished leeching and there isn't anything for the diatoms to eat.

 

[tomchurchman]

MTS - Malaysian Trumpet Snails, just completed the water change using Prime, thanks again.
Tom