Nitrate Levels

[Ishyfishy]

Hi

I've bought 2x black moors yesterday. I put them in a new tank but am worried about the Nitrate levels.

My Nitrate levels are 10 - 25 mg/litre - is this ok level for this type of fish? However, my Nitrite levels are 0 mg/litre which is obviously good.

Before I put the fish in my tank, the tank had been cycled for a week. I have a 30 gallon tank.

Regards

Ish

 

[andywg]

That's fine. Experiments indicate the safe level is 400ppm, so anything below 100ppm should be considered ok.

Edit:

For our purposes mg/l is the same as ppm

 

[purplekaz]

Hi Ishy,

Welcome to the forum

First of all, it sems you havn't cycled your tank yet.
Have a read of http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/ then you should understand what I mean.

A lot of fish shops (LFS) advise you should leave the tank running for a week or two before adding fish, but that doesn't really do anything to cycle the tank.
Don't feel bad about it, most fish shops give bad advice to new fishkeepers, but have a read of the forum links and ask us any questions that pop into your head.

As you have some fish in there, you are now fish-in cycling.
This may be useful to you: http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...ease-Read-Here/

The nitrate level seems ok to me, thats the level that is found in your tapwater so you won't get it lower than that unless you start messing about with special water or chemicals (I wouldnt advise that for a newbie).

 

[Ishyfishy]

Many Thanks - to both of you!

Purplekaz - your right some pet shops aren't bothered about the fish, just the amount of money they get for them!

Regards

 

[rdd1952]

You mentioned your nitrite and nitrate but not the ammonia which is the first toxin you will encounter. What is your ammonia reading? Not knowing how you "cycled" it for a week, I would tend to agree with purplekaz that your tank isn't cycled so you will need to keep a close eye on the ammonia. Have you tested your tap water for nitrate (and other things). It could be that the nitrate you have came from the tap water and not from the nitrogen process.

 

[Ishyfishy]

Hi

I've had my tank running for 2 weeks now (2wks this sat), and the fish were introduced last sat. Yesterday I noticed that my amonnia levels were 0.5, so I did a 50% water change last night. I've just test the water and it's around 0.25 so will do another water change tonight. I do realise that I should have cycled my tack for a lot longer than 1 week - but i'm just gonna have to deal with it.

Cheers

Ishyfishy

 

[st24rsap]

cyclling a tank can take months

 

[rdd1952]

You are going in the right direction. As long as you keep up with water changes and keep the ammonia and nitrite below .25 ppm, the harm will be minimized. Just don't add any more fish until the ammona and nitrite are at zero for a full week and then only add an amount equal to or less than what you already have so as not to over load the bacteria again and allow them to catch up.

 

[littlest]

be prepared to do lots of water changes. Goldfish are particularly messy fish. You shouldn't be adding any more fish to the tank anyway as 2 black moors in a 30 gallon is pretty much fully-stocked.