Water Test

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My 42 gallon tall tank is stocked with:

2 Silver Hatchetfish
3 Veil Tail Angelfish
2 Blue Rams
1 Gold Ram
2 Oto Catfish
1 Armored Catfish
1 Peacock Eel
1 Rubber Lip Pleco

The test showed:

Nitrate: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
pH: 7.2

Are these optimal levels for my fish?
 
how long has your tank been set up? It is unusual to show 0 nitrAte but not impossible
 
The tank has been set up for about 8 months. I will take a picture of the tubes with the water in them.
 
Water test picture:

DSCF0989.jpg



Here are a couple pictures of the tank:

DSCF0977.jpg


DSCF0978.jpg
 
As a general rule, there should always be nitrate present in a tank. It is the end result of the nitrogen cycle.

On another note, I am a terrible judge of real or fake plants (those look real and the tank looks great by the way - love the driftwood) but if the plants are real, the one in the lower left corner is most likely not a true aquatic plant and will eventually die. Most plants wth varigated leaves are not suitabe for underwater. They will live fine near a pond but won't live when submerged.
 
All of the plants are real. The plant in the lower left corner has been in the tank for about 3.5 months and is thriving. It was purchased from the same place as the other plants. I do not remember the exact name of that plant; however, it looks really cool. Most of the plants in the tank have developed root systems. I add nutrients to the water every so often.
 
It may be ok for underwater then. Just that most varigated ones do ok for a while and then start to die.
 
It may be ok for underwater then. Just that most varigated ones do ok for a while and then start to die.

I hope it doesn't die, it was expensive.

What could the 0ppm nitrate reading mean?
 
that is a cracking tank! I agree about that plant being not true aquatic but hey, good luck with it.

As I mentioned earlier it is very unusual to have 0 nitrAte level. 3 possible answers....maybe the plants are absorbing it or are you doing VERY regular water changing, ie daily? Thirdly and most likely, a duff nitrAte test solutions or method. (the bottle and tube shaking is very important!) If I were you I would take a sample to a good LFS and see if their results match yours :good:
 
Cracking tank? What looks to be a crack is actually some algae. It has been dealt with since those pictures were taken.
 
Cracking tank? What looks to be a crack is actually some algae. It has been dealt with since those pictures were taken.


:lol: :lol: :lol: I meant it's a great tank (cracking) not that it was actually cracking :lol: Bad choice of word.....sorry :blush:
 
I'm having the same issue with my planted tank. 0 nitrates mine has been like this for about 8 weeks. If your nitrates are really at zero you need to check your phosphate level. With your nitrates that low you are likely get an algae out break unless your phosphate levels are very low. The target ratio for nitrate to phosphate are 16:1. If your nitrate is higher than 22:1 you will get blue-green algae. If it is lower than 10:1 you will get green algae.

This is a good read! http://www.xs4all.nl/~buddendo/aquarium/redfield_eng.htm (special thanks to fishgeek for the info)

That being said based on the look of your tank I'd say your test kit is probably out. I'd have the lfs check it out for you. If you have more than one local store I'd have them all check it. I had two tests done at two different stores one put my nitrate at 40 the other put it at 0 just shows the accuracy of the tests.

Unless you start to get algae or your plants aren't doing well I'd suggest leaving things the way they are. Everything looks beautiful.

John
 
All of my local fish stores use the exact same test kit that I purchased. To make sure my results were accurate I just tested the Nitrates again and got the same result.
 
You are probably getting zero nitrates since aquatic plants prefer to take up ammonia rather than nitrate as their nitrogen source. In fact most aquartic plants will expend energy to convert the nitrate back to ammonia for their use. This is as opposed to terrestrial plants, a lot of which nitrates are their preferred nitrogen source. Anywho, your plants look really healthy, they are probably consuming the ammonia directly for sustenence, which means that there is no ammonia for the cycling bacteria. This is fine so long as you keep the plants healthy. But, no ammonia going thorugh the cycle, means no ammonia is being converted into nitrate, which is probably why you got the zero reading. So long as those plants remain healthy, your tank is going to be fine.

In fact, with healthy plants, you can run a tank filterless. There is a great book by Diana Walstad, Ecology of the Planted Aquarium that explains how to set up a filterless aquarium. The word filterless is kind of a misnomer, however, since the plants are really acting as the filter, in this case. Don't let people tell you that you can only have a very light stocking, either, because so long as you keep the plants healthy you can have as heavy a stocking as any other well-filtered tank. In her book, Diana has a 40 gallon tank with 55 guppies in it, and another with two large schools of rainbow fish.
 

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