Upgrading to a bigger tank

[rob]

Ok, now I have transfered my fish and all the equipment (including gravel, filter etc) from my old tank (50L - 13G) to the new larger (70L - 19G) tank. My filter is rated to handle the tank. I tested the water (same water from old tank plus an additional 20L - 5.25G) last night after I transfered everything, and they came up:

Nitrate - 40ppm
Nitrite - 1-5ppm
Ammonia - Trace

The same result came up today when I tested the water again. So, having a large nitrate count, should I do a water change? Shouldn't the 20-odd Liters (5G) of water I added diluted the nitrate count anyway (it appears it has not)? I don't have any live plants in my tank yet to make use of the nitrate as lighting is expensive (need to save some $$$). Where does this leave me in the cycling process?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[tstenback]

looks like you are in the nitrite spike. But didnt you move the filter from the old tank to the new tank and the water and gravel? Was the old tank cycling at the time? Maybe i missed something here, but if you did all that then the tank should have the same parameters as before you moved it. Adding water wont bring you rnitrites up to 5ppm. any waythe nitrite count is the one you need to focus on now, its too high. Do water changes 20% to try to get this down to 1 or less. BTW 1-5 PPM is a wide gap is this how your test breaks it down? HTH

 

[kittybug]

i would say since you already have the fish in there you should do a small water change, but i dont know too much about cycling with fish. i did my tank with a fishless cycle product.

 

[rob]

yeah the test has colours, and its somewhere between 1 and 5 ppm, probably closer to 1ppm then 5 for nitrite. The Nitrate is whats high, around 40ppm, not the nitrite. Yes, the tank was at the end of cycling when I changed tank, only because the other tank developed a leak. 95% of the water from the old tank was shifted into the new tank, plus the Aquaclear filter, gravel, plastic plants ordaments ect. Also added to the new tank was 20L of new decohorinised water, as the new tank was 20L bigger. There are two zebra dinos in the tank as well.

 

[Sky042]

Did you do any sort of major cleaning of the filter when you changed it or did you allow it to dry out.

Also What brand of test did you use. Every brand I've ever seen has a wide gap between 1 and 5ppm of nitrite. 5ppm is something to be concerned about whereas 1ppm isn't nearly so bad.

nitrate of 40ppm isn't that bad and is the number most fish keepers try to stay under.

 

[rob]

aquasonic is the brand, and no, I didnt clean anything except rinse out the new tank before putting anything in it (to remove dust). The filter was off for about 5 minutes. Seeing as my nitrate is at 40ppm, does this mean I don't need to cycle again?

 

[Sky042]

aquasonic is the brand, and no, I didnt clean anything except rinse out the new tank before putting anything in it (to remove dust). The filter was off for about 5 minutes. Seeing as my nitrate is at 40ppm, does this mean I don't need to cycle again?

well based on your nitrite reading it sounds like it's still cycling. But its hard to tell where you are at in the cycle since your readings aren't specific enough.

 

[rob]

Thats about as best as I can do with the kits I have unforunatly. I'll give it a few more weeks and keep monitoring the progress, once I have nil nirites I'll consider getting more fish.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[Sky042]

What kind of kit is it? I can't imagine a kit out there that doesn't make a diferetiation between 1 and 5ppm NO2