New 40 Gal Tropical Tank

[sarahmom22]

Well, not NEW new. It's been up about a month. After almost a week, we added 3 platys, 2 gouramis, and 3 guppies. Have not had any die. We added a couple of sharks and a lobster THAT ARE BEING RETURNED...because we weren't informed about thier needs (long story!), so anyway, I've added 10 Neons (1 was eaten by the lobster...) so there are now 9 of them. We have a Fluval 304 filter. NO algae. We also run an air bubble wall and an air stone during the day.

SO, anyway, although the fish seem great, and we haven't had any problems with illness or death, I bought some test strips to check the water quality. The reading is:

NItrate 40
Nitrite 5.0
hardness 250
Alkilinity 240
P.H. 8.0

SO, I'm aware that these readings aren't great...however, is it normal readings for a reasonably new set up? What should I do to improve the water quality? Did a 1/3 water change yesterday, when should I do another?
Thanks for your help

 

[donna123]

Hi,
whats the ammonia level at ?
is this the only fish you are adding to the tank?
all you can do is reg water changes, and test water every 2 days.
a good investment is api master test kit, it is around £20 or less, but it tests for everything and will last for a long time.
dont add anymore fish until nitrite and ammonia are at 0.
good luck Donna

 

[sarahmom22]

I plan on adding more fish. The test kit I bought only tests what I mentioned, but I thought that the Nitrite reading was related to or the same as the ammonia? No? Anyway, I will def wait to add more fish. I'm just learning about all this stuff, so thanks for your kind answer Should I do daily water changes? How much should I change?

 

[donna123]

hi,
ammonia is the most toxic to fish and is then eventually turned into nitrite which in time turns to nitrate which is much less toxic and is kept at a low level when we water change, when a tank is new, under 6 weeks you will have to test for ammonia and nitrite until they read 0 and stay 0, then you can add a few fish at a time so the filter has time for good bacteria to build up to eat all the ammonia and nitrite. i would do say 10% every 2 days while testing.

 

[sarahmom22]

Ok great, thank you so much We're doing another water change tonight, of about 25%, and now we'll go to every 2 days (we're in the middle of a change as I'm typing this!) We returned the 2 Columbian Sharks and the Crayfish (which ate 2 of my new neons!) So, that's good. Now we'll just let it rest and do our checks and changes till we reach 0. Thanks again!