Crepe
Aquarium Advice Addict
Water change time, nitrates are redonkulously high.
Starting to get a little nervous ( pics)
- Thread starter tnice17
- Start date
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dkpate
Aquarium Advice Addict
10 is MUCH better! 
Keep up the good work!
Keep up the good work!10 is MUCH better!
what numbers am i looking for? so i know when the tank is fully cycled.
i have been doing WC daily
logansmomma1228
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well ideally less than 5 nitrates. Less than 10 is still good too. The real problem comes when you get up around 20ish. I have heard of people getting them down to 0, though as far as I know that is rare. Possible, but rare!
For Ammonia and Nitrites you want to keep those at 0, but they are , how should I say, manageable up to .25. That is when they can be lethal. They can still damage the fish if they are anything over 0, but the real problems can come at .25.
For Ammonia and Nitrites you want to keep those at 0, but they are , how should I say, manageable up to .25. That is when they can be lethal. They can still damage the fish if they are anything over 0, but the real problems can come at .25.
Crepe
Aquarium Advice Addict
I always keep 20ppm nitrates for my plants. Getting to 0 is bad bad bad and spells algae invasion.
dkpate
Aquarium Advice Addict
Anything between 5 and 40 ppm of nitrates is fine.
The people who have 0 across the boards have alot of plants.
The people who have 0 across the boards have alot of plants.
Petty Officer Salamander
Aquarium Advice Activist
Try to keep nitrate around 10 and no more than 20. Anything less than 5 and you'll be asking for a nice cyanobacteria outbreak.
Oh oh oh I know ALL about that. Not fun. Not fun at all. Zero nitrates is BAD.
Petty Officer Salamander
Aquarium Advice Activist
Yep. And the other misleading thing about low nitrates is that people think "well, if my nitrates never build, I never have to do water changes!" Not so much. Nitrates are just the most commonly measured part of the TDS, which includes much more than nitrate, and will continue to build up despite lower nitrate levels.
so i waited 2 days, and i just did a 50% water change.
readings
ammonia-0
nitrite- .5ppm
nitrate- between 5-10ppm ( hard to tell for color.
so at this point im done cycling?!??
correct me if im wrong, but i test the water daily and when readings get too high is when i do water changes?
readings
ammonia-0
nitrite- .5ppm
nitrate- between 5-10ppm ( hard to tell for color.
so at this point im done cycling?!??
correct me if im wrong, but i test the water daily and when readings get too high is when i do water changes?
Petty Officer Salamander
Aquarium Advice Activist
when you can dose ammonia, and both ammonia and nitrite get knocked down to 0 in a matter of 12-24 hours, you are done cycling. Water changes are done if anything gets too high. You are almost there. couple more days at most.
you need to dose ammonia during the fishless cycle. since you are cycling with fish, your cycle will be done when ammonia and nitrites stay 0 on their own (without having to do daily water changes! hopefully just weekly.)
ok so good and bad news.
bad news - lobster
he killed one of my ballon mollys the other day, scales all over the tank, no fins or tail i was very upset but i knew this was the risk i was going to take.
he is also eating my amazon sword! which is not cool at all. i can handle one or the other, nature is nature but not both for my tank.
i will be giving him to my friend who has a 20 gal tank as well.
two of my tuxedo platys have ick, but very small. i took them out of the tank into another tank and did a 20% WC, raised my water temp and hopefully everything will be ok.
good news-
i didnt do any WC for the past 2 days, i have been super busy and didnt have time, and this was my reading today.
nitrate-0-5ppm ( hard to tell color)
nitrite- 0 ppm
bad news - lobster
he killed one of my ballon mollys the other day, scales all over the tank, no fins or tail
i was very upset but i knew this was the risk i was going to take.he is also eating my amazon sword! which is not cool at all. i can handle one or the other, nature is nature but not both for my tank.
i will be giving him to my friend who has a 20 gal tank as well.
two of my tuxedo platys have ick, but very small. i took them out of the tank into another tank and did a 20% WC, raised my water temp and hopefully everything will be ok.
good news-
i didnt do any WC for the past 2 days, i have been super busy and didnt have time, and this was my reading today.
nitrate-0-5ppm ( hard to tell color)
nitrite- 0 ppm
Petty Officer Salamander
Aquarium Advice Activist
what, if anything, have you been feeding the little guy? For it to turn to eating plants (which i have never seen, having kept both wild crayfish and "blue lobster" varieties), it must be pretty hungry.
yea i do, i feed him about once a day with a shrimp pellet. i place it in front of him with a straw, he takes it an runs in the corner.
maybe i need to do it more?
logansmomma1228
Aquarium Advice Addict
I would suggest some meaty foods like bloodworms maybe? I don't know what they would eat besides live fish but maybe that would help. And one shrimp pellet probably doesnt do the trick lol.
i have blood worms, but they tend to float. i need something to sink to the bottom.
maybe some brine shrimp? next time im at the LPC ill see what they have.
what do you guys think of my recent test results?
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