My Very First Test

[waterdrop]

You've got us all really liking your Syondontis "hitchhiker" now, so we're really counting on you to water change like crazy and -not- add more fish (besides, its hit or miss whether any given fish will die if in a cycling tank, its that bad for them.)

ppm stands for parts per million. For our purposes, ppm is interchangeable with mg/L, which you will also see at times.

OZeN I forget, how big is the tank?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rabbut]

Neons are probibly gonna be worse for cycling than a Syondontis, as they are that inbred in most trade sources that all their strength is gone I would leave it at just the Syondontis, unless you can get him into a mature tank and fishless cycle, or get some mature media from the friend you mention

 

[OzeN]

my tank is 60litrest or there abouts.. and im picking up some filtermedia in tank water as soon as im finished with my car in a couple of days.. so that should sped thisngs up a bit

 

[OzeN]

Right the resoults of todays test before water change...

Amonia 0.25
Nitrate 10
Nitrie 0.25
Ph 7.4

i rekon about a 40% water change today... what do you say miss wiggle?

 

[waterdrop]

Why minimize the percentage? I'd think the hitchhiker catfish would be more likely to suffer from the ammonia and nitrite, than some other parameter change brought on by the water change. I'd think 50 or even 70 wouldn't bother him at all.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OzeN]

i didnt minimise it.. i usualy do 20% a day.. except the other day when i was told to do 50%... so i thought id double it for today. and i dindnt want to slow the cylce process down by doin big waterchanges..

 

[waterdrop]

Big water changes will not slow the fish-in cycle from what it needs to be. In the first phase of a fishless cycle you will hear us recommending not to do water changes, but in a fish-in cycle the first priority must always be the fish. With a fish in there, there will always be plenty of ammonia for the bacteria. Remember that an ammonia test result of zero, does not mean there is no ammonia in the water, it means the level is below the detection point of the test. A fully cycled tank always tests zero, but there could be tons of fish in there giving off ammonia constantly, so we know there is ammonia flowing from the tank to the bacteria, the bacteria just keep it at a level the test can't detect.

Unless a very particular (pH, temp, etc.) sensitivity of a fish is greatly different from the tap water going in, big water changes (50%, 70%) are your friend, not your enemy during Fish-In cycling. Ideally your test an hour after the water change should show zero or close, and only creep up to 0.25 after 12 hours, when you can change it again if necessary.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OzeN]

ahhh i see now.. thanksss

 

[OzeN]

Todays tests

Amonia 0.25
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0.25
ph 7.4

done a 70% waterchange... for a few reasons.. firstly to get the levels down, secondly to clean my glass from the insde and lastly to rearange some ornaments...

 

[OzeN]

today we have

AMONIA - 02.5
NITRATE - 10
NITRITE - 0.50

50% water change done... how come im geting high nitrite levels?

 

[rabbut]

I assume the ammonia reading is a typo, and you ment 0.25, not 2.5?

Ammonia is converting to nitrite in the filter. For every 1ppm of ammonia you get, you get 3.7ppm (or was it 3.6?) of nitrite, so the nitrite spike following the ammonia one is almost always larger than the ammonia spike

If the 50% change was before the test, you need another change, otherwise, looking good for now

HTH
Rabbut