Not showing NitrAtes

[Newbneedshelp]

So this morning at 8 am i went and tested the water on my new 20 gallon tank. It read Ammonia 1ppm. I had put some of the grave, and my last 2 daniosl from my old tank in the night before but it wasnt helping so i switched the filters, taking the established filter from my 10 gallon and putting it on my 20 and the same for the other filter. Now (about 1PM) its reading 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite and 0 NitrAte. I never had any NitrAte reading on my other tnak when i started stocking and my fish did fine. is it ok to stock or should i wait for a NitrAte reading?

 

[Meredith]

How long have you had it running? It doesn't sound like you are cycled yet. I would wait.

 

[Jchillin]

It seems that you may not have a large enough bio load if there is no NH3 at this point. You will need to increase it to feed the bacteria. The fact that you are using established media to cycle the tank is a great help but you don't want to deprive them of their food source.

 

[Newbneedshelp]

Doesnt matter because i wont be able to get fish for a while so it doesnt make to much of a difference, but i have almost never seen Nitrates in my other tank and the fish are fine. The only other fish i could put in the tank would be my neon tetra (others died) becuase i dont wnat to chase my corys around the tank all day. Over night i had 1ppm of ammonia with just my 2 danios, so i figure if i give it a week for 2 with the established filter running it should be fine. thanks for the help.

 

[JohnPaul]

I don't know what kind of testing kit you have, but on my test kit (liquid reagent kind), the sensitivity for ammonia and nitrite goes down to 0.25 ppm, while the sensitivity for nitrate goes only to 5 ppm.

In other words, the testing kit is 20 times "less sensitive" for nitrate. Without getting into too much chemistry, just let me point out ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate all contain one atom of nitrogen. So, roughly speaking, 1 ppm ammonia --> 1 ppm nitrite --> 1 ppm nitrate at full conversion. (For complicated reasons, those numbers are not a perfect match but they get you in the ballpark.)

Which means even *if* your tank is cycled and everything is working perfectly, it's going to take a little while before you start seeing a measurable amount of nitrate.

 

[Newbneedshelp]

im using the aquarium pharmaceuticals and it goes to zero on Nitrate i think.