New tank -- is this Nitrate level possible?

[pinstripe]

My 29 gallon tank is running but empty and I did not seed it from another tank. Has been running less than one week (specs below). I just did my first water test, and according to my Freshwater Master kit the levels are:

Ammonia: 1 ppm or slightly less (apple green)
Nitrite: 0 or a hair above (blue)
Nitrate: between 5 and 10 ppm (orange)

Am I testing wrong, or is it really cycling? Can you have ammonia and nitrate without nitrite?

Tank details:
AquaClear 50 HOB (standard sponge-charcoal-ceramic washers)
Heat between 80 and 82
Airstone
Tank contains driftwood and sand, both new from Big Al's Online ... otherwise just tap water and de-chlor. The tank itself is used but had been dry a long time.

What's my next step?

 

[Jchillin]

You may have chloramines in your tap water. Does your dechlor remove both chlorine and chloramines? Also, test your tap water to verify the nitrate reading.

 

[greenmaji]

there can be nitrate in the tapwater (contact the water company)
also.. any nitrite will throw off your nitrate testkit..

 

[Meredith]

My bet is its your tap water. I have ammonia in my water and some nitrates, but not a lot. The weird thing is, I get my water from a community well/reservoir. When I called my water company to see what they put into the water I was told "nothing". So I have no idea where this ammonia is coming from.

 

[greenmaji]

Meredith.. is it a open reservoir like a pond? maybe it could use more plantlife..LOL

 

[TomK2]

When starting to cycle, you need to do a baseline nitrate test, since some water supplies have nitrate in them. Since the tank has no fish, and is a new set up, I would wager that the low nitrate reading is from nitrate in the tap water.

Also, if no fish or decaying matter are in the tank, the ammonia reading is almost certainly from chloramines in the tap water. It is far less likely that there would be ammonia in the tap water. When you add dechlorinator to chlorlamines, the chlorine is released but ammonia is left behind.

If you are interested in understanding test kit chemistry, I have a web page devoted to the topic:

http://home.comcast.net/~tomstank/tomstank_files/page0018.htm

Your next step is to get the tanks bio-filter establish. In theory, the ammonia from the chloramines would do it on its own. when the ammonia level dropped, doing a water change with dechlor would replenish the ammonia to keep the cycle going. Most people would either add fish, or do a fishless ammonia cycle. 1ppm or greater of ammonia is a little tough on fish, and you wont be able to get it lower with PWC'c unless you use distilled or reverse osmosis water for PWC's.. So you might want to consider fishless, which uses decaying shrimp or ammonia from the hardware store. Read up on fishless cycling, the articles section on AA and the web have lots of stuff.

Regardless, you will not know your cycle is done until ammonia and nitrite are zero, and your nitrate level had increased (doubled?) from your baseline level.

Good luck!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Contact your local water supplier and request a copy of the Annual Water Quality Report to see if they use Chloramines. You may even be able to find it online.

 

[greenmaji]

Ive actually seen on another board a member that used a house plant filter to remove ammonia and nitrate from his tapwater.. (he pumped water from his holding tank through a plastic container that had low light house plants and aquarium gravel in it) Im not so sure if this would be cheaper then RO or distilled water but it seams to me it could be done for less then what a RO or distilled would cost.. Just a thought..

 

[pinstripe]

Thank you, all. I will test my tap water tonight. However, I know that my water has chloramines: since the dechlor is supposed to take care of them, TomK2's post makes sense.

One qustion, before I invest in a true fishless cycle:
Given there is already ammonia in my water, could I still use BioSpira effectively?

 

[TomK2]

Yes, you can use BioSpira. Remember, with BioSpira, you need to add fish at the same time. Hope you get a good batch and things go smoothly for you!