Nitrate/ammonia/nitrate

[Joshwainwright]

Hey,

I haven't tested my water conditions for quite a while now, and it seems I have forgotten what is good to have high and good to have low, I have just tested my water and my results are:

Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 5.0ppm
Ammonia - 0ppm

I have a feeling this is good but I just want to make sure before I get started on refurbishing my tank.

Also, I may be getting a new external filter today. Before getting rid of my old internal filter, should I put some of my old media in to keep things stable?

I look forward to your response.
Thanks,
Josh.

 

[Harlequins]

Stats are good

I would put all your media in the external if you can,depending if your taking internal out,or you could run both filters,the new external will cycle eventually.

The media you have in your old filter is the heart of your tank,so not using all of it,you may end up in a mini cycle.

 

[Joshwainwright]

I'll just put the old media into the external as the reason I am buying a new filter is the internal has passed its working days.

 

[Assaye]

Stats are great and yes, use all the old media in the new filter.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, and if you have any choice I would note the direction of water flow in the new filter (nearly all external cannisters flow bottom to top through the media) and try to place batches of new media on top of old media. Its a tiny, possibly even unimportant detail (as the most important thing of all is simply having mature media in the new filter at all) but I think having the extremely short path of bits of biofilm break off the mature media in the flow and be immediately caught in the web of new new media is the absolute ideal way to most quickly seed the new media with beneficial bacteria.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Joshwainwright]

Agree, and if you have any choice I would note the direction of water flow in the new filter (nearly all external cannisters flow bottom to top through the media) and try to place batches of new media on top of old media. Its a tiny, possibly even unimportant detail (as the most important thing of all is simply having mature media in the new filter at all) but I think having the extremely short path of bits of biofilm break off the mature media in the flow and be immediately caught in the web of new new media is the absolute ideal way to most quickly seed the new media with beneficial bacteria.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks for that, good idea.
Will definitely try it, thanks.

 

[Joshwainwright]

I just tested my Ph and it is 8.0

Does this need lowering?

 

[OldMan47]

pH never needs lowering. Instead you need to inspect the fish that you are keeping. If you have fish that are noted for preferring a low pH, it almost always means they are best suited to low mineral content water. In that case, lowering the mineral content by diluting the minerals with rain water or RO water will make hard water suitable for those fish. It does not mean that the pH will need to move for healthy fish.
Moving pH artificially will mean that your fish will experience a drop in pH and a corresponding jump in mineral content, because of the acid that was added. The pH will then bounce back close to what it previously had been because of the buffers in the water. Once again you add some acid and lower the pH by raising the minerals dissolved in the water and once again the pH bounces back. The constant cycling of pH accompanied by a gradual increase of the mineral content of the water eventually leads to having a lot of sick fish on your hands. Unless you are ready to use pure water that is then doctored by adding just the right minerals back in, you are far better off ignoring the pH and adjusting the mineral content of the water. Even doing that means that you must then forever adjust that tank water every time you do a water change. Fish do not change mineral content nearly as easily as they tolerate the "wrong" pH.

 

[Joshwainwright]

I'm looking to start keeping corys but I have found a Ph of 6.5 to 7 would be best. Would a Ph as high as mine be such a bad thing or will they still be nice and healthy?

 

[OldMan47]

I have plenty of nice cories in my own tap water. It is fairly hard with a pH of 7.8. That mineral content is too high for my cories to breed successfully but they are healthy in their tanks and many of them have been in my water for over 5 years. I really love keeping cories and probably have at least as many as other people with a similar number of tanks. Only one of their tanks gets any special treatment. That one has been getting a large dilution factor by me using a lot of rain water for their water changes. It has yet to help with the breeding issues that I am having but that tank also has very healthy cories in it.

 

[Joshwainwright]

Wouldn't it be possible to have a small breeding tank to use "API Ph Down" with? And whenver you do a water change, use the Ph down?

 

[OldMan47]

Anything is possible. It is merely not advisable. The pH down chemical is the very acid that my earlier post refers to. It will raise, not lower the mineral content of the tank's water. The effect is exactly the opposite of what the fish really would need for good health.
I did that for many years before I figured out why my fish were always sick, especially if I monitored their water closely and took action for "wrong pH".

 

[Joshwainwright]

So really I am stuck with what I have?

Lets hope corys like my water, and maybe I will find a way of breeding them in the future

 

[Harlequins]

I don't know much about water hardness and mineral content etc,but my ph is around 8 and hasn't stopped my tri & pygmys breeding

 

[Joshwainwright]

So its best just to ignore it then I guess