water test readings

[wildcatcrzy]

I finally got my own water testing kit and am testing my water on my own for the first time. here is what i got. .25 ammonia .25 nitrites and 5 nitrates. can someone interpret those? the way I see it, I need to do a pwc of about 20%.

 

[Aces11]

Do you have fish in the tank? If so you need to do a water change. With fish, ammonia and nitrite need to be kept below .25 ppm and nitrate below 20. Again this is only if you have fish. If you're doing a fishless cycle, you don't have to do a water change yet.

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Is your tank in the process of cycling?

 

[wildcatcrzy]

yes, this one is cycling. No fish.

 

[wildcatcrzy]

this is a ten gallon tank i am setting up to use as a quarantine tank or hospital tank.

 

[bruinsbro1997]

If it's cycling, it looks like you're starting to progress on with it, but nothing is safe for fish yet.

 

[Aces11]

Yes don't add fish yet. After ammonia and nitrite hit zero you can do a water change to lower nitrates then fish can be added i believe. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[eco23]

What ammo source are you using to cycle (since the tank has no fish). Raw shrimp? Pure ammonia? Fish food?

 

[wildcatcrzy]

fish food in a small bag.

 

[eco23]

I assume you've seen the ammonia climb and start to drop, the nitrItes climb, spike and drop, and the no3 steadily climb?

*oops, I just remembered you just began testing.

How long ago did you add the fish food?

 

[wildcatcrzy]

i started this two days ago but i used water from my other tank that was already cycled so i expect that those numbers will climb before dropping again.

 

[eco23]

i started this two days ago but i used water from my other tank that was already cycled so i expect that those numbers will climb before dropping again.

It's gonna take a LOT longer than that. Water from another tank contains virtually no beneficial bacteria...so that's not responsible at all for any conversion happening. In fact, I'd test the tank the water came from because it's likely the ammonia and nitrIte levels actually came from there.

Check out the guide in my signature for a bit more info

Also, there's really no need to cycle a quarantine tank. Just run it's filter on your main tank, and when you need to set up a QT, just pull the filter back off, throw it on the QT and it's basically instantly cycled.

 

[wildcatcrzy]

Well crap. I thought I had a genius plan.

 

[librarygirl]

Agree with Eco. How long as the other tank been set up? I'd check the water in that tank ASAP for ammonia and nitrite and if there are fish in that tank you'll want to do a water change ASAP. And if there are those levels in the other tank it isn't cycled yet. There's a link in my signature called "new tank with fish."

As for the QT tank, as Eco said, you could just run the filter for the QT tank onto the main tank until you need it, it'll get the bacteria that way and be able to cycle the QT when you need to use it.