Double Check On Water Conditions....

[-germ-]

Bit unsure....
I have NO nitrite and NO nitrate but a tiny little bit of ammonia, is my tank cycling, if not what happened to my high(ish) levels of nitrite and nitrate? Can the de-nitrifying bacteria come 1st?
If not whats going on.....
doh!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

thought you said yesterday that was the last of your questions??! lol

just kidding btw, don't feel you can't ask!

finding it hard to remember what's happened with your tank, is there any chance you've kept a log of what the readings were each day? if so can you post it up please it'd be really helpful.

also what test kit are you using (again sure i've already been told, can't remember everything!)

 

[-germ-]

Umm... No and no
I originally had mid-low nitrite and nitrate with medium ammonia (based on the position on the chart), i haven't got the make of the test kit but i'll ask my gf later and post it on here. I think i may be using too many treatments on my water-changes.
That thread was huge though, felt sorry for people who may have viewed it assuming there was something interesting..........
(and it contained a few rants)
Ps. Posting fish doesn't sound like a good idea.... had some interest in my angel. How exactly do you post a fish?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what treatments are you using on water change?

i've not shipped fish myself however i think the basic principle is that you bag them up with loads of air in the bag, package them up with a heat pack to maintain temp and very very securley wrapped up. pack them up and post them just before the last collection of the day and send them special delivery for before midday the next day (make sure it's not over a weekend!) and keep your fingers crossed. best to check with someone who'se done it though, i may have missed something vital.

 

[-germ-]

No doesn't sound like my kind of thing, i'll try and organise a meeting.
Sea-chem prime, Spira bio-cycler, Tap-safe de chlorinator, Ph balancer and an enzyme based de-stress treatment. (god put like that i'm surprised they don't glow)
I'm doing 20-40% water change everyday with the water correctly dosed with all chemicals. Half using a gravel filter and half with a siphon for hard to reach areas.
I'm wondering; i have some filter parts i've been exchanging every now and then that didn't come with the filter. One for phosphate and nitrogen based toxins and one for ammonia, when i swap them i leave the unused one in my smaller tank. The ammonia one hasn't been in for ages. Could the nitrogen removing pad be good enough to hinder bacteria build up? (daft question, i assume not, but i'm a bit muddled)
Ta.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ah man, no wonder your readings are all over!!!!

treat your water before it goes into the tank witha good dechlorinator..... that's it! the rest is rubbish, your just wasting money and sending your water levels haywire

in your filter you need sponges, that is all. sling the rest out.

well you can go with other filter media, like wool, bio balls that sort of thing. but nothing that's removing ammonia, nitrite, phosphate etc. you just need boilogical media so the bacteria have plenty to build up on. they're perfectly good at getting rid of the nasties from your water if you just give them a chance to develop


you need to simplify things big time!

 

[-germ-]

Ummm.... had a bit of a panicked spending splurge when i realised the problems i could be facing......
Have to use the ph adjuster my tap water is extremely acidic (so bad my gf has been testing other peoples water to compare ) but if i stick to that, the tapsafe and keep the sea-chem for emergency water treatment will that be an improvement?
The original filter had:
cottonwool
sponge
bio-noodles
charcoal
so i added some extras
Perhaps i've been a bit hasty again. Doh.
My gf is pregnant as well and very ill these past few days so perhaps i could filter or chemically treat her, hmmm..... wigs any advice for that one?
Thanks again wiggles more mistakes and fish related nonsense to follow (probably)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

how acidic is acidic? Ian's tank runs at a pH of 5.5 and is fine

of the original filter media you needed to keep

cottonwool
sponge
bio-noodles

sling the charcoal, replace it with some more of the above. don't worry about adding anything else.

congratulations on the baby! for your girlfriend i prescribe regular chocolate changes and added TLC

 

[-germ-]

I'd go for a nice white gold necklace with a big bucket as a pendant (sorry bunch).
I'll get an exact ph reading tonight and post tomorrow.
Cheers

 

[Miss Wiggle]

he he sure she'd be delighted!!

 

[-germ-]

Nope she'd prefer the chocolate, must be losing my touch....
I forgot the tester kits name, removed the specialist filter teabag thing and surprise; nitrite this morning, Ph of my tapwater is about 5 but myseachem ph regulator gets it to bob on 7.
Looks like i'm starting from the beginning......

 

[Tessla]

Totally agree with Miss Wiggle, you're adding all sorts of unnecessary things to your tank. If I were you I'd forget everything but the Seachem Prime and possible some bio-spira, though with such a low pH you'll probably want to do something about preventing pH swings (much more dangerous than a constant pH of 5, 6, 8 or any other numbers commonly mentioned as "dangerous" ).

Better idea than spending lots of money on pH adjusting chemicals: check out your GH (general hardness) and KH (buffering capacity/carbonate hardness) and adjust those. Link in my signature on water hardness has more detailed information on that subject, and they're much more important than pH. If you get you KH up to a reasonable level, pH will follow.

Seachem's pH regulator is changing the buffering capacity of your water, which is a good thing but it can also be done by other means. Adding bicarbonate of soda (that's the stuff found in the baking aisle, it's pretty cheap) when you do water changes will bump your KH up, keep your pH stable and since you'll have an alkaline buffer present, the pH will go up as well. Seachem is doing pretty much the same thing except with a phosphate buffer and a higher price tag, however it is also removing chlorine and chloramine (that's good, and means you wouldn't need any other dechlorinators) and ammonia (likely just locking up the ammonia but this will affect your ammonia readings). Other methods include adding a bit of crushed coral or shells to your tank, which will release calcium carbonate into your tank slowly over time, but be careful with pH swings when doing water changes by any of these methods.

 

[rdd1952]

Have to use the ph adjuster my tap water is extremely acidic (so bad my gf has been testing other peoples water to compare ) but if i stick to that, the tapsafe and keep the sea-chem for emergency water treatment will that be an improvement?

As mentioned, get rid of ALL of your chemicals except the dechlorinator. Even if your pH is low, the absolute worst thing you can do is use pH adjusters. And the lower it is, the worse it is to use them. Fish can adjust to a stable pH. What causes problems is one that is up and down. And that's exactly what you get with them.

If you want to raise your pH, do it woth something like crushed coral. That is what is used in most cichlid tanks to keep the pH in the upper 7s and low 8s that most cichlids prefer. It's a lot safer and easier on your fish.

Also, why are you doing so many water change? A weekly 25% water change is plenty unless you are extremely overstocked or are cycling with fish and need to lower ammonia and nitrite.

 

[-germ-]

Also, why are you doing so many water change? A weekly 25% water change is plenty unless you are extremely overstocked or are cycling with fish and need to lower ammonia and nitrite.

The latter of the two....
I've removed the extra filter bag Tess and am only using my dechlorinator (which also supposedly has some sort of bacteria promoter doubt it). I don't want anything to effect my ammonia readings so i'm avoiding the use of my Prime for the time being.
The ph adjuster doesn't seem to fluctuate at all, maybe i've got a good one?
Testing twice a day, early afternoon with no water change and in the evening after the water change.
Ph is always steady.
Also, gf did her tests last night and this morning; the ammonia according to the tester is still very slightly present while my ammonia gauge (bought yesterday) states there is none. The nitrites have mysteriously disappeared altogether and the nitrate has risen ever so slightly, to a negligible amount. Although i only did one 20% change yesterday....
(KH and GH i'll mention to my gf, science is not my thing.)
So it might be cycled, tests to continue for the next week.
Heres hoping.....
Cheers Tess+Rdd

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah that pH is pretty low, ph adjusters are notoriously dodgy though, get a bag of crushed coral and sprinkle a teeny bit into your tank, it'll take a few days of water changes to get the ph adjuster out of the water and then some tweaking to get the pH right, but with something like crushed coral it's much more stable and once you've got it right you don't have to mess with it again.