Water Readings

[lakeshore]

These are the water readings I did today. Advice

Ammonia - 0 PPM
Nitrite - 1 PPM
Nitrate - 50 mg/L

What do these readings mean??
Should I be doing a partial water change today.

I have five small Zebra Danios in the tank. 20 Gal tall tank
24" X 12" X 18"

I did cycle the tank, but the last water change i may have cleaned the Sponge Filter a little to much perhaps??

 

[tttnjfttt]

Your ammonia reading looks good, but the nitrite is problematic. Nitrite is toxic to fish, and should always be zero. Definately start doing daily partial water changes, until both the ammonia and nitrite are staying at zero.

Also, addign some aquarium salt can help reduce the toxicity of the nitrite.

You probably did clean the spounge filter a little too much. When you clean a spounge, only do so very rarely, as in when the water is having a hard time flowing through it (you will notice this by a decreased filter flow). Then shake the filter out in a bucket of old tank water, then put it back in the tank. That is all you ever have to do with the filter sponge.

 

[lakeshore]

Thanks, I was hoping that the clean out was not too harsh!!!
I intend on doing a water change 30% tonight, and then another 30% tomm.

Thanks for the advice.

I also bought a bag (??) small bag that fits in an aquaclear 150 model that supports biological bacteria. Looks like small white cyclinders made of brick like material. I intend on hopefully supporting my bacterial culture there, and hopefully the sponge filter cleaning will not cause such a drastic problem.


Is it advisable to add the ammonia rid bag in the aquaclear model as well, or should I just rely on my bacterial culture to do their job. I dont want to unnecessarily waste money.

 

[tttnjfttt]

That bag is where the bacteria are supposed to grow in an aqua clear filter. Basically a spounge for mechanical filtration, and the cylinders for bacteria. Thats what my filter has in it, and i rarely have water quality trouble (saying rarely because i found a small nitrite spike the other day),

 

[lakeshore]

Thanks, doing a 50% wtare change tonight!!

 

[tttnjfttt]

In general, you never want to change more than 25% at a time because the drastic changes can shock the fish. You can do the 25% changes mornign and night if you would like.

 

[lakeshore]

Ok 25% (5 Gal) tonight, and another 25% (5 Gal) Tommorrow night.

Thanks For all the advice!!