concerned & confused about test results

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Mumma.of.two said:
Lol sorry! If it slowly increased over months they might not have been showing any symptoms.

Another good point made :) crap! I don't want to burn supper.. But I'm determined to get to the bottom of this! Lol!
 
Mlani said:
Another good point made :) crap! I don't want to burn supper.. But I'm determined to get to the bottom of this! Lol!

It's serious but not that serious. They can wait til after dinner. :) it will have to come down but they won't die with you eat. :)
 
Mumma.of.two said:
It's serious but not that serious. They can wait til after dinner. :) it will have to come down but they won't die with you eat. :)

Lol! I know that's true, but there's a big part of me that is compelled to fix it right now! They're like my good children you know? The ones that don't ask for much and never talk back. ;-)
 
Mlani said:
Lol! I know that's true, but there's a big part of me that is compelled to fix it right now! They're like my good children you know? The ones that don't ask for much and never talk back. ;-)

Hahaha! I like that 'the good children'!
 
Way high nitrates huh? Have you cleaned your filter lately? I don't mean just shaking out the media in old tank water. I mean hose out the filter body, clean out the place where the impeller sits in the pump and take a large pipe cleaner to the pipes and hoses. It can get very funky inside there and cause high nitrates. I'd do that, then follow with two large water changes and hold feeding for a day.

As for the light... Take the bulb to your local hardware store and try to match it up.
 
blert said:
Way high nitrates huh? Have you cleaned your filter lately? I don't mean just shaking out the media in old tank water. I mean hose out the filter body, clean out the place where the impeller sits in the pump and take a large pipe cleaner to the pipes and hoses. It can get very funky inside there and cause high nitrates. I'd do that, then follow with two large water changes and hold feeding for a day.

As for the light... Take the bulb to your local hardware store and try to match it up.

It's funny you said that, I thought about it as I was eating supper. You know, I haven't done the entire system in quite some time. Probably at least 2 months. *hangs head in shame* I usually just rinse the filters in the old tank water. I'm going to do it right now. Along with yet another pwc. Lol! I'm going to be able to do these with my eyes closed. I was wondering since I'll be changing the bulbs, do you think if I went with those new LED light strips they'd be good for plants? Or should I stick with the bulbs?
 
If you want to go LED its going to cost you. In the long run you will save money in power and bulb replacement costs. Regular old LEDs won't cut it for plants. I'd suggest the Marineland Reef lights or, better yet, a system composed of 3watt LEDs. Either way it's expensive up front.
 
blert said:
If you want to go LED its going to cost you. In the long run you will save money in power and bulb replacement costs. Regular old LEDs won't cut it for plants. I'd suggest the Marineland Reef lights or, better yet, a system composed of 3watt LEDs. Either way it's expensive up front.

I may have to wait on those then. Thanks for the heads up :) I do have a birthday coming up though ;-) I'm going to get wet now, I swear my hands are going to be pruned permanently! Lol!
 
the other thing to remember is that we are talking about nitrate not ammonia or nitrites. fish usually start "feeling" the effects of No3 at around 30PPM. not saying 30ppm will kill your fish, but thats where it starts. at 30ppm it can potentially affect growth immune symptoms and cause stress.
personally, my lilttle sister had a small catfish of some kind and a goldfish in a 2 gallon and they survived about 80-100 ppm for her entire collage career.
although this is probably brutal to the fish, they did survive.
 
I scrubbed out the filters and housings tonight did another water change and now I'm waiting a little bit before testing again. My neighbor doesn't have a test kit, surprised me cause they have a few tanks themselves. He said he just buys new fish when they die :-S I bit my tongue. I'm skipping the feeding tonight and feeling guilty for it. Every time I'm near the tank "caesar" our blood parrot starts begging. It's a good thing he's not skinny or I'd probably give in and feed them. Lol
 
hah, my puppy begs, my cat begs and my GF begs. i love my fish cuz they dont want nothing from me but food once a day!
 
Ok so today I'm pretty close to delusional frustration. Lol! I retested the water again and even after scrubbing the filters and another pwc the nitrates are still reading 80-160!!!?? I called the fish store I go to and I'm taking in two samples one from each tank and my test kit. The girl I spoke to on the phone is just as confused as I am so I don't know what to expect when I get there. Lol! I won't be able to go today it's minus 40 something outside and I don't drive so do you guys think my fish will be ok until my husband can take me in on the weekend? Is there anything you all can think of to try while I wait?
 
Navyboy said:
hah, my puppy begs, my cat begs and my GF begs. i love my fish cuz they dont want nothing from me but food once a day!

Lol! I always refer to my fish as the good kids. Right now though they're causing me a lot of worry with this whole nitrate thing.
 
Mumma.of.two said:
Now I think your new test kit is faulty! If it's not coming down at all something's up.

That's what I'm thinking too. The fish aren't showing ANY signs of distress at all and I've done so many water changes and with the scrubbing of the filters and casings and tubing to still have such a high reading it just doesn't make any sense! I'm thinking I'm just going to keep an eye on them and wait. Unless you can think of anything else I should try?
 
Mumma.of.two said:
Sounds good to me. If it was so high that you can't get it into the readable range of the test kit then your fish would have suffered.

Yes I agree, and they're not at all. No gasping, no strange new behavior, no sore spots, no change in appearances at all. I'm at a loss of what else to do. It must be the kit. The sooner I get to that store the better for my peace of mind. Lol!
 
Mlani, if your test is showing 80-160 and that is the top of your Kit range, then your nitrates can be anything over that. Ok so lets say its at like say 350PPM. it will show up as 80-150. u do a PWC, now the lvls are 210ppm, it reduced but the kit is reading the same.
try this. Take a cup of water. fill it about 3/4 of the way full then use aquarium water to bring it to the brim. stir it with a clean spoon then test that water.
its possible you have insanly high lvls of nitrates in your water and your readings are so high that they are still reading over 150 despite the ewater changes.
if that is the case you will need to dillute your Aquarium water over and over till the lvls are normal.
 
That's a really good idea! :) thank you I'm going to give it a go right now. I'll let you know. *fingers crossed* (is it bad I'm hoping for extremely high readings?) I just want to know what the HE double hockey sticks is going on. (I kept it G rated ;-))
 
Back
Top Bottom