All Test Results 0

[zoogy]

I've been fish-in cycling a 29 gal tank for over 4 weeks now and my water test results have not changed significantly for almost 2 weeks without any water changes. My stats are:

Amonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
ph - 7.7
temp - 78

My 2 little fish seem only slightly stressed and I've got a nice crop of brown algea so I can't help but think there has to be a bit of amonia in there somewhere, but it's not showing up on the tests (API freshwater master kit).

Any ideas?? Can the water conditioner mask the results? I've been using Prime to remove chlorine from my tap water.... on the bottle it says it converts amonia into a non-toxic form that can be removed by the biofilter. Lfs guy said it's good for fish-in cycling, but now I'm starting to wonder if it isn't removing all the amonia. Has anyone ever used it?

oh, and my tap water reads 0 amonia, 0 nitrite, & 0 nitrate with a ph of 8.6. Why would my ph be 8.6 out of the tap and 7.7 the next day?

Thanks for all the advice. You guys are the best!

 

[Uriel]

Most people on here reccomend using seachem prime as water conditioner as it will act as a buffer for small amounts of ammonia/nitrite and is also very cost effective. Do you have live plants in your tank if so it is possible that they are using up the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and keeping it below readable levels.

I would not reccomend going over 2 weeks without a water change personally even with 0 on your stats. Things can build up in tank that you may not be able to test for and also changing water introduces trace elements that may be used up especially if you do have plants.

I think co2 in tap water can change the ph and it then drops as the co2 gases off. this is nothing to be concerned about.

 

[Skins]

pH 8.6 dropping down to 7.7 is proberly carbon dioxide gasing off. When you next test for nitrate(tap&tank water), Give bottle two from the test kit several taps on a hard surface followed by a severe shake. The reactants in bottle two tend to seperate and collect at the bottom presenting the fishkeeper with inaccurate results.

Keith.

 

[waterdrop]

If this tank has been Fish-In cycling for 4 weeks then there's a good possibility that there are now enough A-Bacs and N-Bacs to handle the bioload of the two small fish.

It's tricky. There's always the worry that with only two small fish in a tank as large as a 29G that you might still suffer mini-spikes later. In fact, it is usually important to make quite small additions (only one more small fish at first, for instance, then a couple weeks before the next small addition.)

The filter will eventually cycle just fine even when you mostly measure zero ppm ammonia. There is plenty of ammonia flowing from the fish to the bacteria despite a reading of zero ppm (if you think about it, zero ppm is always the reading on a healthy tank that has a large working biofilter!)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[zoogy]

Thanks to all for the great advice. Uriel, I tapped the nitrate bottle #2 like you said and retested. Sure enough theres just slightly over 5ppm nitrate, 0 amonia, & 0 nitrite. So I guess I'm cycled for this fish load. I did a 25% wc and cleaned the filter and the fish & plants look happy & healthy. I'll watch it for a week then add one fish. WaaHoooo! I'm so excited!!!