Water Test

[pauloh]

hi, apologies if im in the wrong area or this is a regular question but i have a juwel 190l tank, upgrading from keeping coldwater to tropical fish, i have had the tank for 2 weeks(ish) i bought it second hand, i performed a water test last week and one this week, with a 50% change in between, my levels are reading PH 7.6 (both tests) nitrite 0(both) nitrate 5.0 and ammonia was what looks like 0 to 0.25, 0.25 at the very maximum, is the ph too high? is the ammonia level dangerous at .25? would an air pump combat the ammonia or cause more stress for the fish? i think i will replace the entire media but at this point dont have the funds to do it (juwel filter media quite expensive) appreciate the help

 

[Louiseness]

hi, apologies if im in the wrong area or this is a regular question but i have a juwel 190l tank, upgrading from keeping coldwater to tropical fish, i have had the tank for 2 weeks(ish) i bought it second hand, i performed a water test last week and one this week, with a 50% change in between, my levels are reading PH 7.6 (both tests) nitrite 0(both) nitrate 5.0 and ammonia was what looks like 0 to 0.25, 0.25 at the very maximum, is the ph too high? is the ammonia level dangerous at .25? would an air pump combat the ammonia or cause more stress for the fish? i think i will replace the entire media but at this point dont have the funds to do it (juwel filter media quite expensive) appreciate the help

The PH is fine for all but the most sensitive fish, what are you keeping?

The ammonia is not yet dangerous at 0.25, but keep an eye on it and if it gets to any more than that do a nice big water change to get it down.

Please DON'T replace your filter media! They house all of the good bacteria that keep your fish alive and water safe. You only need to change the media if it is literally falling apart, and even then only a small piece at a time.

 

[KittyKat]

The pH is fine for the vast majority of freshwater fish.

I consider 0.25 ppm ammonia to be too high. Are you cycling the filter with household ammonia? Just sitting the water in the tank doesn't achieve much other than having water that's sat in a tank. If you don't know about fish-less cycles, I recommend that you read the information about them in the beginner's resources. I very strongly recommend that you do a fish-less cycle with household ammonia. I also think it might be a good idea if you read the 60 litre aquarium log which I link to in my signature.

Air pumps have no relevance to ammonia unless you have an undergravel filter. What filter do you have in the tank? An internal?

The filter bacteria which convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate live on the filter media. If you remove the media, you remove the bacteria. If there are no bacteria, your fish will be poisoned by ammonia and nitrite, which often leads to death. Basically, try to NOT replace the media until the filter is cycled with ammonia (preferably, I find the average cycle with fish a bit cruel), then replace maybe one sponge at a time and I recommend that you increase the amount of bio-media. But the media isn't really relevant for the moment anyway

 

[pauloh]

hi, apologies if im in the wrong area or this is a regular question but i have a juwel 190l tank, upgrading from keeping coldwater to tropical fish, i have had the tank for 2 weeks(ish) i bought it second hand, i performed a water test last week and one this week, with a 50% change in between, my levels are reading PH 7.6 (both tests) nitrite 0(both) nitrate 5.0 and ammonia was what looks like 0 to 0.25, 0.25 at the very maximum, is the ph too high? is the ammonia level dangerous at .25? would an air pump combat the ammonia or cause more stress for the fish? i think i will replace the entire media but at this point dont have the funds to do it (juwel filter media quite expensive) appreciate the help

The PH is fine for all but the most sensitive fish, what are you keeping?

The ammonia is not yet dangerous at 0.25, but keep an eye on it and if it gets to any more than that do a nice big water change to get it down.

Please DON'T replace your filter media! They house all of the good bacteria that keep your fish alive and water safe. You only need to change the media if it is literally falling apart, and even then only a small piece at a time.

you wont like this but to start with i had to put some fish in almost 3 hours after buying it, the woman i bought it from insisted we took the fish as well, which after a few days i moved them to my local aquatics shop at the first chance to re-home, after that i changed the water 100% and on the advice of the local dealer left it running for a week, my first purchase was 2 guppies and 5 tetras, i lost 2 tetras and later lost a sword tail after making the mistake of introducing 2 males, (thinking about it i must have had the tank bit longer, probably 4 weeks this sun) i now have 2guppies, 2 swordtails (1male an 1 female) 3 neon tetras and a male fighter

 

[KittyKat]

you wont like this but to start with i had to put some fish in almost 3 hours after buying it, the woman i bought it from insisted we took the fish as well, which after a few days i moved them to my local aquatics shop at the first chance to re-home, after that i changed the water 100% and on the advice of the local dealer left it running for a week, my first purchase was 2 guppies and 5 tetras, i lost 2 tetras and later lost a sword tail after making the mistake of introducing 2 males, (thinking about it i must have had the tank bit longer, probably 4 weeks this sun) i now have 2guppies, 2 swordtails (1male an 1 female) 3 neon tetras and a male fighter

You're right that I'm not liking the sound of this. The week without fish would have starved off over 50% of the bacteria the filter had to start with.

Basically, you're in a fish-in cycle situation, so I recommend that you keep your ammonia and nitrite as close to 0 ppm as possible and never let either reach 0.25 ppm by doing water changes with dechlorinated and temperature matched water. You may need to do water changes every day even. I expect your tank to take at least another 3-5 weeks to fully cycled, so you should not even think about any more fish until your ammonia and nitrite readings are a beautiful 0 ppm every day for 1-2 weeks.

For the moment, after reading about fish-in cycles, you should investigate some undemanding plants like Java moss, Anubias, Java fern, etc, as they will help with the ammonia.

Also, check the nitrite reading of your tap water before dechlorinating and ammonia after dechlorinating, and use a double dose of a dechlorinator which deals with ammonia (like Prime, for example) when doing all water changes until your filter is fully cycled.

The two tetras and the swordtail probably died from ammonia poisoning.