Chemical Readings

[pmdonnelly]

This is my first post to the forums. I have a one month old 10 gallon tank. I have 3 guppies, two mollies, and a platy. I understand that I have a crowding situation and am rectifying the problem.

My question is this: Are my chemical readings appropriate? I am concerned that my tank pH reading may have too much alkalinity.

My readings are as follows:

pH - 7.6
Ammonia NH3/NH4 - 0-.25
Nitrate NO3 - 5.0 ppm

Thanks for all the help.

 

[mfdrookie516]

ph is fine, nitrate is fine, ammonia is high. are you using strips to test these?

 

[DragonFish71]

I wouldn't be concerned about the pH for now, concentrate on the nitrAtes being so high. From the readings I am going to say you are close to the end of your cycle. Do some water changes to get your nitrAtes down so the fish don't suffer. Don't clean the gravel or filter media though, you really want the fresh water at this point. The bacteria the we want don't live much in the water column so you'll be fine with water changes to bring down those 'trAtes.

 

[pmdonnelly]

I am using a test kit. According to the color chart, my ammonia level is closer to 0 ppm... I just refuse to believe that there is no ammonia level. My test tube is nearly clear with a yellow tint.. which according to the chart is 0 ppm.

 

[mfdrookie516]

ok, that sounds fine then. my test is hard to tell 0 from .25 as well. I think dragon misread the results because 5ppm nitrates is really low, most of the time they run around 15-30ppm... as for ph, thats not really a big concern. my ph is 7.8 in all my tanks with no issues. you want to look for consistancy on ph, not necessarily the actual number

 

[pmdonnelly]

Thanks for the tip about not cleaning the gravel. I change 15% of the water each Monday. Is that appropriate?

 

[mfdrookie516]

the size of the water change will depend on the tank conditions. i change 50% once a week in all my tanks, but generally speaking, anywhere between 15-25% is enough. If you have abnormal parameters, overstocked, things like that, bigger changes are better

 

[DragonFish71]

Oh heck, I did mis-read, sorry all. I thought it said 50. Going back to bed now

 

[Mark Hewitt]

One tip with the ammonia. When I was cycling my tank I put a tube from the tank next to one which just had water from the tap. (Same with Nitrites), that way I can tell if there is any ammonia by comparing the two tubes, which is much easier than looking at the colour card.

 

[mfdrookie516]

good tip, though i would suggest distilled water since tap *can* have some ammonia in it

 

[pmdonnelly]

Thanks, I'll try that.

 

[bs6749]

Looks like you are near the end of the nitrogen cycle. I'd continue to do water changes every 2-3 days. With your 10g tank stocked the way it is, it wouldn't be a bad thing to change 3 gallons 2-3 times per week. Your nitrates levels are fine, you should be mostly concerned with ammonia and nitrite readings.