Trying To Put Things Right

[Squigs]

Water stats today - Day 10 (26/09/11) - AM - Amm 0, Nitrites <0.3, ph 8 (history is on the first post).

No nitrites whatsoever so far so I'm still on phase 1. Ammonia levels have been monitored and kept low through testing and 50%WC when needed.

which is which?
This is why its good to keep a log.
what are ALL your stats
Amm
NitrIte
NitrAte
Ph etc
I'm no expert with Fish-in cycles sorry, does it not have the information you want to know in the beginners section?
if its your nitrItes climing then you are probably on stage 1 yes. this takes twice as long as the ammonia stage. keep up those w/c's

What do you mean, which is which??? Ammonia = 0, Nitrites is <0.3 (that's how it's measured on my kit, there is no '0' and '<0.3' is the lowest reading), ph = 8. My test kit doesn't have nitrate testing so not a clue about them and my whole log is at the bottom of the first post of this thread.
Nitrites are not climbing at all, it never went over 0.3, hence my question of when it should rise.
I'm afraid the beginners section doesn't give timelines

Don't know if this will help coming from a fellow newbie to the water tests but. When i worked in a chemical factory (thats now houses ) Whenever we checked colour we always used a control of the same type.

To that end while i'm getting used to the testing i have done 2 ammonia tests, one on tank water, the other on tap water. Granted it doesent rule out ammonia being present in the tap water but it does make the comparison easier between the two samples and if it all tallies with the card you can be certain of your numbers.

Great idea! Thanks for that! erm, this might sound a silly question but do you think I could just keep one tube as a reference (with the chemicals in it) and measure against it all the time instead of having to test ammonia twice each time? Or could the colour of the reference tube change over time?

ps. houses on top of a past chemical factory??

 

[cynic]

Not sure, i would think the colour would/could/might degrade that in its self means you need a fresh control. Add to that the test materials will also age. Makes too many 'ifs' for me.

For the amount of time it takes till your eyes get used to the base yellow without any green tint, its hardly an inconvenience.

Don't forget it will work just as well with the other test perameters like the nitrite etc.

 

[Squigs]

Not sure, i would think the colour would/could/might degrade that in its self means you need a fresh control. Add to that the test materials will also age. Makes too many 'ifs' for me.

For the amount of time it takes till your eyes get used to the base yellow without any green tint, its hardly an inconvenience.

Don't forget it will work just as well with the other test perameters like the nitrite etc.

Hm, I see what you mean. Not worth the risk really.
What test kit do you use? I'm ok with nitrite as it goes from yellow to orange to red and the colours are fairly bright. Same with ph, I'm ok with it even though the shades are not as bright as the nitrite's ones (they're not as bad as ammonia though! ). I'll try it out tonight and see how it goes...

Fingers crossed it won't need a WC!

 

[cynic]

Not sure, i would think the colour would/could/might degrade that in its self means you need a fresh control. Add to that the test materials will also age. Makes too many 'ifs' for me.

For the amount of time it takes till your eyes get used to the base yellow without any green tint, its hardly an inconvenience.

Don't forget it will work just as well with the other test perameters like the nitrite etc.

Hm, I see what you mean. Not worth the risk really.
What test kit do you use? I'm ok with nitrite as it goes from yellow to orange to red and the colours are fairly bright. Same with ph, I'm ok with it even though the shades are not as bright as the nitrite's ones (they're not as bad as ammonia though! ). I'll try it out tonight and see how it goes...



Fingers crossed it won't need a WC!

I use the api master, and my nitrIte test is blue grading to purple? the nitrAte is red, well degrees of orange to red..... are you sure you have them the right ways about. Haven't been doing nitrate instead of nitrite tests?

 

[Squigs]

I use the api master, and my nitrIte test is blue grading to purple? the nitrAte is red, well degrees of orange to red..... are you sure you have them the right ways about. Haven't been doing nitrate instead of nitrite tests?

Yep, I'm sure, I have a tetra pond kit (I was desperate and the 'better' lfs didn't have api, only these). It REALLY only has nitrite, ammonia and ph testing. http/www.thepet-shoponline.co.uk/tetra-pond-water-test-kit-1920-p.asp

Although I've just read on the website above that this kit only has enough for 45 tests so I better order my api kit now.

My ammonia goes from yellow to green but the shades are pastel like (hence the difficulty), nitrites yellow to red (very bright colours) and not sure about the range for ph of the top of my head but 7.5 to 9 are darker shades of blue.

 

[cynic]

Don't know if this has any bearing on your decision/results but i found this while having a look at the tetra kit...

Clicky clicky....

 

[Squigs]

Don't know if this has any bearing on your decision/results but i found this while having a look at the tetra kit...

Clicky clicky....

off to buy an api test kit... thank you

 

[Squigs]

My previous test kit was a tetra one and didn't have nitrate testing. I got hold of a API test kit and got the following this morning:

Stats today - Amm 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 10, ph 8

I can't understand this at all! Can my tank be cycled already??

I have not seen any nitrites at all since I started testing. I'm wondering if this could be a mixture of 2 things: 1) low levels of ammonia as I keep them as low as I can with regular testing and WCs when required and 2) I moved the filter media, gravel, plants from the old tank (even though this wasn't fully cycled either, I'm assuming there was some bacteria present).

Also, does anyone know what is the maximum levels of nitrate for goldfish?

 

[Tizer]

It doesnt really matter what the maximum levels for a goldfish are, out of your tap it should be no more than 60ppm and with a weekly water change, you should be able to keep it below 100ppm, thus there are no dangers at that level to a goldfish.

 

[Squigs]

Thanks Tizer!

Maybe I should have mentioned why I asked the fish had been a bit sluggish for a few days but no other apparent signs (e.g. no markings on the body or fins, no change in body shape or size, etc).

I thought it was a bit hot for them so I slowly decreased the temp to 19C from 21C (I did this over a whole day, floating iced bottles etc) and one of them got better but the other two didn't.

I thought maybe another one could have been constipated - he has a history so I'm getting better at diagnosing it - some mushy peas later, and he's fine.

But the third one only got better when I did a 50%WC two days ago and I'm just wondering if this could have been due to high nitrates (even though I had done a 50%WC 5 or 6 days before that).

Or am I just being paranoid? Initially I thought he was just asleep but he'd spent a lot of time hovering in the same corner, about an inch from the gravel looking down at 45degrees... weird!