Nitrate @ Nitrite Question

[hampton]

Hello everyone,
I've just got my 55 gallon tank up and running again. I just put water in it yesterday. My PH level is up to 7.6 and my ammonia level is zero. I'm wondering if I should invest in nitrate and nitrite test kits. If I should what actually is the tests for? I tried searching topics on this but I couldn't find very much info about it.


Thanks for any info you can give me


P.S. I will try and post some pics as soon as possible.

 

[jflowers]

Welcome to the forum.

Read the pinned topics on cycling in the begginers questions forum. Basically, ammonia is produced by fish, this is (in a cycled tank) turned into nitrIte by bacteria in the filter and gravel, which is in turn turned into nitrAte by a different beneficial bacteria. Cycling is the process of growing the beneficial bacteria so that the tank is safe for fish. Ammonia and NitrIte is very poisonous to fish, NitrAte is too, but to a lesser extent and can be controlled by regular water changes.

As I said, read the more detailed pinned topics and you will be fine, just don't add any fish till its cycled properly, and contrary to most fish shop advice, that is not 48 hours after adding water.

Test kits for Ammonia, NitrIte and NitrAte are a minimum, PH is another useful test kit to have, but not vital [EDIT: I see you already have a PH test ) (beats forehead (READ posts properly, read posts properly))].

Jon

 

[hampton]

Thanks for the reply Jon. I guess I should have searched the posts a little better. Them are some really good articles.


Thanks again,



Mike