False Readings?

[Vodalian]

Well my brother called me today asking me about his 30 gallon he is cycling at the moment. He was wondering what was up with the test kit showing high ammonia and high nitrite. He says his kit shows 1ppm of ammonia and .5 of nitrite... he doesnt have a nitrate test kit. His temperature is at 78 and PH is 6.5... I couldnt answer his question for him so I decided to ask here what his problem is.

He is 1 week into his cycle and is doing a cycle with fish. The fish seem a bit stressed he said but not to bad... I have read that some test kits give false ammonia readings... could this be his problem? He has a Red Sea freshwater master test kit and his ammonia test involves 2 parts. He also tested his tank before a water change and ammonia and nitrite were at that level, and then 8hrs after a water change and they were at the same level.

So is his test kit just showing false ammonia readings? Or is it something else?

 

[bogusmove]

I see no reason you should believe the readings are false.

Seeing 1ppm ammonia and 0.5ppm nitrite is perfectly within what you might expect 1 week into a cycle so the readings need not be false.

"stressed he said but not to bad" is may be reasonable, depending on the fish for the readings you quote.

I think it is possible the readings could not change significantly in 8 hours. It probably depends on the feeding cycle.

He could test the tap water and see what that says. It is possible for it to contain ammonia and nitrite I believe, but most tap water is ok AFAIK. It's certainly very likely the reading will be different from that of water in a tank 1 week into a cycle with fish anyway.

 

[fishkers]

I wouldn't think the test readings are false. They sure aren't bad though for just starting a cycle. Ammonia and Nitrites won't always drop fast. Water changes will eventually lower this. This can all depend though on the fish you have in your tank and how much and what kind of food is being fed. I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Vodalian]

Well my bro called today again and he is now 11 days into his cycle. He has tiger barbs in the tank ( I know not a very hardy fish to cycle with but he thinks they are fine ) and he said today one of the barbs was stuck to his filter intake. He freed the fish which started to float to the surface. It then swam around a while... but started floating upsidedown to the surface again. He fished it out and put it in his hospital tank, but it passed away soon after.

He wanted to know what was going on in the tank. Here is the bad part... his water is at 78F p.h. is up to 7.4, ammonia he said was showing 7.5!, nitrite is .5 no nitrate test kit. He said in the past 4 days his P.H has gone up nearly 1 point and his ammonia has spiked. He hasnt changed anything and isnt over feeding. What could be the cause of this problem? He said all the other fish in there look fine... Is his test reading off now? or is there a possibility the tank ammonia spiked? He did a 20% water change after he tested the water and got the barb out. I suggested moving the barbs to his hospital tank just incase... but he didnt know if this would screw up the cycle or not.

Anyone have some info on this situation?

 

[Tolak]

First of all here's a little chart to help you understand cycling;

You have to understand that this can vary, from as short as 2 weeks with a seeded filter, to as long as 6 to 8 weeks. Variations in pH are common in cycling tanks, and nothing to be concerned about.

False ammonia readings are common to tests using one reagent, as they detect ammonium as ammonia. Products such as Ammo-Lock convert ammonia to ammonium. The tests using two reagents won't give a false positive unless the reagents are over 18 months old.

I would suggest doing daily 20% water changes until the ammonia & nitrite have gone down to zero. What is happening in that tank is normal, and water changes are the usual way of keeping levels down to a range where they don't kill the fish.