my wonderful water?

[mle421]

ok, so either my kit is broken or my tap water is perfect. I have a liquid test kit the one with the two bottles. i use it all the time and it always says the same thing. that my ammonia is 0. even when i check my tap water. even i haven't done a water change in 2 weeks. its always 0. is my kit not working or is it possible that i just have really good water. my other tests are always good too. [acronym:a527860438="power head or Measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions, depending on context"]ph[/acronym:a527860438] is always 7.4 nitrite is usually 0 or between 0 and .25 and the nitrate fluctuates but not a whole lot.

even today, i got a new 29 [acronym:a527860438="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:a527860438] and filled her up at about 10am, then this evening at about 5 i did my tests and the results are perfect. as if its been cycling for 3 days. ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate between 0 and 5ppm.

anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Billsgate]

It's normal that our ammonia is always zero, it should only show a reading when you are cycling. The new 29 [acronym:71c4adc8c7="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:71c4adc8c7] is not even cycling yet. The nitrate you read will be present in your tap water, and in a week or so, test again, and you will see you have ammonia and nitrItes.

[acronym:71c4adc8c7="Hope this helps (or) Happy to help"]HTH[/acronym:71c4adc8c7]

[TomK2]

i got a new 29 [acronym:ebc0c54edd="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:ebc0c54edd] and filled her up at about 10am, then this evening at about 5 i did my tests and the results are perfect. as if its been cycling for 3 days. ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate between 0 and 5ppm.

Is this a second tank? Or are you just upgrading? If a second set-up, do you have fish in it yet? If its your second tank and no fish, you can save a lot of fish stress by running the the new filter on the old tank for a couple of weeks to "seed" the filters biologic filter with the needed bacteria. This will shorten your new tanks cycle time too. If its a second tank and fish are in it, take a little(not all) of the bio-media from tank #1 and put it in the new filter to achieve a similar effect. If its an upgrade, use new and old filter on the new tank for a few weeks,or take the bio-media from the old filter and put it into the new filter.

A well run and established tank with a good bio-filter will always have zero ammonia and zero nitrites, the nitrate level depends on what your tap water starts with, your bioload, and how often you change the water.