My First Test Results

[gowing238]

Hi,

I inherited a tank a few weeks ago from the people i bought my new house from. It has been established for a good 10 years. My first big mistake was buying a hughe amount of fish and overstocking it. I soon learnt that was a big mistake. Anyway! Ive learnt from that and have just purchased an api master test kit. Im new to this game so id like to run my results by some wiser fish keepers to see if you think they r ok and if they r not how to rectify them.

110 litre freshwater

1 plec, 6 neon tetras, 4 x ray tetras, 4 black phantom tetras, 1 pink gourami, 3 honey gouramis, 1 siamese fighter.

Temp 24/26

pH 6
Ammonia 0 to 0.25 (its close and im slightly colour blind!)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40ppm

Id like to know what u all think.

Cheers

 

[TubbyLaLa]

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Ammonia and Nitrites should ideally be 0 and Nitrates need to be kept low by changing water, my tap water has a high level of nitrates but my tanks have between 5-15mg/l of nitrates thanks to the help of plants.
Compatibility wise most would say that a siamese fighter will not do well with gouramis and depending on what type of plec you have it may outgrow your tank.
Good luck with it everyone is on a learning curve when they go into tropical fish keeping including myself!

 

[afishdude]

you want your nitrate between 5 and 20, 20 bieng the max

 

[gowing238]

Cheers. How do you go about lowering nitrate? Do plants help? Or water changes?

 

[Dark Wolf]

Cheers. How do you go about lowering nitrate? Do plants help? Or water changes?

A decent water cahnge of about 80% should do it

 

[CruX]

you want your nitrate between 5 and 20, 20 bieng the max

Tap water in some areas has Nitrates as high as 40ppm it isn't critical to have nitrates as low as 20ppm I wouldn't panic unless it really goes sky high. As long as you are performing regular water changes all will be well.

Was the tank running with fish in when you moved in?

 

[gowing238]

yes. it had seven fish in it. The pleco has been in there for seven years. its a bit of a tank buster

 

[CruX]

I would consider getting rid of the plec if you can. Some LFSs will take them or someone on the buy and sell board might take it off you. Get a bristle nose Plec instead if you fancy a plec.
Keep testing your water and if ammonia or nitrite goes above 0.25ppm then carry out a water change. I am confident the tank was cycled and settled prior to you adding fish so the addition of fish has caused a mini cycle and as long as you watch your stats and act accordingly all should be well.