I need some help/advice

[KantGetRite]

Ok, so today I took readings at 11am, performed a 15% water change and added pH increase, then retook the readings at 5pm. Thoughts on why such a dramatic change?


Tank Info: 15g column tank, 1 neon tetra (others died), 3 platys


11am readings:
pH: 6.8
ammonia: .50ppm
Nitrite: .25ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm


5pm readings:
pH: 7.6
ammonia: .25 ppm
Nitrite: .25 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm


What should I do next? Am I close to being cycled? Why the spike in Nitrates?

 

[20cc]

why you adding ph up ? never add chemicals in your tank , if you want to up your ph do it naturally .

 

[chbix]

Especially if your cycling you don't want to add anything. Ammonia should be 0 for a while

 

[KantGetRite]

How would I raise it naturally? Why does it matter which way it gets raise as long as it does?

The other comment really provided no help whatsoever :/

 

[Fishperson]

KantGetRite: To raise it "naturally" (it's not very natural, just not with a product) you can add baking soda, but for your fish that's not a problem. What is a problem, is that ph swing. .8 in 6 hours is not good. What is your tap water's ph? The reason you want to raise it naturally is because the products are not very accurate, and they often mess things up. You would need to look up how much baking soda to add and how, I just know that is one way to do it.

Guys: It's not very helpful or welcoming if you say "why did you do that?" Be nice. We were all new once and it's not a dumb thing to do at all. If you don't have anything helpful to say than just don't say anything.

 

[20cc]

apologies.. i didnt mean it in a derogatory way .

my advice is to not mess with your PH. what PH you have from your particular city water is the PH you should work with . im in new york city so my tap water comes at around 6.8 PH so thats what i have to work with . i inject co2 which drops my PH to 6.0 . since i have fish that like acidic water im good to go .
If i were to want to have an african cichlid tank then i would need higher PH water since they like harder water. i would get some crushed coral put it in a filter bag and add to filter ( naturally upping the PH). If you use chemicals ( PH up/down ) to change your PH then you will ALWAYS have to it at every water change because what kills fish is the PH swings not the PH itself

that being said fish will generally adapt to your PH. so you can just basically take your PH kit and throw it away

 

[Fishperson]

apologies.. i didnt mean it in a derogatory way .

my advice is to not mess with your PH. what PH you have from your particular city water is the PH you should work with . im in new york city so my tap water comes at around 6.8 PH so thats what i have to work with . i inject co2 which drops my PH to 6.0 . since i have fish that like acidic water im good to go .
If i were to want to have an african cichlid tank then i would need higher PH water since they like harder water. i would get some crushed coral put it in a filter bag and add to filter ( naturally upping the PH). If you use chemicals ( PH up/down ) to change your PH then you will ALWAYS have to it at every water change because what kills fish is the PH swings not the PH itself

that being said fish will generally adapt to your PH. so you can just basically take your PH kit and throw it away

+1 to this, but you don't really want to throw away your ph test kit.

You still have to test ph to say, find out why a fish died. If your ph goes from 6 to 8 in one day, and 3 fish die, than you know why.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Kant...

Cycling a tank with fish is fine as long as you carefully check the water chemistry. Test daily for traces of ammonia and nitrite. When you have a positive test of either, you remove 25 percent of the water and replace it with pure, treated tap water. Don't change more or less, you want to keep the water relatively safe for the fish and leave food for the bacteria to grow. Just test every day and remove the water when needed.

When you have several daily tests that show "0" for ammonia and nitrite, the tank is cycled.

You should add a good floating plant like Anacharis to the tank. It's a natural water filter and will use some of the above toxins.

Keep pluggin' away!

B