water parameters

[haleybeth30]

went camping over the weekend, thought it would be good time to test the water.. good news is ammonia now at 0, but nitrite closer to 2.0 than 5.0, and nitrate pretty much yellow, hardly any if at all.. my question is what are safe parameters for fish
Oh and bad news, my blood dragon a goner when we got back =( I assume he got picked at/ stressed, weird because I never saw anyone singling him out or chasing him.. that's cichlids for you, I guess, =(

 

[Mebbid]

He might have died from the nitrites. It tends to be just as dangerous to fish as ammonia is. I would do PWCs to get the nitrites down to .25

Overall you will want to look at 0 ammonia / nitrites and lower than 40 on nitrates.

 

[Jakepen]

He might have died from the nitrites. It tends to be just as dangerous to fish as ammonia is. I would do PWCs to get the nitrites down to .25

Overall you will want to look at 0 ammonia / nitrites and lower than 40 on nitrates.

He didnt die from nitrites, and they were probably high because your ammonia was being converted into them. And nitrates should never be over 20. 40 is way to high for trates. I like to keep mine under 10. And nitrites should be 0, same as ammonia.

 

[Jakepen]

You probably had an ammonia spike from the dead dragon blood.

 

[Mebbid]

Without having a severely understocked or well planted tank keeping a below 10ppm nitrate reading would be a nightmare.

Also, having almost no nitrate readings means it's not a well cycled tank. Its much more likely that a spike of either ammonia or nitrate was the cause of the fish death rather than the fish dying causing the ammonia / nitrite.

 

[haleybeth30]

safe to say I don't know guys, but am super bummed. He was a beauty. I have just finished a 30% water change, will recheck parameteds and do more tomorrow. What do you mean by the P in PWC? I do know the tank is about 6 or 7 wks old, not cycled most likely. I've been doing a lot of water changes and have learned my lesson on cycling. Thanks to you both

 

[Mebbid]

PWC = Partial Water Change.

 

[Jakepen]

Without having a severely understocked or well planted tank keeping a below 10ppm nitrate reading would be a nightmare.

Also, having almost no nitrate readings means it's not a well cycled tank. Its much more likely that a spike of either ammonia or nitrate was the cause of the fish death rather than the fish dying causing the ammonia / nitrite.

You keep trates low by doing water changes, How would it be a nightmare? it's simple maintenance. And a reading of 2.0 nitrites would not kill a fish in a day. Also you need converted ammonia, to make nitrites. Ammonia spikes can easily be caused by a dead fish in the water. Also, low nitrates doesn't indicate a "not well cycled tank". When cycling a tank, nitrates appear pretty early, and sky rocket, above 100 ppms. I do two pwcs a week, and mine stay under 10ppm, and I have almost 20 cichlids in my tank.

 

[haleybeth30]

I did 30% more and will recheck later tonight. I was at a definite 2.0 trite this time, last time color indicated could be more. They were without food for 2 days, but I didn't think that would be an issue, right? He was picked at big time.. I mean a lot of him was gone..

 

[Jakepen]

I did 30% more and will recheck later tonight. I was at a definite 2.0 trite this time, last time color indicated could be more. They were without food for 2 days, but I didn't think that would be an issue, right? He was picked at big time.. I mean a lot of him was gone..

2.0 is still higher than you want, shooting for 0 nitrites. Sounds like your tank isn't cycled yet, you have the bacteria that eats the ammonia up, and converts it to nitrites, but don't yet have the bb to eat the trites. So test daily, and if needed change water daily, atleast 50%. No food for 2 days is no problem, holding mothers can go three weeks without food. Watch how much you feed them, make sure they eat it all,, any food leftover will turn into ammonia.

 

[haleybeth30]

ok w/c every day and I'm now down to under .50 the color wasn't quite blue, but it was a lighter purple than the .50 color, guess that means it's between .25 and .50, closer to .50. Anyway, getting there slowly, but surely. Thought the 50% today would really move it down =(

 

[erikmoseley]

ok w/c every day and I'm now down to under .50 the color wasn't quite blue, but it was a lighter purple than the .50 color, guess that means it's between .25 and .50, closer to .50. Anyway, getting there slowly, but surely. Thought the 50% today would really move it down =(

Keep it up you'll get there!