Water test results

[bobby]

Hi, I'm a newbie to fish keeping. I have a 15 gallon tank with 3 small gourami, 2 wag platties, 1 female fighter 1 black mollie and 1 small barb.

I've just done my first water check.

PH was 6.6
KH was 3
NO2 (nitrite) was 1
GH was 6

All of those are fine according to my kit, but the Nitrate level (NO3) was 200 ish well over the norm of 50. Apparently this promotes algae growth ( and my water is going green)

What do you all recommend.

I've been doing weekly water changes of 15%. I de-chlorinate the water by leaving it in a bucket for a week before changing. I do not want to use chemicals.

Any responses appreciated.

Bob

 

[wetwetwet]

Hi bobby,

200 sounds very high... - are you sure the reading is correct?

Might be an idea to also test your tap water to see what these readings are coming out the tap and we'll go from there...

 

[bobby]

Definatly reading it correctly. the chart goes from 50 to 150 (it's difinatly not that colour) and then from 150-350 and the colours are in that range.

What do I use to test my tap water, I know the genral hardness (GH) is 6 which is fine.

Bob

 

[wetwetwet]

I was thinking more to test the NitrAte in the tap - if this is also high then no ammount of water changes will lower it in the tank....

btw what scale is the test measuring in eg. mg/L, ppm ... - what test kit is it?

 

[bobby]

Hi, have tested the tap water, it was in the range 0-10. The kit tests in mg/l.

The kit is called Tetratest. The nitrate range goes from 0-250 and mine is actually in the colour between 100-250 with the norm being under 50.

Thanks.

Bob

 

[wetwetwet]

OK,

These readings for nitrate are quite high - while nitrate is not directly related to an illness it is my belief that it can stress fish and make them more susceptable to other diseases...

For your tank to be generating these levels I would wonder if you may be overfeeding - as nitrate is the final product of the nitrogen cycle it builds up in the tank and is only removed by water changes (and to a lesser extent by some plants) or chemical means...

Larger more frequent water changes will lower the tanks reading.

Practical Fishkeeping has a clever little program for calculating how water changes will lower nitrate

HERE

HTH



www

 

[bobby]

Thanks, used that and it recomends a weekly change of 25%.

I think I'm probably guilty of over feeding. If you imagine the smallest size tub of flakes (Aquarian 13g), I've used all of that in 3 weeks. I have 3 Gourami, 2 platties 1 mollie 1 fighter and 1 barb.

I've just bought a gravel hoover which should help.

Bob

 

[wetwetwet]

Good luck m8 and keep us upto date on getting those nitrates lower