My water parameters a week in...

[Abbitha]

This was right before I did a 50% water change because I have fish and don't want to hurt them.

Ammonia .50, nitrites .50, nitrates, 10. I'm slightly confused I thought I wouldn't see nitrates until after ammonia was gone and the nitrites raised higher. Thought it went like ammonia rises and then decreases, while nitrites rise, consuming ammonia. And then nitrates make an appearance turning nitrites into nitrates. Why do I have nitrates when my ammonia is still reading high

 

[flitabout]

Chances are you will see a trace of ammo until right at the very end of the cycle. If you are only a week in your looking good so far!

 

[BBradbury]

Nitrogen Cycle

This was right before I did a 50% water change because I have fish and don't want to hurt them.

Ammonia .50, nitrites .50, nitrates, 10. I'm slightly confused I thought I wouldn't see nitrates until after ammonia was gone and the nitrites raised higher. Thought it went like ammonia rises and then decreases, while nitrites rise, consuming ammonia. And then nitrates make an appearance turning nitrites into nitrates. Why do I have nitrates when my ammonia is still reading high

Hello Abb...

Hopefully, you have hardy fish in the tank, because even a trace of ammonia or nitrite in the water will kill most aquarium fish. You need to test daily for ammonia and nitrite. If you have a positive test for either, the procedure is to change 30 percent of the water to get the water chemistry back into the safe zone for the fish and to leave some ammonia and nitrite for the growing good bacteria to use for food.

Get some floating plants into the tank too. They will help use the nitrogen that builds up from the fish waste. Common water weed, Duckweed, Hornwort and Pennywort are all good for the cycling process. Feeding should be minimal, a little every three to four days. You don't want uneaten food fouling the tank water any further.

B

 

[jlk]

Make sure you check your tap water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. More often than not, the source of nitrate in a newly cycling tank is the tap water.

 

[Abbitha]

If I had the choice I would have done a fishless cycle but I didn't. My tank was up and running for years and crashed causing me to break everything down sanitize, and start over. (Don't ask about it, as that's not what my concern is anymore) If the ammonia gets to .5 I do a water change. I haven't lost any fish yet and I'm quite aware of the dangers of hurting my fish. I'm stressed enough as is that I don't hurt my otos, neon, and angelfish. I'm not adding any plants yet as I lost 90% of them when I had to do a sanitize dip. I do have fern, Vals, Anubia, and an unknown plant that survived though so hopefully they are helping the process out a little bit. I can't wait to get my planted aquarium back up and running but it's a slow process as I'm too busy focused on my delicate fish to have to worry about keeping up with my plants as well. Just curious about my numbers but I'm glad they are normal and I should see it dropping soon. Question, my angelfish has a black splotch on him that he used to not have. Is this from the ammonia? If so, will it go away? It fades and darkens as if it's just his normal color but this is the first time I've seen this part turn black, does it have to do with my readings? The second pic was a few days ago and the first was a few hours ago. Notice the stripe by his back tail fin? Has a leaking appearance to it.

 

[flitabout]

Wow I have never seen that and if I hadn't seen both pictures would have just thought they were different fish. It might be the ammo but you don't usually see ammo burns like that. My only recommendation is to do a water change any time the ammo or nitrite reach .25ppm rather than .5ppm. You can also dose with prime daily to detoxify the ammo and trites until you can get the tank cycled again. I am so sorry you had to do that tear down. Did you ever figure out what happened?

 

[Abbitha]

No still haven't quite figured out what the heck happened lol and okay I'll do the changes before it hits .5. I received advice to do it when it got to .5. Thanks for the heads up

Yeah it's odd it fades and darkens as if it's just a normal stripe or something so who knows *shrugs* he seems fine otherwise. Vibrant colors and hungry 24/7. He doesn't like that I only been feeding them every third day and even then it's not very much haha but that's just until the tank cycles and things are a little more stable. Then it'll be back to every other day.

 

[flitabout]

Angels are horrid beggars!

 

[Mebbid]

Wow I have never seen that and if I hadn't seen both pictures would have just thought they were different fish. It might be the ammo but you don't usually see ammo burns like that. My only recommendation is to do a water change any time the ammo or nitrite reach .25ppm rather than .5ppm. You can also dose with prime daily to detoxify the ammo and trites until you can get the tank cycled again. I am so sorry you had to do that tear down. Did you ever figure out what happened?

I suggested that the water changes be done at .5ppm. My reasoning was because in a stocked tank you are going to kill yourself doing water changes for no particular reason. A .25 ppm ammonia level is a perfectly safe level while over a .5ppm is starting to get dangerous depending on temperature and pH.

Results on study of ammonia toxicity:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

 

[Abbitha]

Ok so it is safe to wait for .5? See I figured as much because everyone seemed happy still at the .5. Even the oto cars and neon were okay and I always study them. As they're the ones that usually show stress first when it comes to water issues.

 

[pip walters]

What about pH?
Ammonia is less toxic at lower pH. Your test kit will measure NH4 - the actual toxicity will depend on temperature and pH.

If your ottos are fine, then you haven't got too much problem here - they are particularly sensitive to poor water quality.