Water Quality

[allanjthompson]

hi,

sorry im new to all this fish keeping so sorry for coming across as a sap. my girlfriend brought me a 125 litre tank a few months back, ive slowly introduced some fish over a few months, the tank also has live plants in it that are doing very well.

all my fish seem happy enough and i am changing about 25% of the water every week

today i brought a test kit just to check the water.

the ammonia was 0
the nitrIte was 0.20 ppm
the nitrAte was 20 ppm

should all the levels be zero??? whats going on?

any help to get the levels where they should be without flooding the tank with chemicals would be great.

thanks in advance for any help

allan

 

[Qays]

hi,

sorry im new to all this fish keeping so sorry for coming across as a sap. my girlfriend brought me a 125 litre tank a few months back, ive slowly introduced some fish over a few months, the tank also has live plants in it that are doing very well.

all my fish seem happy enough and i am changing about 25% of the water every week

today i brought a test kit just to check the water.

the ammonia was 0
the nitrIte was 0.20 ppm
the nitrAte was 20 ppm

should all the levels be zero??? whats going on?

any help to get the levels where they should be without flooding the tank with chemicals would be great.

thanks in advance for any help

allan

Nitrite should be 0, but your nitrate is fine (as long as its below 40, water changes remove nitrate)

How long have you had the fish for? When was the latest fish introduced?
Are you adding water conditioner to your tap water at water changes?
What filter do you have?
What fish do you have?

Answering these questions would help us work out why your nitrite is 20ppm

Its probably because the tank hasnt fully cycled yet (takes about a month) Its good that ammonia is at 0

 

[jayjay]

as the ammonia is at zero i would think the tank is still cycling?? but thats a personal opinion. i duno if anyone agrees? because that's what happens when cycling a tank; ammonia goes up followed by nitrIte and nitrAte is lower by water changes diluting it.

hope that helps