What Do These Test Results Mean?

[*Al*]

I'm in the middle of cycling my new tank and tested the water today.

I got:

Ammonia: 0.1
Nitrite: 0.75
Nitrate: 10

What do these mean?

At what stage am I at in the cycle?

Cheers

 

[Hawkins]

not sure what stage but that looks good..

how much ammonia have you put in?

you probably put 5ppm in, which means that it is down to 1 and is processing through to nitrite and to nitrate..

if you can say how much ammonia you put in,
and what time you put it in, then that would give a better indication of what stage you are at

 

[Miss Wiggle]

are you cycling with fish or without?


generally when you give test results it means more to us to get a history of what the results have been each day, what you did to the tank. One set of results on their own doesn't always tell the full story, so if you've been logging your test readings each day then can you give us all of them?

 

[*Al*]

are you cycling with fish or without?

Without but I'm not adding ammonia, I'm just 'feeding' the tank every day with a small pinch of food.

By the way, I have another tank which has been going for years so can I do anything with that to speed up the process.
I have already squeezed one of the pads from the old filter out into the new tank ( but this is probably stupid?).

Cheers.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

not at all stupid, the quickest thing you could do to get the tank cycled is swap some of the media in the existing filter with some of the media from the new filter. Just take around one third or less of the media from the main tank and put it into the new tank.

It won't cycle it instantly but you'll find the ammonia and nitrite start to drop down much quicker.

Cycling with fish food does work but the main problem is it's very difficult to idenitify how much ammonia the iflter is capable of processing and how long it takes to process it. Is there a reason you aren't using liquid ammonia? No worries if there's a valid reason, just it'd be much easier to do it that way if possible!

 

[*Al*]

not at all stupid, the quickest thing you could do to get the tank cycled is swap some of the media in the existing filter with some of the media from the new filter. Just take around one third or less of the media from the main tank and put it into the new tank.

It won't cycle it instantly but you'll find the ammonia and nitrite start to drop down much quicker.

Cycling with fish food does work but the main problem is it's very difficult to idenitify how much ammonia the iflter is capable of processing and how long it takes to process it. Is there a reason you aren't using liquid ammonia? No worries if there's a valid reason, just it'd be much easier to do it that way if possible!

I'm basically not adding liquid ammonia because my Dad doesn't want me to! I don't know why he doesn't but hey.

Also, the filters are completely different in the two tanks, (one is fluval with just two pads, the new one is Juwel with about seven), If I just take out one of the pads from the old filter and lay it on top where the white pad (the filter wool) is that right?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OK, we've had this before, a lot of parents worry about their kids handling ammonia or don't really understand why they need to add it. It really would be better if you could get liquid ammonia and use this. We'll have a think and see if we can find a way to persuade your Dad that this is the way to go. If you don't mind me asking how old are you? (sometimes it helps us work out what the best way to approach your dad is, what might work coming from a 15 year old might not work coming from an 8 year old if you know what i mean!)

It's not a massive problem if you can't persuade him anyway, you can make it work with fish food, it's just a little bit trickier to understand what's going on in the tank.

If you take one of the pads from the existing filter (make sure it doesn't dry out while you move it over) and just replace one of the new pads with it. You can cut the sponges with scissors to make them fit if they're the wrong size.

Are you keeping a log of all your readings each day? If not then can you start one now, it'll make it easier to work out where you are.

 

[*Al*]

If you don't mind me asking how old are you?

16, and another question, when you're adding ammpnia are you 'feeding' the bacteria?

So, adding the ammonia is just knowing exactly how much you're feeding the ammonia and therefore exactly
how quickly the bacteria are turning the ammonia into nitrites?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

If you don't mind me asking how old are you?

16, and another question, when you're adding ammpnia are you 'feeding' the bacteria?

So, adding the ammonia is just knowing exactly how much you're feeding the ammonia and therefore exactly
how quickly the bacteria are turning the ammonia into nitrites?

Precisely

when you add 5ppm of ammonia it's easy to meausure, it all goes in straight away and you can measure exactly how long it takes to consume it all to 0 ppm.

with fish food it's release gradually into the water and as a result of this you can't even measure how much you're putting in let alone measure how long it's taking to get to 0.

doing it with fish food you just have to take you're best guess at when it's cycled, stock lightly and be prepared for water changes. It does mean you're putting the fish at risk, but it's nowhere near as much risk as if you didn't cycle at all.

Well at 16 it shouldn't be that your Dad's worried about you handling chemicals or anything like that, sit him down and just ask him why you can't do it with ammonia, do some research so you can present him with the facts. Just approach it with maturity, think of it like a school project. If you approach your dad as an adult he'll be much more likely to trust you to do it this way.

 

[petertr]

Well at 16 it shouldn't be that your Dad's worried about you handling chemicals or anything like that, sit him down and just ask him why you can't do it with ammonia, do some research so you can present him with the facts. Just approach it with maturity, think of it like a school project. If you approach your dad as an adult he'll be much more likely to trust you to do it this way.

At 16, I bet there are worse things you do than drop by a shop and buy some ammonia and hide it from your dad



Although the best idea is to take a filter from your other tank, and cut it to size in the new one - that is the best head-start you can give yourself.

I wouldn't put it ontop of the filter wool though - try to get it in with the other sponge filters - as that is where the bacteria needs to be.