Oxygen levels in tank? Or another problem

[rich311k]

Dont worry about the nitrates, test the ammonia and nitrites and do your best to keep them under .25ppm. The nitrate tests are hard to use and the accuracy is questionable at best. Keep the other nitrogen levels low through water changes and the nitrates will be fine. When the tank is cycled change 50% a week and your tank should happily hum along.

 

[Hobgob]

Well if he had nitrates I'd be concerned. It's not like you get it from your drinking water. And he hasn't cycled but has nitrates... But we can agree to diagree.
Anyways since it is 0 that's good your gonna have to be doing some partial water changes(pwc). keep your levels below .25. if you can I believe getting some freshwater salt will help give your fish a stress coat and make the cycle easier on them. It might even make their colours stand out more. But I'm not sure someone else will speak up on that hopefully.

 

[5x5]

I did another PWC last night, even though my ammonia levels are still showing up as 0.

I tested my Ph and it was showing as 7.5 before the water change. My tap water ph is about 7.2 - 7.3. Is that normal for ph to rise in the tank over night like that?

 

[rich311k]

The change in PH is the CO2 gas in you tap dissolving off. CO2 is a mild acid and will lower PH a bit. Perfectly normal, nothing to worry about there.

 

[BillD]

Well if he had nitrates I'd be concerned. It's not like you get it from your drinking water. And he hasn't cycled but has nitrates... But we can agree to diagree.
.

Actually, you can get nitrates in your tap/drinking water. Some places have rather high levels.

 

[Hobgob]

I tested mine and I had 0 for everything.

 

[5x5]

I've also been noticing that the water coming out of the tank has a lot more suds than normal water as I'm pouring it. Is that normal?