Water Test Log

[fatheadminnow]

remind me again, do you have live plants in your tank?

It is very rare to have a 0 ppm of nitrate in a cycled tank. Fish can tolerate nitrate up to 50+ ppm.
In some cases, its ben proven that fish can tolerate up to 400 ppm of nitrate.

Also, do you shake the nitrate bottle #2 up really well before testing? You can even look and see if the nitrate bottle is epired. 3 or so years past the manufacture date on the front of the bottle.

-FHM

 

[plecostomus-mad]

remind me again, do you have live plants in your tank?

It is very rare to have a 0 ppm of nitrate in a cycled tank. Fish can tolerate nitrate up to 50+ ppm.
In some cases, its ben proven that fish can tolerate up to 400 ppm of nitrate.

Also, do you shake the nitrate bottle #2 up really well before testing? You can even look and see if the nitrate bottle is epired. 3 or so years past the manufacture date on the front of the bottle.

-FHM

yes, live plants, i shake every bottle really well before use.

ive been having connection problems, which sucks, buti had a huge serge in nitrate, even with a 75% water change it was still high. i have cleaned my gravel completely and changed 100% of the water.levels are more stable now . i will update soon, well as long as the internet holds up for me.lol

 

[fatheadminnow]

Sounds good. Remember, ammonia and nitrite are the real killers in aquariums, not nitrate. It is best not to let the nitrate get above 20 ppm above your tap water reading. This would take at least a week, if not longer with a fully cycled, properly stocked tank. So weekly water changes of 20 or so percent should easily take care of that! Like I said, fish can easily tolerate 50+ ppm of nitrate with no harm; its been proven.

-FHM

 

[plecostomus-mad]

just did a water test and..............

ammonia 0ppm
nitrate 5.0ppm
nitrite 20ppm.


this was after 12-18 hours. can anyone shed some light on why the ammonia is 0.0ppm and my nitrite is 20ppm? the plants are loving the nitrite it seems. they are growing pretty quick. not so good for my fish tho.

EDIT: re the plants.............

could they be growing quicker due to the fact i switched to pond dechlore? im now using tetra pond water-Safe

 

[OldMan47]

I hope you are not adding ammonia to a tank with fish in it. The 18 hours statement made me a bit suspicious of that. In a fish in cycle you do water changes to keep nitrites under 0.25 ppm, not 20 ppm. It is time for some enormous water changes. If you keep playing around with small water changes you will lose any fish that you have left. It would take several 90% water changes in a row to bring 20 ppm of nitrites to a reasonable level for your fish.

 

[plecostomus-mad]

I hope you are not adding ammonia to a tank with fish in it. The 18 hours statement made me a bit suspicious of that. In a fish in cycle you do water changes to keep nitrites under 0.25 ppm, not 20 ppm. It is time for some enormous water changes. If you keep playing around with small water changes you will lose any fish that you have left. It would take several 90% water changes in a row to bring 20 ppm of nitrites to a reasonable level for your fish.

it was 18 hours max due to me running out of dechlore, i do huge water changes everyday!! at least 75% minimum. and NO, i dont add ammonia to a fish in cycle.lol thats would be asking for trouble!