Are these Water Parameters ok ??

[mandoborg]

Being a newbie i just want some second opinions on the results i got from my API test kit yesterday afternoon.

Nitrite 2.0 ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
Ammonia 0ppm
PH 7.0
High PH 7.4 (why two PH tests in this kit) ??

It's a 29 gallon with all the usual suspects, Anubias', Swords, Hydro sp. Rotala, etc.........

Theres about 20 fish in there, all small Neons and Serpaes, but a couple of large Angels, a pleco, and a Pictus cat.......... all others are smallies.......

i run a Finnex Ray2 12/12 cycle with CO2 and dosed the PPS system everyday, but have an Algae problem coming on strong so i'm thinking on going to every other day.........

Everything looks great, fish a happy as can be, plants look healthy, but being a newbie, i just want to make sure theres nothing in those numbers that might indicate a problem in the future.........

Thanks as always....the HOURS i spend reading here are really starting to pay off with LOTS of compliments when people come over and see the tank !!!......I love just sitting in front of it and watching everything !!.......

Jim

 

[Rivercats]

If your nitrites are really 2ppm that is not good at all. How long has your tank been set up and is it cycled? If it's cycled it should have 0ppm of nitrites. That level is very dangerous to the health of your fish and you need to do 50% WC's until you get the nitrite level down to .25ppm or less. Also you need to do a 50% WC anytime those levels get above .25ppm.

The reason your having an algae issue is your running your lighting too long. Normally 6-8 hours is about the time you need to run lights in your planted tank. The rule of thumb is the higher the lighting you have the shorter the photoperiod you can run them. I'd go down to 6 hours daily until algae is gone then every couple of weeks increase your photoperiod another 30 minutes daily. Once you reach a time amount where you see algae you need to back the lighting down 30 minutes and this is generally the amount of time you can run your lights without having an algae problem.

Also what is your nitrate and phosphate reading?

 

[Jkeating8]

Reducing ferts will only help algae.

 

[mandoborg]

Thanks for the quick replies guys !! I did a 30% water change, BEFORE reading this mail yesterday unfortunately !! I also did a light vaccuming of the bottom so i would take these numbers with a grain of salt.......... i'll wait a couple of days and re-test..........but this is what i got this morning :

Nitrates went up to 20 ppm
Nitrites are down to 1.0 ppm
Phosphates are at 2.0 ( this is the first time i've tested for these )

Again, these numbers probably are bunk due to the water change and gravel vaccuming..........

The tank has been up and running as is for around 4-5 months with very little problems so far..........taking it slow and moniroting everything to the point my wife thinks i'm crazy !!!

Your replies are EXACTLY why i come here because everything in the tank looks great, except for the begining algae problem, but the numbers tell another story that i need to learn to read and understand when i see them........

So.......... i'm going to go to a 6 hour light/CO2 cycle, and go back to dosing the PPS everyday and see how it goes......... i can see where keeping a log will come in handy.......... i thought that was just for geeks, but i'm turning into a fish tank geek myself !!

Thanks again guys !!.......... I'll post what i think will be more accurate test results in a couple of days.........

jim

 

[Rivercats]

Do you have your macro's all mixed together in one dosing bottle? Reason I'm asking is because with your nitrates at 20ppm you don't need to dose nitrate at least this week. I use PPS-Pro and test my nitrates and phosphates right before doing my WC so I can see if I need to adjust my dosing of nitrates and or phosphate/potassium for the coming week. I have a lot of non green plants so I run my tanks with low nitrates (10ppm) and high phosphates (5-10ppm). I rarely dose nitates as my tanks run close to 10ppms of nitrates. But I actually dose a lot more phosphate/potassium mix each week to keep higher levels in my tanks. Your phosphate number is good but nitrates are already at the top of the good range which is why I wouldn't dose them this week. Make sense? If you keep a log of these numbers weekly it's easy to look back and see how your tank/s tend to run and how much of what fert your dosing.