0Ppm Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite

[wulfie]

So, I've had my 2.5 gallon tank up and running for almost 2 weeks now with 3 small guppies in it. I initially had a bacteria bloom, which has cleared up, finally, but now when testing my water with the api master kit, I'm showing 0ppm in ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite. Is there anything I can do to help this tank get cycled? Any help/info would be greatly appreciated

 

[frodo11]

Wait ...

 

[wulfie]

and continue with my partial water changes or ?

 

[frodo11]

I don't think your tank's cycle has actually gotten started ... presume you're using some sort of filtration ... with a larger tank you might wait till there was some ammonia reading before you began water changes (of the at least daily variety)... but with 2.5 gal, don't think it would hurt to do change a gallon (treated with something like Prime) a day, starting now, conditions change fast in a small tank

 

[wulfie]

so far I've been doing partial water changes, not quite a gallon, every other day and checking my ammonia/nitrite/nitrate daily since as you said, it's a smaller tank and yes, it's filtered, running a Marina i25 filter

 

[frodo11]

Keep on keepin' on

 

[CezzaXV]

What kind of test kit have you got? The nitrate reading seems unusual. Even if your tank had not cycled yet (so no nitrates being produced) most of us have at least some level of nitrate in our tap water.

 

[wulfie]

api freshwater master kit

 

[the_lock_man]

The API nitrate test is a bit of bind to get right - you know it says shake the no.2 bottle for 30 seconds, or something similar. YOu have to seriously shake that bottle, bang it on a table a few times, to get the powder reagent re-dissolved into the liquid.

I'm also concerned about the 0ppm ammonia, though (I inferred that you hadn't fishless-cycled your filter), even with partial water changes, you would still see something. I'd suggest you take a sample to your favourite LFS, and ask them to write down the levels, and then post themn back on here.

 

[wulfie]

last time I took a sample to my LFS, they said that my levels were good, they didn't mention what they were, but they did use an api master kit and got the same results I'm getting now I'll test again later today and really beat the dickens out of that second bottle for the nitrite test and I just tested my tapwater for nitrates and it's definately under 5ppm and yes, I beat the dickens outta test bottle #2 and the solution is cloudy when I add it to the tube

 

[the_lock_man]

last time I took a sample to my LFS, they said that my levels were good, they didn't mention what they were, but they did use an api master kit and got the same results I'm getting now

Which is why I said to get them to tell you the actual levels - 0ppm nitrate is not good, and 0ppm ammonia in an uncycled tank doesn't add up.

 

[wulfie]

just tested my tank water and am just now starting to show signs of nitrite, the water in the test kit wasn't blue (0ppm) but was just approaching the 2nd color down on the test chart, still no ammonia though

 

[TheJ0kerrr]

It took me a whole month to finally read some ammonia when I cycled my 10 gallons with 3 fish. Then it took another 2 months to get some nitrates... i never read anything but 0ppm of nitrites throughout though.

My guess is if you're not overfeeding and you keep doing daily water changes, then you can go a long way with 0ppm accross the board... Try to wait until you actually read ammonia or nitrite before making another water change. That way, you'll know a little better where you're at.

Just be careful to test often enough so you can react quickly when you get a spike of anything.