Ammonia, nitrate and nitrite readings

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jmarcf

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 22, 2015
Messages
40
Hi

I have setup a new 4ft tank about a week ago with a Tidal 75 and sponge filter. I used a bag of media from my 5ft's canister filter with new sponges and matrix for the hob. On top of this I also used a seeded large intake sponge and some substrate from said 5ft tank.

This is how I have done all my tanks in the past without issue so didn't really give it a second thought. I decided to test the water today before a wc, unfortunately I got readings for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. I currently have 2 blood parrots and bristle-nose plecos in there. The only thing that happened was, we had a blackout for a couple of hours about 2 days after setup and it was very hot that day (in fact every day has been extreme :().

Anyway, whats my best course of action from here? Should I get some of that bacteria in a bottle?

Thanks
 
Just keep the ammonia and nitrite at safe levels through waterchanges ,or by using Seachems Prime to detoxify the nutrients..
The Prime will convert the ammonia and nitrite into less toxic forms that will either be used by filter or will need to be re dosed every 48 hours.
The nutrients will still register on test FYI but this is an established method .
Personally I would change enough water to bring the nutrients into safe range and add a 'little' extra Prime..
 
Just keep the ammonia and nitrite at safe levels through waterchanges ,or by using Seachems Prime to detoxify the nutrients..
The Prime will convert the ammonia and nitrite into less toxic forms that will either be used by filter or will need to be re dosed every 48 hours.
The nutrients will still register on test FYI but this is an established method .
Personally I would change enough water to bring the nutrients into safe range and add a 'little' extra Prime..

Thanks for replying :) Yeah I have done that today
 
I have set up many tanks just like you... Just like you I rarely test any.. Big tanks are a different story IMO [a story of efficient water changes] but most of the time I find the time taken testing I could have just changed water..
I am a water change nut though and do know what a pain it is to change 50% + on big tanks..My 60 ,60 ,80 all have syphons piped that go to a pump/sump box and right out of house...I just get them flowing and work on other tanks till they drain..They used to take a lot of my time and attention. That being said I like to change 50%+ as often as possible on all my tanks.. Some several times a week [little tanks are easy....] .
 
Anyway, whats my best course of action from here? Should I get some of that bacteria in a bottle?

what bandit said, daily water changes (yeh, not fun :( ), prime, monitoring. I don't rely on magic "cycle in a bottle" products, but in this case it can't make things worst and can only help - I would go for it.

good luck!
 
what bandit said, daily water changes (yeh, not fun :( ), prime, monitoring. I don't rely on magic "cycle in a bottle" products, but in this case it can't make things worst and can only help - I would go for it.

good luck!

Thanks, where I'm not are believer in "magic cycle" products but yeah it wouldn't help
 
This is getting strange. I tested the water using API and Sera, the Sera test twice came back as ammonia being crazy high like over 5ppm and the API came back as 0ppm. I have 2 sets of Sera ammonia kits and both read the same.

So I decided to purchase a 3rd test kit. I got the seachem kit. Not sure if anyone has used this kit but it's totally different. It comes with 2 tests, free and total ammonia.

I'm running a second series of test using the seachem kit, just to be on the safe side because it showed 0ppm of free ammonia and a tiny bit of total ammonia (less then 0.05) in the first test.

Has anyone seen something like this? It really has got me confused on the way forward from here.
 
I have set up many tanks just like you... Just like you I rarely test any.. Big tanks are a different story IMO [a story of efficient water changes] but most of the time I find the time taken testing I could have just changed water..
I am a water change nut though and do know what a pain it is to change 50% + on big tanks..My 60 ,60 ,80 all have syphons piped that go to a pump/sump box and right out of house...I just get them flowing and work on other tanks till they drain..They used to take a lot of my time and attention. That being said I like to change 50%+ as often as possible on all my tanks.. Some several times a week [little tanks are easy....] .

Sorry just realised what I replied originally made no sense lol. I meant to say "yeah it wouldn't hurt" lol
 
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