Tap Water High In Nitrates

[tiffie]

TAP WATER STATS

* pH 7.4-7.5
* Ammonia 0 ppm
* Nitrites 0 ppm
* Nitrates 15-20 ppm

What does this mean for cycling my tank? Right now, I'm in the start of week 2[EDIT: on Day 4], and these are my numbers:

2/15/08

* pH 7.6
* Ammonia 0.5-1.0
* Nitrites 0 ppm
* Nitrates 15-20 ppm


2/17/08

* pH --
* Ammonia 1.0
* Nitrites 0.5 ppm
* Nitrates 15-20 ppm

 

[Miss Wiggle]

your tap water parameters sound pretty normal, in the UK tap water is commonly found at around 30/40ppm and plenty of fishkeepers manage with it so 15/20ppm is no big deal really.

stats seem about right for week 2 of fishless cycling, you'll find the ammonia drops to 0 soon and the nitrite spikes. the nitrite takes roughly twice as long to go as the ammonia did, so if it's taken 2 weeks to get here, you've probably another 4 weeks to go.

 

[tiffie]

your tap water parameters sound pretty normal, in the UK tap water is commonly found at around 30/40ppm and plenty of fishkeepers manage with it so 15/20ppm is no big deal really.

stats seem about right for week 2 of fishless cycling, you'll find the ammonia drops to 0 soon and the nitrite spikes. the nitrite takes roughly twice as long to go as the ammonia did, so if it's taken 2 weeks to get here, you've probably another 4 weeks to go.

It's actually been... Carry the two...

Since the night of the 14th. So, about four days? Sheesh, I guess I can't count my days very well... I have Eco-Complete substrate, but I thought I killed all the bacteria with untreated tapwater...

 

[Colin_T]

basically your ammonia levels have gone up and some bacteria has developed and is eating it, converting it to nitrite. The nitrites are now starting to go up and in a few days the ammonia should go down to 0 and stay there. A week or so later and the nitrites will go down to 0 and the tank will have cycled.

The nitrates are in your tap water and there isn't anything you can do about it except use rain water or reverse osmosis water. Most people just live with it. The levels aren't that high.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ah lol, you said the start of week two, so i assumed you'd been going roughly 14 days with cycling. (and you americans do you're dates the wrong way round and it always confuses me! lol )

if it's just been a couple of days then the ammonia is most likely just starting to spike, not just finishing, slightly surprised at the nitrite reading so soon but no biggies, just means things are going well and the cycle should be fairly quick. whatever you're doing it seems to be working so just keep going.

if you record your water test results every day, then you can post daily results which help us to get a much clearer view of what's going on

 

[tiffie]

Thanks guys. I get so confused with all this stuff! When I had my first tank, I'd never even HEARD of fishless cycling!

Btw, Miss Wiggle: Over here, when we say "Beginning of the second week," it generally means about 7-10 days.