New Tank Test Results

[glyndawn]

ive set my tank up the filters bbeen running now 6 days with no fish in my stats are


ph 7.6
nitrate 5
nitrite 2
ammonia 8

is it going the right way ?

 

[Tizer]

Read the beginners sections on the forum for a fishless cycle. Lots of information there. Filling a tank and leaving it doesnt cycle a tank, you should have 0 nitrite and 0 ammonia. So no, its not going the right way. Read up in said forums for more info.

 

[Harlequins]

Yep for a fishless cycle it is ok,

Are you adding ammonia? its rather high,you'll need to do a 50% w/c to bring it back down to around 4ppm.

What are you testing with strips or liquid test kit?

Whats your water readings straight from the tap?

 

[glyndawn]

what i have done is added a bit of ammonia to start with left it took 10 ltrs out of the tank a day or two later then added 10 ltrs from my old tank wich has fish in is this alright

 

[glyndawn]

so should i just leave it now ? as its 180ltrs it whould takke me forever to do a 50% change

the water has gone from being dead cloudy to crystal clear now

 

[glyndawn]

right i did a 50% water change last night ive checked the ammonia this morning and its still reading 8ppm

do i just leave it

and how long will it take to start dropping

 

[Essjay23 138]

If you are using the api tester, 8ppm is as high as the colour chart goes. So if you have 20ppm or 100ppm ammonia it will still show as 8. The trouble with high ammonia is that at concentrations of 8 or above, the wrong species of bacteria starts to grow, that's why you need to get the reading down well below 8. It sounds like you need to remove most of your water (though with that volume I can understand why you'd be a bit reluctant). Then when you've added the new water test again and add more ammonia if necessary to get 5ppm.

 

[glyndawn]

ok will do

can i just add water from the tap or do i need to add water conditoner ?

as theres no fish in there

 

[Essjay23 138]

You need to use dechlorinator. The chlorine or chloramine in the tapwater will kill the bacteria you are trying to grow. The water company adds chlorine/chloramine to the water supply to kill bacteria, and it'll kill all bacteria not just the ones that might make us ill.

 

[glyndawn]

the stuff i use is nutrafin aqua plus tap water conditioner is this the right stuff

 

[Essjay23 138]

Yes, that's fine. it removes both chlorine and chloramine, and also removes heavy metals - once you have fish you'll find some fish are sensitive to heavy metals, as are things like shrimps and snails.

 

[glyndawn]

what kind of ammonia should i use i used this stuff first off


kleen off ammonia multi purpose household cleaner

 

[Essjay23 138]

That's the same ammonia I have. It doesn't say on the bottle but their website says it's pure. It also doesn't say the concentration so I emailed them to ask. They said

Our Kleenoff Ammonia is 9.5% Ammonia & the rest is water

The only thing is, when I used it to keep my filter going after a betta died, the reading I got was twice as high as it should have been for that concentration. That's why I emailed them as I thought it must have been stronger than 9.5%.

There is a caclulator for how much ammonia to use at the top of the page. I found the amount is says gave a reading that was too high when I used the kleen off ammonia. What I do now is to use half what the calculator says then test the tank and add more if needed. It is much easier to add a bit more ammonia than to take it out if you've added too much.

 

[glyndawn]

ok done a 75% change now my ammonia is to 2ppm is this ok ?

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Sounds good to me, now you have 3 options, leave at 2ppm until it comes down to 0ppm. Redose to 4ppm and leve it till it goes to 0ppm. The third is the best option, take a 1/3 of filter media from your running tank and put it into this one, that way your tank is instantly cycled