need some help.. cycle/water testing

[harmy4993]

ok i started my cycle on the 16th of july. couple days ago i tested the water and thought i had a cycled tank. the problem was my nitrates were only reading 5.0. after 3 days the nitrates stayed at 5.0 and i thought i had a bad tester and took it to 2 fish stores to be tested. there test stripes showed high nitrates and high nitrite.

so i did some thinking and decided to do a 50% water change and see what happens. did the change and tested my tank, then thought why not and i tested my tap water at the same time.

this is where it gets interesting and where i have no answer. my tank water after 5 drops starts out at a deep purple color and after 5 mins changes to a light greenish blue color. my tap water after 5 drops changes to a crystal blue color and stays that after 5 mins. the tap water looks exactly like the test color, the tank water is a light color like that but with a easy to see light green tint. very easy to see the color diffrence side by side. but my problem is why did the tank water turn deep purple first and then change to a very light color?

 

[saffikeagan]

what type of test kit are you using?

 

[harmy4993]

api with the water tubes

 

[harmy4993]

im wondering if im getting weird readings cause i have to hgih of a nitrite count for the kit to measure? the lfs were getting a 10+ reading with the strip and the test kit only reads to 5.0. so maybe its so high that its doing funny things that i cant read to the test?

 

[rich311k]

If you have nitrites in the tank the nitrate test is a waste of time. The nitrites will skew it anyway. As for your tap test I do not know, I do know the AP nitrate test is a tricky one.

 

[saffikeagan]

you can take a water sample to your local (non-chain) LFS and have them test it. My local (non-chain) LFSs also use the API so you can watch them, make sure you are doing it right, see what results they get, and decided whether it's you, the kit, or your water.

 

[harmy4993]

my local non chain fish store uses the strips too and got the same result as petco. off the chart nitrites and nitrates. i could live with that if my test was showing the dark purple for nitrites but its not. its showing

my tank water after 5 drops starts out at a deep purple color and after 5 mins changes to a light greenish blue color. my tap water after 5 drops changes to a crystal blue color and stays that after 5 mins. the tap water looks exactly like the test color, the tank water is a light color like that but with a easy to see light green tint. very easy to see the color diffrence side by side. but my problem is why did the tank water turn deep purple first and then change to a very light color

this is what has me totally confused.

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

I think I had my nitrite test stain the test tube a little when I left it sit for like 1 day w/o rinsing. So when I did my ammonia test in that tube I would get green on a 0 ammonia source. I guess make sure the tube is really clean, those test tube cleaner brushes would work good. have you tried it in a couple different test tubes?

 

[harmy4993]

ya i thought that maybe i wasnt getting it clean too. i can use the same tube back to back. once on my tank and once from the tap and get the same results as above. tap crystal blue color exact match from test color. and from tank water a deep purple right after shaking it for 5 seconds and then a light clearish greenish tent color after 5 mins.

getting a perfect 0 test from my tap water and a diffrent result from my tank tells me my test kit is good. its just giving me some kind of reading that i cant read.

 

[CaptainAhab]

Why don't you do a 30-40% PWC.. let things settle, get your ammonia source in there (if it's not already) and start testing again. If your nitrites are really that high, a big PWC isn't going to do any harm

 

[harmy4993]

ok did a 40% and test last night. and just did another 40% water change and added a capfull of ammonia and will do a testing in 2 hours to see what happens.

 

[CaptainAhab]

Would have been better if u tested before dosing.. It would have given you a baseline to compare the changes against. The goal is to track the changes as they rise and fall...

 

[harmy4993]

well for the last 3-4 days i been getting the same result on my nitrite which is the same result i just got.purple when i add drops. about the same shade of purple as the 2.0 reading then after 5 mins the light green tint.doesnt look like the crystal blue reading of 0.0.my ammonia was 0 last night and it just read 4.0 ( tested about 10 mins ago)

 

[CaptainAhab]

the use those as ur baseline. Tracking is the most important.

 

[harmy4993]

so would it be your guess that im getting the weird nitrite reading cause the nitrites are so high?

 

[CaptainAhab]

Could b, that's why I suggested the water change. To get them to a readable level, or some level that you felt comfortable with the reading and that was low enough that they could spike without putting you back in the same quandary.

 

[harmy4993]

got a new test nitrite test kit to test it against the other. so will know soon whats up hopefully

 

[harmy4993]

ok new test bottle shows exact same reading as old test bottle. tested them side by side.

at this point i doubt i have 2 new bad test kits. i think its safe to assume i just have crazy high nitrites that the bottle cant test and sooner or later water changes will make it readable?

 

[harmy4993]

and just for the fact i was testing the nitrite i decided to just test ammonia and nitrate

ammonia .50
nitrite who knows confused
nitrate 5.0

so my nitrites are confusing. my ammonia is doing the right thing and my nitrate reading stays at 5.0

 

[harmy4993]

ok woot got it fixed. it took doing a 80%-90% water change but im getting readings that i can understand. that water change plus the 50% from saturday night and 50% from sunday morning brought my readings down somewhere between 2.0 and 5.0( darker then the 2.0 but lighter then the 5.0) guess i was adding to much ammonia or something.