Woohoo! Best Readings Yet

[kcharley]

Hi all.

Started my 10 year old's 20g long about 2.5 months ago.

Made the typical newb blunder of buying fish and not cycling the tank.

Only lost 6 fish to that mistake (3 were neons).

Been working on the cycle and just got these readings:

PH 7.4
Ammonia < .25
Nitrite 0, the big goose egg, nada, nil, none, zip, zilch
Nitrate 20

Can you tell we're excited about the zero nitrites?

 

[Corleone]

Checking your past posts, you've definitely come a long way, and you can finally see the end in sight. What test kit are you using, by the way?

 

[quantumnerd]

Are you past the nitrite spike yet, or still on ammonia?

Anyways, low levels means low pain. Good job!

 

[kcharley]

Checking your past posts, you've definitely come a long way, and you can finally see the end in sight. What test kit are you using, by the way?

First, I forgot to say a big THANK YOU to all the knowledgeable posters who have shared what they learned. And thank you to all the other newbies for sharing their learning curve. All really helped my dedication and ability to improve my child's experience and the happiness of the fish. (I've accused one of the red minor tetras of flirting with my wife. He always comes to the front and stares at her when she sits down to watch them.)

I'm now using the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. (I started with API's Five in One test strips. I had trouble reading them and suspected the results weren't accurate.) I like it. By filling all four vials at once, I'm able to do the tests in under ten minutes. I also try to read them in the same room and light conditions each time. It seems to me that readings can be interpreted differently depending on room colors and lighting.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, if you're describing the end of a long nitrite spike second stage, that zero can be really welcome. If you have an API kit and have been seeing purple for a long time, the clear sky light blue can be quite a welcome shock!

 

[kcharley]

Are you past the nitrite spike yet, or still on ammonia?

Anyways, low levels means low pain. Good job!

I'm past the nitrite spike finally. Ammonia has been steady at .25 or less for two weeks now. (It took a while before I figured out my tap water has 1 ppm of ammonia in it. I noticed that the fish were stressed right after a water change and that was typically when we lost one. Now they are happy with water changes.)
Nitrites have been dropping slowly and finally hit zero.

Nitrates dropped with water changes.

I may try adding some biological filtration by tieing some unused Knex together and putting them in the filter. (I've gotten the impression that the bacteria grows on the plastic frame holding the cartridge. The filter is oversized for the tank so I'm guessing that what flow loss I cause won't matter.)

 

[waterdrop]

Checking your past posts, you've definitely come a long way, and you can finally see the end in sight. What test kit are you using, by the way?

First, I forgot to say a big THANK YOU to all the knowledgeable posters who have shared what they learned. And thank you to all the other newbies for sharing their learning curve. All really helped my dedication and ability to improve my child's experience and the happiness of the fish. (I've accused one of the red minor tetras of flirting with my wife. He always comes to the front and stares at her when she sits down to watch them.)

I'm now using the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. (I started with API's Five in One test strips. I had trouble reading them and suspected the results weren't accurate.) I like it. By filling all four vials at once, I'm able to do the tests in under ten minutes. I also try to read them in the same room and light conditions each time. It seems to me that readings can be interpreted differently depending on room colors and lighting.

I have a small, medium wattage incandescent lamp that sits next to the tank. I know this sounds like yellowish light, but I found that holding the test tube on the white area of the test card, next to the color bands and then holding the whole thing about 6 inches in front of the lamp (the lamp housing is metal, so no light comes back at my eyes) and always doing this the same way time after time, was a reliable way to get consistent readings.

I agree with you. I fill up 3 or 4 tubes at once with tank water and then shake the ammonia and nitrite tubes together in one hand and start my little timer that hangs around my neck. Then I can perform the pH test while those are in the wait period. I only ever performed nitrate(NO3) tests on occasion, as those are less needed and are more tedious to time. KH are about as easy as pH tests.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

man you're conscientious with your testing WD, timer round your kneck! i have a quick glance at the clock and check them *some* minutes later!

that being said when i first started testing i was a little more careful, nowadays i know that the ammonia and nitrite ones are unlikely to have any colour changes between 2 minutes and 15 minutes so as long as i give it a couple of minutes before checking then the result will be pretty clear.

 

[waterdrop]

man you're conscientious with your testing WD, timer round your kneck! i have a quick glance at the clock and check them *some* minutes later!

that being said when i first started testing i was a little more careful, nowadays i know that the ammonia and nitrite ones are unlikely to have any colour changes between 2 minutes and 15 minutes so as long as i give it a couple of minutes before checking then the result will be pretty clear.

well, the truth is I bought it for my wife (DW as OMF would say? get it?) and she didn't really take to it so I bought her a different one and claimed the litte neck timer for me and Oliver and it was really great because I could move about the house, usually cleaning tank decorations at the sink or something, while knowing I'd hear the beep to read the test results.

And, I agree of course that once you get experienced you can know the answer you want pretty quickly most times and you are usually doing way less tests on a well-maintained mature tank anyway (although I've forced myself to try and remember that a run-through of the tests on various maintenance weekends is a good thing for mature tanks, so that things don't sneak up on you!)

~~waterdrop~~