Hi Steve From East Midlands Nottingham Uk (Worried New Fish Keeper)

[killerwhale786]

A big Hi to everyone, My names Steve and im from Nottingham UK and  my story so far is:
 
i have a tropical tank 95 litres running and setup nearly 2 weeks,
i have 7 guppies 1 pleco and 2 shrimps
two powerful water filters running,
 
im have an API MASTERS KIT to test water, 
 
now my results are showing something strange... 
 
i have had an ammonia spike
then a slight nitrite spike
and upto 50 ppm nitrates all within two weeks.
 
 
i have done 50% water changes every 2 days or nearly everyday,
 
but no matter how much i changed the water the nitrates seemed to be high,
so i tested my tap water directly and to my shock they indicated high nitrates, over 50ppm
 
1. no fish has died
2. they seem active
 
now can this tap water be deadly for my fish down the line?
my PH Is at a nice 7.6
 
but nitrate is only worrying me. 
 
any advice is appreciated. also any solution to rectify if dangerous...
 
 
 
 

 

[DrRob]

Welcome to the forum.
 
50ppm isn't too bad news, unless you're keeping very sensitive fish it should be fine.
 
The only ways to bring it down would be using live plants to eat up some of the nitrates, but this would probably require fairly heavy planting if there is nitrate coming in from the tap. Alternatively you'd have to mess with your water, which opens a whole can of trouble.
 
Do watch that nitrite, nasty stuff. We're normally happy about cycles ending when the nitrate starts rising, but I suspect that yours started at 50.

 

[killerwhale786]

im willing to go down the heavy planting way and make it eco friendly, green 

also nitrite was 0.25 but now 0 after 70 water change.
i was hoping to keep angel fish...

 

[Blondielovesfish]

It sound that what you've gone through with the ammonia and nitrite spike was a process called cycling. If you want to read up on it and how to do it so its safer for the fish, have a look at the Beginners Resource Centre and have a good read there.
 
I agree with DrRob about adding live plants, if you have lots of fast growing plants then they will eat more of the nitrate than slower growing plants.
 
Angel fish aren't suited to tanks as small as yours unfortunately.
 
Do you know what type of pleco it is that you have?

 

[DrRob]

It sound that what you've gone through with the ammonia and nitrite spike was a process called cycling. If you want to read up on it and how to do it so its safer for the fish, have a look at the Beginners Resource Centre and have a good read there.

 
My only concern with that is that we haven't actually seen a nitrate rise if the tap is churning out 50ppm and those nitrites could continue to spike up.

 

[Staxx]

Im in ng3 area and my tap is about 20-40ppm too lol

 

[killerwhale786]

hi staxx im in ng6, so how do you deal with this problem? any advice is appreciated. 

 

[killerwhale786]

its simlar plec to the one in my pic.

 

[Staxx]

hi staxx im in ng6, so how do you deal with this problem? any advice is appreciated. 

 
nothing at all. tbh not much you can do. but keep up with water changes so it doesnt get too high.
 
my tanks also quite heavily planted and plants use nitrates.

 

[killerwhale786]

thanks staxx, thats good, also my nitrite have had a spike today, 0.50ppm and ammonia 0.25ppm nitrate 40ppm
iv done a 20% water change.

 

[Staxx]

yeah. its going to spike before your tank is cycled. just keep up the water changes. or if it gets too much il happily donate some mature media if you can replace it with new media.

 

[killerwhale786]

yeh i dont mind, whats the purpose of new media? also wouldnt a squeeze of ur media in a container which i add to my tank be enough to kick up good bacteria?
sorry im total novice, i probably sound blonde lmao

 

[Staxx]

yeah mate my media would speed up your cycle a lot. my tanks been running a year and a half with no problems.
 
th new media would be to replace the media i would be donating you. so i give you mature media and you give me new(or some of yours) to put back in my filter 

 

[muselistener]