good or bad

[BlazedSaint]

So can anyone shed some light on where im at with the cycling process?
tank has been set up for 6 days, just started testing my water yesterday after adding my live plants and doing a 15% water change

yesterdays readings
day 5
gh: 120
kh: 180
ph: 7.0
nitrite: 3
nitrate: 20

Todays readings
day 6
gh :120
kh: 180
ph: 7
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate: 40

What am i doing wrong?

 

[BlazedSaint]

The Water is Slightly cloudy and the tips of a few of my live plants are like "melted off" and there are a few brown spots on a few leaves, this could be from transit(shipped from a website) or maybe just the plants getting settled in i have heard a few answers, however im just concerned

 

[shellieca]

What about ammonia? Are you using a test kit or the 5 in 1 test strips?

 

[shellieca]

How long have you been cycling the tank? You have nitrites & nitrates so it appears your cycle is moving along. The nitrite phase can take the longest.

 

[BlazedSaint]

How long have you been cycling the tank? You have nitrites & nitrates so it appears your cycle is moving along. The nitrite phase can take the longest.

im using the 5 in 1 strips, i learned after i bought them that they suck lol lol, im getting a kit in the morning, more or less i got a free tank from my dad last week, he is a big salt water coral guy, i started a Fresh Water Tank on friday night, i used puritan springs dispenser water and a little tap water, all treated with prime and Top fin Bio Booster (o its a 29 gallon bio cube). but i let it run all weekend while my florite and sand and gravel all settled. however my LFS told me the way to cycle my tank was to get some hardy fish(zebra danios) and put them in. it was a total loss, now i dont know what to do i planted some live plants yesterday, besides that im afraid im not doing anything to help the tank cycle, also i cant find one of the zebra danio bodies anywhere ive looked all over the tank for it, will allowing it to break down wherever it is harm my live plants or the cycling process?

 

[Mebbid]

im using the 5 in 1 strips, i learned after i bought them that they suck lol lol, im getting a kit in the morning, more or less i got a free tank from my dad last week, he is a big salt water coral guy, i started a Fresh Water Tank on friday night, i used puritan springs dispenser water and a little tap water, all treated with prime and Top fin Bio Booster (o its a 29 gallon bio cube). but i let it run all weekend while my florite and sand and gravel all settled. however my LFS told me the way to cycle my tank was to get some hardy fish(zebra danios) and put them in. it was a total loss, now i dont know what to do i planted some live plants yesterday, besides that im afraid im not doing anything to help the tank cycle, also i cant find one of the zebra danio bodies anywhere ive looked all over the tank for it, will allowing it to break down wherever it is harm my live plants or the cycling process?

No, it wont hurt the cycling process, it's common to use a cocktail shrimp inside a nylon stocking to cycle a tank. It can however cause problems with bad bacteria in the tank if that's what killed it.

Is there any chance it went carpet surfing?

 

[BlazedSaint]

No, it wont hurt the cycling process, it's common to use a cocktail shrimp inside a nylon stocking to cycle a tank. It can however cause problems with bad bacteria in the tank if that's what killed it.

Is there any chance it went carpet surfing?

nope it went bag to bucket to tank, for all five in the net in one easy scoop and they all went right into the tank no problem, i assume the fish died from nitrite or ammonia, my plants seem to be doing ok in there with the dead body

 

[Mebbid]

Yeah, the plants will absolutely love the ammonia.

 

[BlazedSaint]

just did a 15ish percent water change in tank and none of the my stats changed : (

 

[Mebbid]

Look at a water change this way.

For example, if you have 10ppm ammonia level and do a 15% water change it will only drop down to 8.5ppm which still doesn't even register on a test kit as a change. If the level is down at 5ppm then a 15% change wont even take a full point away from the ammonia concentration. If you are doing a water change I wouldn't bother with less than a 50% of the tank volume.

 

[BlazedSaint]

gotcha that seems like an awful lot of water but ill pull half the water out tommorow morning and do a change, should i add bio booster? also im going to take my water to petsmart to get pro tested since im going there to buy a master kit anway how long should i wait after the change before pulling water to take to petsmart

 

[Mebbid]

How large is your tank? I would skip the bio booster but just make sure to dechlorinate the water before you put it in your tank.

I would wait an hour after the water change to take the sample.

 

[BlazedSaint]

How large is your tank? I would skip the bio booster but just make sure to dechlorinate the water before you put it in your tank.

I would wait an hour after the water change to take the sample.

its a 29 gallon bio cube, lightly planted with florite/sand/gravel subs

 

[BlazedSaint]

50% water change done, tank went from clear to a little foggy might have just kicked up some sand or it just be the tap water, but waiting an hour then taking it to petsmart to be tested(also getting master kit)