Water change or not

[nosebleed]

So after more than two weeks with my Nitrite speaking really high it is now at 0 but my ammonia is now at .25.

My question is should I do a water change to get the ammonia down to 0?

Side note: My tap water has .25 of ammonia in it. So most likely I would need to get RO.

5g
A: .25 <----I couldn't tell if it was .25 or 0 but it looks greenish to me.
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

 

[Andrew McFadden]

I wouldn't let it go up any higher but your bacteria in your filters should take care of the ammonia

 

[nosebleed]

I wouldn't let it go up any higher but your bacteria in your filters should take care of the ammonia

So you suggest that I just leave it as is and let the bacteria go for it..

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Yes but keep an eye on it if it starts to go up do a water change

 

[nosebleed]

Yes but keep an eye on it if it starts to go up do a water change

It's so hard to not start put live animals in it. Man I've waited over two weeks for this. How do ppl do it.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

It's so hard to not start put live animals in it. Man I've waited over two weeks for this. How do ppl do it.

Is this a new tank? With no fish

 

[jlk]

So, this is a fishless cycle? Have you been monitoring your ph? Were you adding ammonia daily? I would expect your nitrates to be much higher if this is a fishless cycle with no water changes. Some more info will help!

 

[nosebleed]

Is this a new tank? With no fish

Yes this is a new tank with out fish but it has plants in it from the beginning.

 

[nosebleed]

So, this is a fishless cycle? Have you been monitoring your ph? Were you adding ammonia daily? I would expect your nitrates to be much higher if this is a fishless cycle with no water changes. Some more info will help!

No I am not using ammonia. Original I was planing to do the silent cycle so I'm not sure what is now. It is probably turning into a fishless cycle due to anacharis dying off in the tank. Although my bacopa and wendtii and hornwort is doing pretty well. I also added dwarf baby tears last week and it hasn't died yet. Cross my fingers on that.

The nitrite and nitrate already spiked last week. It is finally gotten down to a pretty normal levels.

 

[librarygirl]

Nitrate usually rises, water changes remove nitrates, they don't fall on their own. So is the tank just running with plants, no fish, and you aren't adding any sort of ammonia source? If not then that isn't cycling, sorry to say. I'm not sure where the nitrites came from though unless your tap water has them or they came in with the plants. You'd need an ammonia source to feed the bacteria in order to cycle it, though.

 

[nosebleed]

Nitrate usually rises, water changes remove nitrates, they don't fall on their own. So is the tank just running with plants, no fish, and you aren't adding any sort of ammonia source? If not then that isn't cycling, sorry to say. I'm not sure where the nitrites came from though unless your tap water has them or they came in with the plants. You'd need an ammonia source to feed the bacteria in order to cycle it, though.

No fish just plants in the water. As for where the ammonia is coming from it came from the water and the dying plants. I read somewhere plants dying off is like another form of waste just like fish waste which produce ammonia

My ammonia,nitrite, and nitrate never spiked until my plants starting dying off one by one. I have since removed them from my tank and did a 20 percent water change last saturday. Since then my nitrite and nitrate have been going down.

Correct me if I'm wrong plants absorbe ammonia and nitrate. As far nitrite is concern the waste from nitrite would be converted to nitrate hence it being so low and the plants are absorbing nitrate which is around 20ppm.