water test results

[fishyfoo]

ok well i went to an aquatics megastore on sunday - they do free water tests - i took a sample of tank water in a water bottle which i cleaned out with tap water before we went i made sure it was quiet dry then put in a sample of tank water - after the girl did the test she said that my nitrate and nitrite levels were both 0 and my PH was 7 but she said my ammonia was something like 0.5 and not 0 - could this of been affected by how i cleaned the water bottle out with regular tap water before i put in my tank water - she said that it could be the ammonia level was on the way up but most likely to go down but i thort maybe if there was any tap water that was in the bottle may have mixed with my tank water? could this produce a result like that?? my boyfriend is taking me tommorow to get some fish but i dot wanna go all that way if we dont end up buying any cause its about half an hour away in the car. sunday night i put some more bacteria and a bit of fish food to help with the cycling reckon it could be ok to go back tommorow to get fish i will take a sample of water just incase and get it tested again but make sure i dont swill it out with water first just incase. i didnt have anything else to put my sample of water in u see! any advice???

 

[Ob1]

I would not have through it possible to get ammonia from tap water, you could try taking to samples in to the shop sample one Tap water, sample two from your tank

Also i think ammonia is a good thing when starting a cycled a tank, however you have a zero reading for both nitrate and nitrite, its seems like you are at the start of the tank cycle? and not yet ready for fish!

how long have you cycled your tank?

provide size,

 

[Alien Anna]

I agree - your tank is not yet cycled and you are not ready for fish. Please be patient. It sounds like things are ticking along just fine. Leave it a while and when you get zero on both ammonia and nitrite, and get some nitrate appearing, you can be confident your tank is cycled and go buy your fish.

 

[fishyfoo]

i have bee cycling the tank for almost 2 weeks without fish - ammonia is posionous to fish and i thort that u had to have the levels of ammonia at 0 aswell as nitrite and nitrate??? im sure u do?? thats how u know that u can introduce fish? im confused now my tank holds 60litres

 

[fishyfoo]

yeah i dont mind waiting! i just wasnt sure if something like what i describded cud effect the ammonia levels - well im sure she said the nitrite levels were 0 but she only did 3 tests ammonia, nitirite and ph so what shud the nitrate level be like??? she told me to come back in about 5 days or so and the lfs

 

[MattL]

have a read of the links on my signature, that should help clear things up a bit. You shouldnt add any fishies until your ammonia and nitrites are reading zero. Im sure the tap water had no effect!

Matt



P.S which aquatics megastore u goto? I noticed you are in Birmingham thats all

 

[fishyfoo]

i have been goin to A & D Aquatics in oldbury, bham i have found it one of the best in the midlands so far they really look after the fish well and they have a huge selection of stuff. check it out some time - its near the wolverhampton road if u dont know where oldbury is. thanks for ya advice ill check out ur articles i think i ave been getting a bit confused wit all these water readings lol!

 

[Alien Anna]

i have bee cycling the tank for almost 2 weeks without fish - ammonia is posionous to fish and i thort that u had to have the levels of ammonia at 0 aswell as nitrite and nitrate??? im sure u do?? thats how u know that u can introduce fish? im confused now my tank holds 60litres

Fishless cycling can take a few weeks, but generally it goes quick at the end. You are correct that you need zero ammonia and zero nitrIte - both of them are poisonous to fish. However, nitrate, the last phase of the Nitrogen Cycle, is not toxic except in very high levels and you'd expect to see some nitrAte appearing once a tank is fully cycled.

Bacteria do the following:

Fish pee and poo ---> ammonia ---> nitrite ---> nitrate (which feeds the plants).

I have plants in my tanks and they need nitrate to survive. I try to keep my nitrAtes between 10-25 ppm which suits even the most sensitive fish. Unless you keep discus, pencilfish or some of the more delicate tetras you really don't need to worry too much about nitrate. Oh, except for the fact that high nitrate leads to high algae levels.

Why not get yourself some home test kits so you can keep an eye on the cycling yourself? I never trust LFS employees anyway - we've had too many people on this forum mislead by LFS's too often.

 

[fishyfoo]

i was gonna get my own test but they r a real good fish store and they only use the tests that they sell anyways so i figured i may aswell save some money - i will probs go back this weekend and get the water tested again and see whatt he reading is and if its still the same ill come on here and get some advice and probs then invest in my own water test kit - the test kit i saw in my lfs not the megastore was quite expensive for what it was!!

 

[Alien Anna]

i was gonna get my own test but they r a real good fish store and they only use the tests that they sell anyways so i figured i may aswell save some money - i will probs go back this weekend and get the water tested again and see whatt he reading is and if its still the same ill come on here and get some advice and probs then invest in my own water test kit - the test kit i saw in my lfs not the megastore was quite expensive for what it was!!

Oh you don't want to buy water test kits from the LFS - get them online. Much cheaper. I've just put in an order for a nitrite, nitrate, KH, pH, GH, phosphate and iron test kit - a combined set for £17. None of my LFS's sell the combined kit, or kits like the phosphate test, but if they did it would probably cost me around £56!

On average, the LFS test kits are £7 or £8 each. Online they're about £5 each for individual sets but much cheaper if you buy in bulk.

I have my eye on the Hagen combined set. It's got everything in there - including a test for oxygen and CO2 levels! (I did biochemistry at university, so this is the sort of thing I find exciting ) ), but the downside is it's £46. I'd probably never have to buy a water test kit again but even so... It's the cost of a small tank!

Incidently (if any mods are reading this): the pond testing kit was much cheaper. Is there any essential difference?

 

[fishyfoo]

ok got any recommendations for websites that sell these kits then ad do they take a while to deliver???

 

[MattL]

Im not sure myself but pets at home do a test kit with ammonia, nitrite, ph, high end ph and the 2 different hardness testers for bout 16 quid i think. same ones on ebay are 14 but u still gotta pay postage and packaging.

Dont normally recomend pets at home caus i normally see dead fishies there but the test kit seems real reasonable.

Matt

 

[mrV]

I would not have through it possible to get ammonia from tap water

You get easily ammonia/ammonium -ion from your tap water, if your water plant uses chloroamine, NH2Cl, to clean water. It's widely used chemical.

 

[Alien Anna]

I would not have through it possible to get ammonia from tap water

You get easily ammonia/ammonium -ion from your tap water, if your water plant uses chloroamine, NH2Cl, to clean water. It's widely used chemical.

Chloramines are illegal in drinking water in UK. Only chlorine and hypochlorite are used to disinfect pipes etc.

Just thought that would be useful to know.