Initial Water Test Results (Help)

[garycooper34]

Hi Everyone,
 
I'm new to this forum so please excuse me if I have put this in the wrong place.
 
 
My brother used to keep tropical fish when we were kids, so I have a little bit of knowledge about tropical fish and their care, but wanted some assistance with my water quality results.
 
 
I have had the tank running for about a week now and had it running a few days before I put any fish in. I used to TetraTec AquaSafe and used TetraTec SafeStart before I put any fish in. For now, I have only put a small handful of fish in the tank and very hardy ones on the advice of the LFS (very very very knowledgable people that stopped me from wanting to buy more).
 
All fish seem extremely happy, they're all very active, no perculiar behaviour, all feed properly and a few of them have also been trying to mate.
 
I have been been keeping a record of each test doing some water tests every day. Over the last 3 days or so, the results have been fairly constant (I've kept the temperature for my record while I have been playing around with the thermostat on the heater and the thermometer in the tank.:
 
Temperature C:              25
pH:                                 7.6
KH mg/l:                         200
GH mg/l:                        350
Nitrate (NO3-) mg/l:       40
Nitrite (NO2-) mg/l:        0
Ammonia NH3 / NH4+:  0.7
 
 
The fish in the tank are a few dalmation mollies and a few platys. I have been thinking about adding a small amount of marine salt and once the tank is established keep clown loaches, angel fish, neon tetras and anything else that takes my fancy. As a note, I live in a very very hard water area - so hard in fact that water fixings turn pink.
 
From the water test results above, is there anything you would count as something that needs action upon given all the information I have given and the fact the tank isn't established yet, anything I need to monitor or water changes etc?
 
I have thought about doing a partial water change to help reduce the ammonia but as there is currently the SafeStart in there, would this hinder the tank overall?
 
 
Some help would be much appreciated.
 
Thanks,
Gary

 

[TallTree01]

Everything is as it should be. Except that massive ammonia reading. You'll need to do tonnes of water changes to get that ammonia out before all your fish die.

 

[garycooper34]

Ok,
 
Thank you for your quick response. I was hoping I was doing everything by the book and the ammonia is as I expected. I will do a 25% water change this afternoon and another on Tuesday?
 
 
Like I say, I have wisely started with only a few fish in case something went wrong.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Like I say, I have wisely started with only a few fish in case something went wrong.

Sorry to say but you

Ok,
 
Thank you for your quick response. I was hoping I was doing everything by the book and the ammonia is as I expected. I will do a 25% water change this afternoon and another on Tuesday?
 
 
Like I say, I have wisely started with only a few fish in case something went wrong.

Sorry to say but you need to carry out daily water changes for a little while to ensure your fish are ok. I suggest you take a look here http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/ specifically the section on cycling to understand what the implications of only waiting a few days before putting fish in.

You need to look at the fish-in cycling section. Good luck!

 

[garycooper34]

Thank you for that link. Very useful.
 
I have just done a 50% water change and will test this afternoon and monitor the fish and see how it goes.
 
 
I will let you know.

 

[garycooper34]

All has remained the same apart from:
 
Nitrate down to: 20
Ammonia down to: 0.5
 
I shall continue to do water changes daily until Ammonia is near or 0 and constant.
 
 
Thanks all for your help!

 

[garycooper34]

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