Nitrates High

[funkyboots]

Hey guys, have had my (2nd hand) tank for a couple of weeks. I have 8 neon tetra's and 5 cherry barbs. I did a partial change this morning and my NO2 and NO3 are reading as high. I did dechlorinate the water and the chlorine level is fine. Do I try another water change tonight or tomorrow or do I need to add something more to the water.
I'm also struggling a bit to add water at the same temp of the tank, how do you guys get your water to the right temp before adding. I boiled the kettle and mixed it with cold but don't know if that's the best way
Lastly what water test kits do other people use. I don't particularly like the kit I have (Tetra 6 in 1) only because the colours are quite vague.
Sorry if this all seems like stupid questions but I'd rather look stupid with healthy fish than stupid with dead ones

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

What are the ammonia and nitrite readings this evening?
Are the fish doing anything unusual, like breathing heavily and/or staying near the water surface?

Nitrate test kits are rarely accurate, even after metaphorically throwing the bottle around the room for a while to mix up the ingredients well. Most fish are quite unbothered by nitrates until they reach concentration in the 100s of mg/l, but if you are getting anything but definite 0s for ammonia or nitrite, you need to act. Doing another water change right after a previous will not harm the fish.

I recently changed to the highly reccomended API test kits (from Nutrafin) and I have to say I hate how the ammonia results between a yellow "0" and a green "0.25" can be awfully hard to tell sometimes!

 

[Prime Ordeal]

The tetra 6 in 1 are test strips and are totally inadequate to get you through a fish-in cycle, which is what you're doing if you've only had the tank for a couple of weeks. You definitely need to get a better liquid test kit like the API master freshwater kit that NOTG suggested.

It depends on the size of your tank but until you get a decent test kit I'd be making 30% changes daily at least, more often if the fish show signs of stress.

I temperature match just by hand (i.e. I use my hand to judge the temperature) but it takes a bit of practise to get it right. Adding boiled water to cold is fine but pour it from a height to reoxygenate the water. Also overdose slightly on the water conditioner (I hope you've got one that detoxifies ammonia).

 

[funkyboots]

The fish seem fine they are acting the same as always. The test kit says all the levels are fine apart from the NO2 NO3 and now I've done a water change the chlorine is up but I've put some dechlorinater in for that.

The tetra 6 in 1 are test strips and are totally inadequate to get you through a fish-in cycle, which is what you're doing if you've only had the tank for a couple of weeks. You definitely need to get a better liquid test kit like the API master freshwater kit that NOTG suggested.

It depends on the size of your tank but until you get a decent test kit I'd be making 30% changes daily at least, more often if the fish show signs of stress.

I temperature match just by hand (i.e. I use my hand to judge the temperature) but it takes a bit of practise to get it right. Adding boiled water to cold is fine but pour it from a height to reoxygenate the water. Also overdose slightly on the water conditioner (I hope you've got one that detoxifies ammonia).

The tank was cycled for 10 days before I added any fish. I have a 90 litre tank and all the levels were great last week but today I was going to do a water change and tested before I did and the levels were well up

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I can only repeat that the test strips are totally inadequate and won't be telling you the real levels that are in your tank. Even when they say they are fine they're usually not. The only way to do this properly, especially as you have fish in the tank, is to buy a liquid test kit.

When you say you cycled your tank, how did you do this as it's unlikely your tank cycled in ten days? The fact that your levels are now getting worse just confirms my suspicion that your tank isn't cycled. In the meantime, until you get a proper test kit, continue with the water changes as suggested.

 

[Rummynose]

How did you cycle the tank? During a fish-less cycle you need to add ammonia to the tank, ammonia is needed to build up the bacteria colonies in your filter. Or if you were given mature filter media to seed your filter then you could have added the fish right away. Waiting 10 days would have killed off any bacteria in the filter without adding ammonia.

Just saw I was ninja'd by prime ordeal, lol

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Just saw I was ninja'd by prime ordeal, lol

They don't call me Master PO for nothing ya know (do you remember Kung Fu?).

 

[Rummynose]

Just saw I was ninja'd by prime ordeal, lol

They don't call me Master PO for nothing ya know (do you remember Kung Fu?).

The program with David Carradine? Yup, they even played that in Europe! But....what does Master PO mean?

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Master PO was David Carradine's character's mentor, or master, in that series (PO=Prime Ordeal, get it?): http/activitypit.ning.com/photo/1981927hoto:174949?context=user

 

[Rummynose]

Master PO was David Carradine's character's mentor, or master, in that series (PO=Prime Ordeal, get it?): http/activitypit.ning.com/photo/1981927hoto:174949?context=user

well, that "ninja" comment truly fits then, lol