Water changes

[Coursair]

I am using a API master kit. My tank completed a successful fishless cycle. I was told those are OK readings and my fish would be OK. Now I am concerned.

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Zero Ammonia is great.
Zero Nitrates, is odd. I'd expect at least 10-20ppm.

That test needs a lot of shaking AFAIK.


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[enrgizerbunny]

I am using a API master kit. My tank completed a successful fishless cycle. I was told those are OK readings and my fish would be OK. Now I am concerned.

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Yes these readings are okay, but unusual. If your tank is cycled you should have zero ammonia and nitrite, coupled with steadily rising nitrates.

How long did it take to cycle your tank?

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[dkmuller]

1 month it is 5.5 gallons

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[dkmuller]

I will recheck my nitrates tonight

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[enrgizerbunny]

I will recheck my nitrates tonight

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1 month it is 5.5 gallons

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I would wait until you see nitrates. Check it daily until you see a rise.


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[ScaryFatKidGT]

With a 5.5 gallon tank, I would do 50% a week just because that size is so easy to change the water. Since you cycled fishless, don't bother cleaning the filter media for this month. Water changes don't affect your cycle, but getting too aggressive cleaning the filter can.

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Change more rather than less, no reason not to

Hey Meb...

Since most, if not all fish will adapt to most public water supplies, I don't need to test it for chemical content. Now, if I change out a lot of tank water and do it weekly, there's no time for wastes to build up before I remove them through the large, weekly water change. Testing is for those water keepers that need to test because they're a little lazy changing out the tank water. I'm constantly flushing new, treated tap water through the tanks, so there's no reason to take time or spend money on testing the tank water. I know it's always waste free.

Easy pee-zee.

B

You should test you tap at least once for amonia, nitrites and nitrates, other wise the effectiveness of your water changes is significantly reduced. i'm all at 0 but my ph is like 8.4.

OK I tested my water Monday after adding my betta Saturday night and 0 ammonia 0 nitrates 0 nitrites and pH 7.4 . My question do I need to test my water every day. I will be doing a PWC this weekend which will be 1 week since I got her.

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Zeros across the board seem unnatural. I would retest tomorrow and make sure you follow directions closely. Are you using a liquid test kit or strips ?


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I am using a API master kit. My tank completed a successful fishless cycle. I was told those are OK readings and my fish would be OK. Now I am concerned.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Aquarium Advice mobile app

My guess is you didn't shake the nitrate test enough, pretend its a maraca.

 

[Jferrante]

When testing tap water you should let it sit for 24 to 48 hours if it's bubbly.
Mine is and this can throw off everything from what it actually is. Especially Ph levels. Should also test in once with prime in it after sitting for 24 hours. a 5.5 gallon can be tricky since it's such a small volume of water and can fluctuate very easily. I'm still wondering how I can maintain a my 5.5 gallon quarantine tank because of that, since it'd probably be harder to keep steady than a 55 gallon.

0 Nitrates isn't likely usually there is at least a faint amount. I've also been really curious as to how plants might effect this level. I would assume it would lower it and when combined with water changes lower it to an even lower level which could appear to be steady and low enough to seem like 0ppm when it's probably at least 2.5ppm. You also have to bang the 2nd bottle against something before shaking because the reason you shake it so vigorously is because it forms crystals inside the bottle which ends up diluting the test result if they aren't broken up and shaken properly. SO a good slap and then the 30 second shake followed by the 1 minute shake should do the trick. Look at the top of the tube if it's more of an orange while the rest is a yellow then it's probably in-between 0 and 5ppm.