Newbie With A New Tank And A Couple Of Questions

[grahamo]

Hi All,
 
New to fish keeping and just had a couple of questions and some thing I wanted to double check regarding my tank setup and expected nitrate levels after 48 hours.
 
 
I have new tank that was fishless cycled, post cycle I did a 95% water change with water filtered by a Pozzani Nitrate filter and treated with API pure coat as I have high nitrates in my tap water. Before adding fish my nitrates were at 0 in the tank (due to the nitrate pre-filtering). I have added 8 smallish cichlids to the tank 48 hours ago. 
 
My questions are:
 
1. What is a normal or to be expected level of nitrates to see in 48 hours? I tested today and the levels have gone from 0 to around 10 or 20 ppm (I really can't tell the difference in the colouring on the API Master test kit!). Is that normal or does that seem quite a large increase in 48 hours? I have read that it's best to keep the nitrates under 25ppm, so if i'm already at 10-20ppm in less then half a week, this seems like it's climbing fast, as I've heard that a single 25% water change per week would be more then adequate to keep the nitrate levels down.
 
2. Does my filter setup look adequate and well positioned as per the photos below? The filter is an Aquamanta EFX300.
 

 
3. I'm noticing that all of the fish poop is gathering in the corner of the tank under the filter inlet, but doesn't seem to be getting sucked up, is this ok? Or does it look the like inlet isn't doing its job? (I plan to do vacuum the sand and 25% water change each week)
 

 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Welcome

First, will ask, did you cycle the tank before adding the stocking?

If unsure what I mean by cycle, have a read of this article -

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/

 

[grahamo]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, the tank was cycled using household ammonia, the cycle completed a few weeks ago, but I wasn't ready to get fish as I noticed the nitrates form the tap were high so waited until the I got the pozzani nitrate filter, but did keep adding ammonia each day (with the exception of the odd day here and there that was missed) to keep the bacteria alive. So the tank should be cycled.
Thanks

 

[TallTree01]

My filter does that too. Nothing to worry about. If you're concerned you could get a more powerful pump I spose, shouldn't need to though. If you vacuum sand weekly it won't accumulate too much. Not enough to create water chemistry issues. Might look bad if the inlet is in a unfortunate place.
Your filter seems adequate and I don't worry about nitrates so long as they don't go above 40ppm. If you add live plants to the tank they'll drop considerably.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Ok, then in that case nitrate levels depends on few factors.

What is nitrate level straight from tap?
Generally speaking, when do water changes it's likely to be at same level as tap water, probably a little higher.

Depending on species of fish, most will cope with up to 40ppm of nitrate, maybe 60ppm nitrate, weekly without too much affects.

Most keepers do try to keep nitrate level as low as can, usually with aide of plants and at least 30%, better 50% weekly water changes.

In your case of having no plants due to cichlids then perhaps a slightly higher 50 - 75% level of weekly water change will keep your nitrate at a controlled level.

 

[grahamo]

Hi Both thanks for the replies, and thanks for confirming the filter setup looks ok.
 
With regards to the nitrate Cha4rlie, as mentioned previously I am using a Pozzani nitrate filter to fiter nitrates out from my tap water so the tap water that went into the tank contained 0 ppm of nitrates prior to adding to the tank, and when I did a 95% water change before adding fish and I had zero nitrates in the tank 2 days ago when the fish were first added.
 
So the remaining question I would really have is, is it normal to have around 10-20ppm of nitrates from zero within 48 hours? I had thought this seemed quite a lot for 48 hours and if continued at the same rate by my logic would mean that by the end of the week I would have between 50-70ppm of nitrates which would be quite high, and require a large water change?
 
Would welcome thoughts here.
 
Thanks!

 

[TallTree01]

With the amount of fish in your tank ( not knowing how large the tank is, looks to be about 4-6 feet? ) it is not surprising, I've known cichlids to be good ammonia producers, and therefore nitrate producers

 

[grahamo]

Hi, Tank is a 55 gallon / 200 litre. 8 smallish Mbuna Cichlids...