Here We Go 12 Hrs Test Results.... Alway Want Comments Please

[Ginga@139]

Ok here we go
Tank still nice warm 29c
Dosed up 5ml of ammonia at 11pm last night

12th Test 1050am tuesday 18th
Ammonia 2pm
Nitrates 10ppm
Nitrites O.5ppm

Ok tell me about my results ... ive never had nitrite this low.. good? bad?
ammonia this seem to be eating up abou 3ml every 12 hrs correct??
nitrates doubled to 10.. good? or Bad?

please as normal all coment welcome
thanks Ginga
.....................................................................

11th Test 8.30pm monday 17th
Ammonia Oppm
Nitrates 5ppm
Nitrites 1.0ppm
PH 8


ok so with these results im going to add another 3.5 ml of ammonia ..yes thats correct ??? everybody please tell me yess
tommorrow i can check at 12 hrs . off work for next 10 days so hoping to finish this off by then .. all fingers crossed ..pleaseee



Ok Added 3.5ml of ammonia at about 9am this morning
been out all day.. had great day thanks
so results as below
How are these results for 12hrs???
10th test
9pm sunday 16th
Ammonia 2ppm
Nitrates 5ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm

so conculsion
ammoinia up to 2ppm from 0.25 this morning
Nitrates same at 5ppm
nitrites up to 2ppm from 1ppm this morning

please tell me what you think

8am 16th sunday
9th Test
Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrates 5ppm
Nitrites 1.0ppm



8th Test
Ammonia 2.0ppm
Nitrates 5ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm
PH 8

7th Test
14/08/09
Ammonia 0.0ppm
Nitrates 5ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm

was suprized to see ammonia at "O"
nitrates dropped to 5 and nitrotes the same
Do i now add another 3ml of ammonia to the tank???

6th Test
13/08/09
Ammonia 1.0ppm
Nitrates 10ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm




12/08/09
5th Test
Ammonia Lighter than 2ppm but not quite 1ppm
Nitrates 40ppm
Nitrites 2ppm

11/08/09 8.15pm
4th Test
Ammonia 2.0ppm
Nitrates 40ppm
Nitrites 2.0ppm



so were these figuress going??
Are they going in right direction


3rd Test 10/08/09
8.30pm
PH 7.6
Ammonia 4ppm
Nitrates 20ppm
Nitrites 2ppm




2nd Test 9/8/09
8pm
Ph 7.6
Ammonia .. 4.0 ppm but not quite light enough to be 2.0ppm
Nitrates ... looks lighter than 40ppm but not quite 20 ppm
Nitrites 5ppm



1st test 8/8/09
8pm
PH 7.6
Ammonia 4 ppm
Nitrates 40ppm
Nitrites 2ppm

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I haven't got a clue what's going on in there - have you got any plants or anything strange in your filter?

Your Nitrates should follow an upward trend, starting at the same level as your tap water and ending up of the chart.

Yours have so far followed the following pattern:

40 - 30 - 20 - 40 - 40 - 10 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 10

Your Nitrites should also follow a similar uptrend which then suddenly comes back down your is so far:

2 - 5 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 0.5

Your Ammonia seems to be following the right pattern.


It all seems very odd, I'd be woried that you've got some kind of ammonia remover in your filter (zeolite - I think it's normally called).

Did you have any mature media?
How big is your tank?
Is your filter new?
What make and model is the filter?
What have you got in the tank - decorations / plants etc

For the cycle to be working you have to create Nitrates, there isn't any being created so the cycle doesn't look like it's moving at all but your ammonia is disapearing.




Also just noticed your tank is 65L and your adding 5ml - this is way too much! You're putting in nearly 8ppm which will stall the cycle. You should be putting in more like 3ml

 

[Ginga@139]

Brillant just what i need

I haven't got a clue what's going on in there - have you got any plants or anything strange in your filter? NO plants No Fish Just 1 Deco Shark been in since begining
Your Nitrates should follow an upward trend, starting at the same level as your tap water and ending up of the chart.

Yours have so far followed the following pattern:

40 - 30 - 20 - 40 - 40 - 10 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 10

Your Nitrites should also follow a similar uptrend which then suddenly comes back down your is so far:

2 - 5 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 0.5

Your Ammonia seems to be following the right pattern.


It all seems very odd, I'd be woried that you've got some kind of ammonia remover in your filter (zeolite - I think it's normally called).

Did you have any mature media? NO How big is your tank?
Is your filter new? Flter Brand New INTERPET power filterPF2
What make and model is the filter? only acarbon filter and a plain filter insideWhat have you got in the tank - decorations / plants etc Gravel, Sharky sort dec hes been on since New

For the cycle to be working you have to create Nitrates, there isn't any being created so the cycle doesn't look like it's moving at all but your ammonia is disapearing.




Also just noticed your tank is 65L and your adding 5ml - this is way too much! You're putting in nearly 8ppm which will stall the cycle. You should be putting in more like 3ml Only adde 5ml last night up til now been adding about 3.5 ml

 

[Tropical_Fish]

definatley don't add 5ml again - it's too much!

You can probably ditch the carbon filter and replace with a standard bit of filter media but I wouldn't expect it to cause any problems.

You'll have to wait for someone more knowledgeable but from what I know it's a cycle.

Ammonia gets converted into Nitrites, Nitrites are then converted into Nitrates

You are reporting that your ammonia is dropping but then the rest of the cycle is not happening. If you had missed your Nitrite spike you would still expect to see a large rise of Nitrate.

Waterdrop posted some figures a while back on my thread which said that for every 1ppm of ammonia that you put into the tank you will create roughly 3.6ppm of Nitrate

So with you putting in around 50ppm of Ammonia (that was a quick guess) you should have around 180ppm of Nitrate.

Are you sure you are doing the Nitrate test correctly? It's the hardest one to do.

You add the drops from the first bottle, then you have to shake the hell out of the second bottle for atleast 30 seconds - longer is better, then after adding those drops you have to shake the hell out of the tube for atleast 2 minutes - it should leave your arm aching!

Also with the Nitrite test do the drops turn purple when they hit the bottom of the test tube?

 

[Ginga@139]

definatley don't add 5ml again - it's too much!

You can probably ditch the carbon filter and replace with a standard bit of filter media but I wouldn't expect it to cause any problems. i will ditch the black filter and replace with the normal foam filter
You'll have to wait for someone more knowledgeable but from what I know it's a cycle.

Ammonia gets converted into Nitrites, Nitrites are then converted into Nitrates

You are reporting that your ammonia is dropping but then the rest of the cycle is not happening. If you had missed your Nitrite spike you would still expect to see a large rise of Nitrate.

Waterdrop posted some figures a while back on my thread which said that for every 1ppm of ammonia that you put into the tank you will create roughly 3.6ppm of Nitrate

So with you putting in around 50ppm of Ammonia (that was a quick guess) you should have around 180ppm of Nitrate.

Are you sure you are doing the Nitrate test correctly? It's the hardest one to do. think im doing this correct
You add the drops from the first bottle, then you have to shake the hell out of the second bottle for atleast 30 seconds - longer is better, then after adding those drops you have to shake the hell out of the tube for atleast 2 minutes - it should leave your arm aching!

Also with the Nitrite test do the drops turn purple when they hit the bottom of the test tube? Yes they turn purple as they hit the bottom

 

[Tropical_Fish]

There's your answer then!!

The drops turning purple when they hit the bottom means that it is off the scale, your Nitrite levels are currently so high that they are unreadable!

That explains where you are now! You're right in the middle of your Nitrite Spike.

I wouldn't ditch the carbon filter just yet as it may have some of the bacteria on it.

That means things are going well - Keep dosing 3ml of Ammonia once a day and monitor the Nitrite Levels, if the drops turn purple as they hit the bottom you don't need to wait - you know they're still high - all of a sudden the Nitrite level will drop (usually about 10-14 days after the spike started) at this point the drops won't turn purple as they hit the bottom.

 

[Ginga@139]

There's your answer then!!

The drops turning purple when they hit the bottom means that it is off the scale, your Nitrite levels are currently so high that they are unreadable!

That explains where you are now! You're right in the middle of your Nitrite Spike.

I wouldn't ditch the carbon filter just yet as it may have some of the bacteria on it. !@!??? you dont know how lucky ive been just spent last five mis elbow deep in warm tank water , changed black fliter at moment its in bootom of sink nearly dumped it in other sink full of tap water...its black quite course does not look like it could filter any thing really
That means things are going well - Keep dosing 3ml of Ammonia once a day and monitor the Nitrite Levels, if the drops turn purple as they hit the bottom you don't need to wait - you know they're still high - all of a sudden the Nitrite level will drop (usually about 10-14 days after the spike started) at this point the drops won't turn purple as they hit the bottom.

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Carbon media is usally put in to remove medications from the water or to make the water clearer. It's not as good at holding bacteria as normal media but it will hold some. The bacteria will cling to the surface of the media.

I would personally keep it in but at the same time it would be better removed at some point.

Always worth waiting for a second opinion as well!

 

[Ginga@139]

Carbon media is usally put in to remove medications from the water or to make the water clearer. It's not as good at holding bacteria as normal media but it will hold some. The bacteria will cling to the surface of the media.

I would personally keep it in but at the same time it would be better removed at some point.

Always worth waiting for a second opinion as well!
, ive put back in , just as a 2nd question got filter in back right hand corner if tank facing forward is this the best place for the filter or is there a better place??

 

[Tropical_Fish]

You just want as much flow around the tank,

I had mine pointing roughly into the middle from the edge but it was too powerful for the fish - mine now points backwards at the aquarium glass. I don't think there is a right or wrong solution - what you want to try and avoid is dead spots though.