Water Tests

[matmaster]

this is what I got

PH 8.4 or off the chart
KH 300 or off the chart
Gh 300 or off the chart
Nitrite 0 never changed
nitrate 160
ammonia 0

What is this telling me to do??
I have read and read still have no clue.

 

[soritan]

Are you fishless cycling, just now starting out, or do you currently have a stocked tank?

 

[matmaster]

I have had the tank going for 6 months with 10 fish fifty gallons

 

[soritan]

May I ask, what is your Water Changing schedule like?

 

[matmaster]

I have never done a big change. I add ten gallons maybe ever two to three weeks. I had brown algee and just cleaned my tank and add ten gallons this weekend and check water and it was like this. Fish look ok

 

[soritan]

So, do you actively clean and remove water before you add it, or do you just add what evaporated?

 

[matmaster]

just add what evaporated

 

[soritan]

You'd do your fish a lot of favors if you did an true Water Change and Gravel clean.

There aren't too many ways that you can eliminate nitrAte, but the easiest one is to do a water Change, which means that you remove water from the tank and replace it with fresh, treated water.

It sounds like your ammonia and nitrites are in good order, but everything else needs handling.

My understanding is, nitrAtes effect your fish internally, so its effects generally aren't noticed externally until it's too late.

I'm sure other, more experienced people on this board will have far more accurate and complete information for you.

But doing a water change in the mean time probably wuoldn't hurt.

 

[matmaster]

thanks it a place to start

 

[soritan]

I'd only do a change of about 20% or so, so as not to shock your fish.

 

[dwarfgourami]

A ggod way is to get a cheap gravel vac and lightly hoover the substrate while taking the water out; this way you will get rid of a lot of the waste that would otherwise turn into nitrates. If you take out 20-25% a week that should make a difference. Also, be careful not to overfeed as that's another source of nitrates.

 

[Bryan1957]

Have you tested your tap water? If you try and get the readings under control quickly you will probably shock your fish with the clean water. The hardness of your water is another issue to be concerned about. Do you have an airstone in the tank. That will help provide oxygen while you slowly get the water conditions under control. You can't really "shortcut" with tank maintenance, it will require more time in the end when you try and recover from the conditions in the tank. Please go slowly with small water changes if there is a big difference between the tap water and the tank water. You might need to change small amounts daily to keep from shocking the fish in the tank until you get the water stats correct.
Bryan

 

[matmaster]

What do you do for hardness

 

[modernhamlet]

What do you do for hardness

Depends... what is the hardness (KH and GH) of your tapwater. Chances are you won't need to do anything, as the fish have adapted to the water, but just want to make sure there isn't something else going on...

Your real problem is nitrates. That's way too high. Dangerously so.

Water changes:
25% every other day until nitrates are under 50ppm
Then 25% weekly or so to keep the nitrates below that level.

Make sense?

 

[matmaster]

That is the same hardness as my tap water.