My Tank Water Readings

[melh1979]

Hi - below are my readings since we got our tank. It's a 70litre tank and we started by adding 5 lemon tetras and a week later we added 3 more (we now only have 7 as one died). We use an Interpet table test kit which has no colour on the chart for zero ammonia - the lowest is 0.1 (so whether 0.1 could be zero ammonia I don't know, as for nitrite, zero is clear on the chart). Our tap water pH is 8.2 as is the tank water (high I know but I read it was safer to keep it stable than to faff around changing it). The tap water for nitrate is high so we have got some tetra nitrate minus which doesn't seem to have done alot (we have put it in weekly for last 3 weeks). Could you please give me some guidance as to how the cycle is going? Thanks

Date Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate
Tap 0.1 0.05 50
17/12/2006 0.1
18/12/2006 0.1
19/12/2006 0.1
21/12/2006 0.2 0.1
24/12/2006 0.2 0.25
26/12/2006 0.1 0.25
29/12/2006 0.1 0.1 60
01/01/2007 0.1 0.05 75
05/01/2007 0.3 0.05 75
08/01/2007 0.1 0.05 60
13/01/2007 0.1 0.1 60
17/01/2007 0.1 0 75

Edit - I had all those readings edited in a nice table but they've bunched up together now.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

looks like your nearly done, Your gonna struggle getting nitrate much lower than it is now with a tap water reading of 50. However don't panic, nitrate is the least harmfull of the 3 and some studies have shown levels up to 100ppm are absolutely fine. there's a few forum members who live in areas with higher nitrates than yours who sucsessfully keep sensitive fish. So I don't think you need to do anythign to reduce it, you should be good and keep up with water changes but don't panic over it.

I'd get a new test kit, one that you can measure 0 ammonia, i recommend the API Fresh Water Master Test Kit.

your right about the stable ph being more important, however that is really quite high, i would be careful with your fish selection and make sure you don't get anything that likes a really low ph. Again I wouldn't worry trying to change it, but just bear it in mind with your fish selection. I'd also recommend you always drip acclimitise new fish to avoid shocking them.

 

[melh1979]

Thanks Miss Wiggle. We have a fairly large bottle of the NitrateMinus so we may as well use it for another few weeks and see if it helps. I was surprised the pH of the tap water was so high and the pH of the tank is the same. I may get a pH high range test to get a more accurate reading. I am a bit suspicious of the readings the test kit gives especially the ammonia one so I shall take your advise and get another one (plus 3 of the 4 tubes have already split )
We did take our time intoducing the tetras but we'll make sure we're very careful in future. I didn't ask the LFS what their pH is however as they are local I imagine their water is similar to ours - when we get more fish I'll check. We're not really sure which fish to get next - we probably can't fit many more in but we'll make sure not to get anything too sensitve to high pH.
Again thanks for your help.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it probably will be similar to yours, if you can find a lfs that gets most of they're fish from local breeders to then you'll be alright, fi the fish ahs been bred in high ph it's not gonna be a problem.

it's good to do a bit of research into your lfs and they're water quality and they're stockists anyway, you get a better ideaof the quality of they're stock.

 

[melh1979]

Will do next time we go. There are 3 fairly close we may go to a different one next time.

Is this the Test Kit you recommend? Seems a good price for that many tests.

Thanks for your help I appreciate it.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

not sure i can't get on that link from work

no problems though

 

[Underwurlde]

Yep I agree - looks to me like your cycle is done. Adding plants will help with the Nitrate levels and certain kinds of substrate can lower the pH

Plants are a WHOLE different ball game though!

@MissWiggle - !! GET ON WITH SOME WORK !!

(he says, looking out for his boss ).

Andy

 

[Dutchie]

Will do next time we go. There are 3 fairly close we may go to a different one next time.

Is this the Test Kit you recommend? Seems a good price for that many tests.

Thanks for your help I appreciate it.

Yep that the API test Kit.....same one I use and happy with it................

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Yep I agree - looks to me like your cycle is done. Adding plants will help with the Nitrate levels and certain kinds of substrate can lower the pH

Plants are a WHOLE different ball game though!

@MissWiggle - !! GET ON WITH SOME WORK !!

(he says, looking out for his boss ).

Andy

oi cheeky!!

i do plenty of work ta

 

[melh1979]

Andy - I'm not sure I'm ready for plants just yet - only had fish for about a month so I'll learn how to take care of them first!
Thanks Dutchie for confirming that's the right one.
I'm at work too - but it's lunchtime so I'm allowed to be here now! Going to do some more fish research to find suitable candidates to add to the tank sometime soon!