Water Change

[jmain]

bet you wish you read the forums befor you started up?

Mrtash this has nothing to do with reading forums or not reading forums my main problem is my source of water. When your tap water test at 1.0 theres not much any reading will help you do. I know once I tested my water (a week of having a fishless cycle) everything tested 0 thats why I went ahead and put fish in. All this problem came about when I tried to change out water to keep the ammonia from going up to high. When I changed out 15 gallons of water (after letting my filters run for a minute.) It tested at .50 so curious of why it spiked I tested my tap water thats when I found out my problem. I have found a family friend that said I can get water from them (they have well water.) Also I can transport water from the place I volunteer they have clean tap water so both of those are options I'm just having to work with what I got. All my fish look healthy (I have had 2 die but thats because the other serpa attacked them and he did that after I did the water change.)

 

[indigoj]

I'm concerned that your tap water reads for ammonia - you should talk to the company responsible for it as it should not have ammonia in.

The ammonia is in your tank because you have added fish (too many of them all at once to compound the issue) before cycling.

You need to do twice daily 50% water changes or take all the fish back and cycle without fish (much kinder)

 

[jmain]

I'm concerned that your tap water reads for ammonia - you should talk to the company responsible for it as it should not have ammonia in.

The ammonia is in your tank because you have added fish (too many of them all at once to compound the issue) before cycling.

You need to do twice daily 50% water changes or take all the fish back and cycle without fish (much kinder)

They all seem to be doing fine with how it is and the ammonia went down a little as of yesterday. I'm going to do another water test on Tuesday and see what that reads most likely I'm going to change 15 gallons. I mentioned this somewhere think it was a different topic I started but the reason I haven't been doing water changes as of yet it 1 because of my tap water (now I know a family friend with well water.) 2 My tetra serpa attacked the other 2 after I did the water change so I'm not wanting to cause to much stress on them right away.

 

[jmain]

Still got problems but I'm running out of ideas

ph is 7.6 high range ph is 8.2 ammonia is .25 (yay its getting close to 0) NOW nitrite is 5 (I know thats not good but changing out 15 gallons didn't do anything to help.) and nitrate is 10...... Is there any way that my testing kit could be bad (I mean I'm following everything straight from the directions.) Also I went to feeding every other day and once a day instead of twice.

 

[Rediahs]

Still got problems but I'm running out of ideas

ph is 7.6 high range ph is 8.2 ammonia is .25 (yay its getting close to 0) NOW nitrite is 5 (I know thats not good but changing out 15 gallons didn't do anything to help.) and nitrate is 10...... Is there any way that my testing kit could be bad (I mean I'm following everything straight from the directions.) Also I went to feeding every other day and once a day instead of twice.

It's really highly unlikely that your test kit is bad, because your readings are exactly what we would expect from a fish-in cycle...

You aren't being bold enough. High nitrites will stress your fish far more than water changes - water changes bug PEOPLE more than fish!!! So it may be hard work, but you really need to do a HUGE water change, like as much as you can possibly change, as close to 90% as you can get. If you can only do a 50% change, do two or three... guarantee this will lower your nitrite, unless you've got nitrite in the tap water as well.

By the way, the purpose of having a pH test and a high-range pH test is so that, if your pH is too high for the regular test, the high-range pH will give you your proper pH. This means your water's pH is 8.2 and the 7.6 that you got on the regular pH test was only indicative of your pH being too high for the scale to go, the 7.6 doesn't actually mean anything.

 

[jmain]

Still got problems but I'm running out of ideas

ph is 7.6 high range ph is 8.2 ammonia is .25 (yay its getting close to 0) NOW nitrite is 5 (I know thats not good but changing out 15 gallons didn't do anything to help.) and nitrate is 10...... Is there any way that my testing kit could be bad (I mean I'm following everything straight from the directions.) Also I went to feeding every other day and once a day instead of twice.

It's really highly unlikely that your test kit is bad, because your readings are exactly what we would expect from a fish-in cycle...

You aren't being bold enough. High nitrites will stress your fish far more than water changes - water changes bug PEOPLE more than fish!!! So it may be hard work, but you really need to do a HUGE water change, like as much as you can possibly change, as close to 90% as you can get. If you can only do a 50% change, do two or three... guarantee this will lower your nitrite, unless you've got nitrite in the tap water as well.

By the way, the purpose of having a pH test and a high-range pH test is so that, if your pH is too high for the regular test, the high-range pH will give you your proper pH. This means your water's pH is 8.2 and the 7.6 that you got on the regular pH test was only indicative of your pH being too high for the scale to go, the 7.6 doesn't actually mean anything.

I don't mind at all doing the water changes its my parents who ***** about them more than I do. The thing that I don't get though is my nitrites went from .25 1 day to 1ppm the next and now is at 5 ppm shouldn't it have been a slower increase?

So then not only is my nitrite bad (now since my ammonia is .25 not to concerned) but my ph is to high.... ughhhhhh this isn't good

 

[waterdrop]

Hate this feeling but I believe on Jul 8th I bemoaned my sense that this would be a nearly impossible situation. You've got enough fish, including a large waste-producing Plec that ammonia and nitrite will be coming through in significantly higher amounts than one wants for a "do-able" fish-in cycle. This would be very difficult except that its combined with being a huge 75g tank, which to my mind means to my mind that the idea of a large water change is daunting and one simply can't undertake it as often. But then to top it all off there's significant ammonia in the tap water, right? So the water changes will also work against the goal and once you have enough ammonia oxidizers (A-Bacs) their "multiplier effect" of producing 2.7ppm of nitrite for every 1ppm of ammonia input will just really, really be difficult.

Maybe some others might have ideas...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jmain]

Hate this feeling but I believe on Jul 8th I bemoaned my sense that this would be a nearly impossible situation. You've got enough fish, including a large waste-producing Plec that ammonia and nitrite will be coming through in significantly higher amounts than one wants for a "do-able" fish-in cycle. This would be very difficult except that its combined with being a huge 75g tank, which to my mind means to my mind that the idea of a large water change is daunting and one simply can't undertake it as often. But then to top it all off there's significant ammonia in the tap water, right? So the water changes will also work against the goal and once you have enough ammonia oxidizers (A-Bacs) their "multiplier effect" of producing 2.7ppm of nitrite for every 1ppm of ammonia input will just really, really be difficult.

Maybe some others might have ideas...

~~waterdrop~~

I have a family friend who has well water that said I can use their water and its clean.

Also could the nitrites go down like the ammonia did? I mean the fish seem to be fine they are still as active and all as when i first got them

 

[jmain]

Hate this feeling but I believe on Jul 8th I bemoaned my sense that this would be a nearly impossible situation. You've got enough fish, including a large waste-producing Plec that ammonia and nitrite will be coming through in significantly higher amounts than one wants for a "do-able" fish-in cycle. This would be very difficult except that its combined with being a huge 75g tank, which to my mind means to my mind that the idea of a large water change is daunting and one simply can't undertake it as often. But then to top it all off there's significant ammonia in the tap water, right? So the water changes will also work against the goal and once you have enough ammonia oxidizers (A-Bacs) their "multiplier effect" of producing 2.7ppm of nitrite for every 1ppm of ammonia input will just really, really be difficult.

Maybe some others might have ideas...

~~waterdrop~~

I have a family friend who has well water that said I can use their water and its clean.

Also could the nitrites go down like the ammonia did? I mean the fish seem to be fine they are still as active and all as when i first got them

My Ammonia is 0 (yay!!!) but my nitrite is still at the top of the card (but it doesn't get bad untill the last minute its not like as soon as I set it down to wait the 5 minutes it goes directly to the worse it can be.) Also my nitrate is still 10ppm. I'm going to test the water again Sunday and change another 15 gallons

 

[waterdrop]

Well, although fish sustaining nerve damage from nitrite poisoning is not a thing you can "see" or would expect to see, it -is- at least a good sign if your fish are still -active.- It could mean that somehow the situation is not as bad as the test would lead us to believe. I guess we should take what little good news we can manage here. Yes, since there's been measured 1.0ppm of ammonia in your source water, if I'm remembering right, then bringing in water that doesn't have any problems would hopefully improve the situation. And, yes, if its the api kit, then not having the drops hit dark purple on contact is an indication that the amount of nitrite way up above the top reading may not be so much in excess as if they did turn dark purple right away, so that may also be a small bit of good news, although one should not lose site of the fact that we're talking about fish sitting in water that has nitrite at the top of the chart here.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jmain]

Well, although fish sustaining nerve damage from nitrite poisoning is not a thing you can "see" or would expect to see, it -is- at least a good sign if your fish are still -active.- It could mean that somehow the situation is not as bad as the test would lead us to believe. I guess we should take what little good news we can manage here. Yes, since there's been measured 1.0ppm of ammonia in your source water, if I'm remembering right, then bringing in water that doesn't have any problems would hopefully improve the situation. And, yes, if its the api kit, then not having the drops hit dark purple on contact is an indication that the amount of nitrite way up above the top reading may not be so much in excess as if they did turn dark purple right away, so that may also be a small bit of good news, although one should not lose site of the fact that we're talking about fish sitting in water that has nitrite at the top of the chart here.

~~waterdrop~~

Here is the test kit I got http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...amp;pcatid=4454

Also I did a little research because I hear about all these diseases the fish can get and all that so I just found out that my serpa and my red eyes having white tips on their fins could be from waterhardness (I just figured the white tips was from their coloring but when I heard about ich being white I wanted to check this) I never thought about it before because it was a little lighter and its not gotten and bigger it just got a litter darker (once again just figured with them growing or getting darker with colors is what has caused me to notice it more). Remember my ph is at 8.2 (serpa are supposed to be 7.5 max but red eyes are 8.5 max but they also have white tips my black skirts aren't showing anything though)

 

[jmain]

My nitrites see to have gone down to 1 but my Nitrate didn't go up any as of yet (not sure if I just did a bad test or what but it didn't seem to be the dark purple for the first time since the 12 (still testing every other day) my ammonia is still at 0)

Also I added some plants (forgot the name of them but they are the floating ones that help the fry hide I think) The fish don't seem to mind them they will go up to them some times and all that but they also seem to be more active since I added it.

 

[jmain]

Gave the place I volunteer a water sample on Saturday and they sent me the results today.

PH 8.14
Ammonia 0
Nitrite .50
Nitrate 10


So I guess my numbers weren't as bad as I thought and that seems pretty good to be with fish in the tank for 17 days and the water was never cycled. I'm going to keep monitoring the water untill the nitrite gets to 0 and maybe do a water change on Sunday but not sure. I'm thinking it will be about 2 weeks untill I add the Dalmation Mollies (hopefully thats all it takes.)

 

[OldMan47]

For your present dilemma, the best plants are floating plants that can grow with the amount of light that you have. By floating on the surface, they will not be limited by a lack of CO2 and will grow as fast as they light supplied allows. I would look for duckweed, frogbit, water lettuce or similar floating plants and try to cover most of the tank's surface with the plants. As the surface becomes too crowded you remove some plants along with the nitrogen they have taken from the water. A rapid growth of plants can have a dramatic impact on the ammonia that you will measure.

 

[jmain]

For your present dilemma, the best plants are floating plants that can grow with the amount of light that you have. By floating on the surface, they will not be limited by a lack of CO2 and will grow as fast as they light supplied allows. I would look for duckweed, frogbit, water lettuce or similar floating plants and try to cover most of the tank's surface with the plants. As the surface becomes too crowded you remove some plants along with the nitrogen they have taken from the water. A rapid growth of plants can have a dramatic impact on the ammonia that you will measure.

Your saying the growth of the plants will lower the ammonia right?

I got to figure/wait for my nitrites to go from .50-0 and then I will add a few more fish.