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JCorvinus

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today my new plants arrived and they have been placed in the tank , 
 
new tank 2 weeks old water chemistry baseline was as you would expect 
tank is 100 litres in size  ( 1 us gallon = 3.7litres) 
 
Ph = 7.2 
Ammonia, NH3  = 0
toxic Ammonia NH4  = 0 
nitrite NO2              0
Nitrate NO3    NEG trace 
 
this was tap water + conditioner as you would expect , perfectly clean apart from a really negligable nitrate trace, 
 
pre water change pre plants , 
 Ph = 7.4,  NH3= 0.3 ,  NH4 0.01 -0.03 , NO2 (ite)- 3.3 NO3 = 20 
 
as you would expect , higher than average nitrires , because of the new status of the filter , I am using the Interpet (uk)  filter start preparation , to kick start the bacteria , however this seems to be slow acting as it has been 2 weeks already, 
 
 
Now plants are in , and will see how the reading change , 
just performed a water change of 30 Litrers, to try and bring the NO levels ,down and reduce stress of fish 
 
re tested , are now , 
PH 7.3
NH3. = 0.1
NH4 = <0.01
NO2,= 1.6,
NO3, = 25 
 
, will do water change in another 3 days , of 15 litres, to bring levels down and retest before and after , plants in the tank are 
 
cabomba , 
hogwart , 
hairgrass , 
vallis small 
water lettuces , x5 
hippodures , and bacoupe carolinia 
 
please share your thoughts on how the water chem should change , i have in tank 2 small bettas, females, 7 cardinal tetras , 6 guppys , 
 
this explains the higher nitrates ites levels 
 
 
 
 
 
chemcharts.jpg
 
seem charted results here 
 
ps , if anyone wants their results placing in a chart , i can either tell you how on excell or if u ask nicely i will do it for you lol 
 
I'd like to see the nitrites lower personally with fish in the tank. Otherwise looks fine so far. I suspect the first thing you'll see with the plants in is a rise in the ammonia as you get a little die back to start with.
 
die back ? of the plants or the efficiency of the filter performance , ammonia , is very low , but present none the less 
 
JCorvinus said:
die back ?
 
Of the plants as they get used to your tanks CO2 levels.
And without sounding cynical so early on, try not to get too hung up on charts and test results etc, just concentrate on water changes and husbandry - This should set you up for the revelations that come later on. :good:
 
i only did the charts cause i was bored , lol , but it appears that my nitrate readings are false positives , there may not be any nitrates present, this morning a nitrite spike took two fish , so 50 % water change and i went to the local shop and bought , a gel pack of bacteria, actually 2 , 
 
added them to the filter and wait 24 hours to test , see what happens , at some point the nitrites should reduce from levels of 1.6 which seems to be stable as i do daily water changes , i dont want to water change too much and rob the tank of the bacteria floating around in it 
 
the 2 victims , were guppies , that i doubt were in perfect health when they were bought. 
 
the interpet filter start product is practuically useless 
 
oh miss conception the bacteria floating in the water is minimal you can swap out 100% of the water if you could as long as you use dechlorinator you will be fine nothing will change, like i said yesterday, with high nitrite you need to do the biggest WC you can possible do, then add the bottled bac, this will help keep the nitrite down after you reduce it to 0, but may not work 100% so always test and keep up on WC keep an eye on the fish, high nitrite they will scrape along the floor or gasp for air those are my most common symptoms to high nitrite before the obvious dead fish,
 
remember again as i said yesterday, the bottle bac cant cope with both the high nitrite in your tank and the continues nitrite coming from the A bacteria,
 
also your N bacteria is not sufficient enough to cope with the nitrite the A bacteria is throwing at it,
 
so reducing the nitrite in the tank to 0 using wc or as close to 0 as you can possibly get, will give your N bac's a chance also with the boost from the bottled bac that may or may not work, all this should help your N bac's keep up with the fresh Nitrite being thrown at it by the A bacteria's :p hope this makes sense again i know it can get confusing as it may have done last night again hope your fish made it through from yesterday
 

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