Tank Readings....

[millie1]

ive bought the nitrate/nitrite tests and one for ammonia (in the post) as 2 of my fish suddenly died

i have coldwater fish btw...

the ph in the tank is 7.5
the nitrate reading is 40
the nitrite reading is 10

ive been doign regular water changes... but ive only just got the nitrate/nirtite readings today.... and the tanks been up for afew weeks now (willl check..)"

help as im really confused about the whole thing???

p.s the tank was not cycledbefore i put fish in.... is this whats happening now?

thanks

 

[JenCliBee]

ur nitrite reading are wots killing ur fish i should be 0 i would do some huge water cahnges otherwsie more fish will die




jen

 

[millie1]

thought so


why is it so high though??

and how bigger water changes???

ting is though - our water here is rubbish - ive been using stuff to make the ph levels right and tap water treatment etc???!

 

[rabbut]

Hi, yes the raised nitrite would indicate your tank is cycling. The raised nitrite could also be the caurse of death for the two lost fish with that higher reading. Definately 10, not 0.10? If the reding is 10, I'd remove most of the water, just leaving enough to cover your fish so they don't need to be removed, and re-fill with fresh dechlorinated water. IME nitrite can be toxic arround 1, so 10 is easliy enough to kill fish

I don't suppose you know anyone with fish who could donate filter media to you is there?

For the time being you want to be doing enough waterchanges to keep ammonia and nitrite below 0.25. The volume is decided by the levels of these chemicals. 50% will half the readings assuming there is no ammonia or nitrite in the tap water? 75% will quater the readings, 90% will 1/10th them e.t.c

HTH
Rabbut

EDIT to add, two replys added while I was posting;

Nitrite will be presant as you did not cycle before adding your fish. The filter works on bacteria that don;t come with it. These bacteria need to be build up in a process called "cycling". During cycling, the levels are often high enough to kill fish, hence why we advise going fishless for the fishes welfare

What pH is the water from the tap? Most pH chemicals will make the pH "bounce" and in doing so the pH swings will stress the fish more than being left in water with a pH outside their "ideal" range.

 

[millie1]

well the test strips i got - they were really high on the chart an very pink.....

thing is what i dont get (or i would have don it before) why remove most of the water? our water here is rubbish and iv ebeen using tap water treatment...??

yep thank - we posted @ the same time!!!

i bought the fish not realiseing about all this cycling etc.... my own fault.. and i do feel bad but this is somehting i have to deal with now..

 

[rabbut]

Strips are misleading at best. IME, asking a neibour who knows nothing about you tank to guess readings for each level in most cases would be more accurate Do yourself and your fish a favor and ditch them Get yourself a good liquid regent based test kit. Many on here use API, and these kits can be collected for about 10-50 pounds online. The API kit can do something like 100 tests before needing replacement

A reading of 10 is toxic to fish. In the UK the water boards are legaly obliged to ensure that ammonia isn't above 0.25ppm at any time, and nitrite above 0.5ppm at ay time, and thus these have got be be lower than your tank readings. Nitrite stops the fish from being able to take oxygen into their blood, effectively suffocating your fish to death. It is important to keep this chemical low. Nitrites effects though are short lived once the toxin is removed from the water. Ammonia will burn fishes gills, and will quickly kill at much lower levels than nitrite. Ammonia will also do permanant damage to your fish.

In the abcence of a good test kit, I'd assume both ammonia and nitrite are sky high and do 50% daily waterchanges, untill you get a good test kit. I would not belive the 10ppm result from the strips though.... A mature filter will remove any ammonia and nitrite in your tap water within the hour, so these waterchanges won't do any harm to your tank if it is cycled, but they could potentially save all your fish if the tank hasn't cycled yet.

Water treatment for chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals is recomanded regardless of how good your source water is. In most cases though, you don't want to touch the pH, unless you are trying to breed a particular fish or keeping a sencitive species, and only then is moving the pH recomended to an experienced keeper, despite what the LFS may have told you.

Unless you are science minded I won't go into the details of why you don't want to touch the pH as it is farly deap for someone thats new to the hobby, and would likely confuse you more than help, but if you don't move the hardness with the pH, the pH will return to its old value within a few hours "bouncing". Changes in pH stress fish more than a stable pH that is outside their "prefured" pH range, so the bounce is very bad, even if it is only a small one. That is a very simplified version of the details. If you want the full version and are good with chemistory, just say, but be prepaired for a VERY long reply

HTH
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

totally agree with rabbut

good liquid based test kit is the first order of the day, in the mean time it's safest to assume the worst, so do as many large water changes as you can each day, ditch the pH stuff you'll probably be adding to the problems, just use plain old dechlor.

you haven't yet said why you think your water is bad, can you please explain this to us so we can tell you what to do about it.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes agree, millie, you should give MW and rabbut as much detail as possible, they'll set you straight...

MW, here we go again, isn't it ironic. In an ideal world the beginner would start out thinking about a filter system, what media and which test kit and the shape and size of tank.

The important thing here though is that millie is now in a good place to learn the right stuff.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[millie1]

right so the new plan is to do a 50% waterchange (now)! and get a decent kit......?

what about the filter.... do i ever clean it?? or once a year?/ ive not touched it as i keep hearing different things""

thanks

 

[mnemonik23]

right so the new plan is to do a 50% waterchange (now)! and get a decent kit......?

what about the filter.... do i ever clean it?? or once a year?/ ive not touched it as i keep hearing different things""

thanks

Please check MW's signature for very useful links, especially "Step by step guide to setting up an aquarium".
I went through them at least 5 times very helpful for beginners like me!

 

[millie1]

have re-tested my water (i know what you said about the strips but still!) have them will use them for now....

the levels of both have come down

also read the links and am following them....

still planning to set up a bigger tank... will folow MW's sig advice from the beginning,,!

hiya - sorry forgot to quote and reply to you!!!

well 2 fish dying told me somthing was really wrong,, so obviously i went mad ordering all th tests etc....

im taking awater sample in asap to the nearest PaH... who have said they will test it for free for me


when you say about the water changes - do you mean serveral a day??? (this is no problem btw i just dont want to be messing too much??)

 

[rabbut]

Daily would be a minimum, but if you can do more, go for it It isn't possible to change too much water, just so long as the temperature is close, on changes of more than about 30%, to that of the tank.

Please post numerical results from the PaH test? We have known them to say everything is fine with the water when it realy isn't, but numbers tell all with results, as changing them to look OK when they aren't would possibly constitute a criminal offence...

With filters, only clean them during the cycle if there is a significant drop of flow through it. This could be as often as once a week or as little as once a year depending on the filter, tank stocking and the tank size. No hard and fast rule here I'm afraid, only guidelines once tank stocking, size and filter model is known.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[millie1]

i havent been to PaH with the water samples yet... will do soon

i asked advice and so far they said i was doing ok...... hmmmm lol



good news - in a few months once i have researched better and understand everything - im allowed a tank in the living room!!!! wooo!!! 3 or 4 foot

i asked my mum as its her house and she said yes.... so its going in the corner

so sort the freshwater out then look at tropical...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well the skills and knowledge that you're picking up now will definately help you out when you upgrade to a nice big tank.

like above just make sure you get the actual numbers from PAH, don't let the fob you off with it's 'fine' or 'poor'. they will also most likely try to sell you a load of rubbish, just don't buy it, let us know what the results are and we'll advise from there.

for now do a minimum of a 50% change every day, more if you can. leave it at least 1 hr between changes for temps to stabilise.

 

[waterdrop]

When you think about it.. having control over the process and the results is probably another reason we all like having our own test kits. Not only can we see and judge the actual numerical results, but we are the ones who control how carefully the test is done. A store test sometimes carries the chance that the person doing the test does not care as much as we do and perhaps doesn't measure the test water amount as carefully or even count the reagent drops as carefully.

~~waterdrop~~