What is high nitrogen?

[spazmonkey]

So I brought a pleco back that died one day after buying it at a pet store. I brought my water in and they did a test. It came out as I think .5 light green second lowest on the test. The guy tolld me my nitrogen was too high which was tough to beliece since I did a 1/2 tank water change a few days before getting the fish and replaced the filter pads. I also do not feed the fish every day, only had 3 other guppies in the tank, and the guppies have been living for a month.

They told me the warantee was void because of it.

Is this bogus?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

So I brought a pleco back that died one day after buying it at a pet store. I brought my water in and they did a test. It came out as I think .5 light green second lowest on the test. The guy tolld me my nitrogen was too high which was tough to beliece since I did a 1/2 tank water change a few days before getting the fish and replaced the filter pads. I also do not feed the fish every day, only had 3 other guppies in the tank, and the guppies have been living for a month.

They told me the warantee was void because of it.

Is this bogus?

I think it is incorrect . Do you have a test kit yourself, or a picture of the test results?

 

[Colin_T]

Light green on most liquid test kits is ammonia. Red is nitrite and nitrate.

If the dead fish was in the bag of water and they tested that water, then it could have ammonia from the dead fish.

If you need to get a water sample tested, use a clean plastic or glass container and don't put anything in it besides the water. If you need to return dead fish, put them in a separate bag.

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If you are changing filter pads/ cartridges, then you could have ammonia and or nitrite in the water.
The filter pads develop colonies of beneficial bacteria over a 4-6 week period. These good bacteria keep ammonia and nitrite at 0. If you replace the pads, you get rid of the bacteria and the tank will have to cycle again. Cycling is where good bacteria grow in the filter materials.

You can buy rectangular sponges for different brands of power filter and cut them with a pair of scissors so they fit in your filter. Keep them and the filter pads together for a couple of months and then throw the pads away and don't replace them. Put more sponge in after you remove the pads and just have sponges in the filter.

You can also get round/ cylindrical sponges for some brands of internal power filter. These have a hole through the centre and fit over the intake strainer of most external power filters.

Once sponges are established (around 6-8 weeks), you can clean them in a bucket of tank water every couple of weeks and they will last for years and not need replacing until they start to fall apart.

Using sponges instead of replacing cartridges will save you money and keep the ammonia and nitrite levels at 0 and prevent them from spiking after cleaning the filter.