What are my parameters?

[Revenantwing]

I just got my API mast water kit in the mail and im gonna be testing my water. what should my parameters be?

 

[Tropical]

It depends on what fish you want or have. Also, if you have cycled the tank already. Ideally, after the tank is cycled, the ammonia should be 0, nitrites should be 0, nitrates should be between 0-40, 0-25 for more sensitive fish, P.h. should be between 6-7.8 (6-7 for fish like tetras, 7-8 for some cichlids) with closest to 7 being best.

 

[Revenantwing]

well i was new to fish and i didnt know about cycling until after. so now im cycling with my betta and apple snail. Parameters more specific now?

 

[Tropical]

Yes, definately. Bettas are pretty hardy, so ph shouldn't bother them too much. Any where between 6.5-7.8 should be fine, but closest to 7 is the best. Ammonia and nitrate should still be 0, if you are cycling they might be around .1 or .2. If they are, do a 50% water change.

How big is the tank, and do you plan on adding more fish?

 

[Revenantwing]

thank you very much!

 

[Revenantwing]

5 gallons and no im not. im planning to add ghost shrimp though. yep too much fish is bad D:

 

[Tropical]

Good call I'm sure your betta will love his space.

 

[Revenantwing]

omg i got 6.0 PH!!!

 

[Revenantwing]

i recently put driftwood in and i think its the tannis...

 

[Revenantwing]

oh shiet i did it wrong lol... nvm one says 5 drops one says 3... im soo noob D:

 

[Revenantwing]

7.2 PH
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
good bad? D:

 

[Tropical]

Sorry, I was off a while. The tannins are probably it, if you soak or boil the driftwood for a while it should stop leaching. The water paramaters are great though! You are probably done with the cycle (unless you just added the betta?) and the ph is killer. Mine is around 7.8-8, so I really have to be careful

 

[Revenantwing]

NP. nuu the PH is 7.2. I cant be done with the cycle!!! its only been one week. Tie to redo tests i guess

 

[Revenantwing]

time*

 

[eco23]

Yeah, the tank is not cycled. The byproduct of a cycled tank is nitrAtes. Just keep a close eye on the ammo and nitrItes, and when they start to rise just do around a 40% pwc to lower them. Until the tank cycles you're gonna want to check parameters every day and stay on top of the pwc's. You really don't even need to worry about testing nitrAtes until much further down the road in your cycle.

Also make sure you use a good dechlorinator like Prime each time you change the water.

The best thing to do would be to try and find a temporary home for your betta and snail and do a fishless cycle to get it all set up and healthy for them to move back home

If you can find a temp home for them let me know and I'll be happy to help you fishless cycle it.

Otherwise, there's a lot of pwc's in your near future, lol.

 

[Tropical]

Oh my gosh, sorry I misread it! Having nitrates would signal the end. I glanced at the numbers too quickly I guess. I'm so brain dead right now. Listen to eco23, the cycle will probably take a month or so. Bettas are hardy, so if you can't find another home just do a partial water change every day or two.

 

[Revenantwing]

sadly this is my first and only tank D: i found out about cycling after i got fish so its too late. I use some Aqueon BettaBowl Plus dechlorinator/conditioner.

 

[Revenantwing]

how will I know i am close to the end of a cycle?

 

[eco23]

It'd be a much worse situation if you had an over stocked tank. Really the only thing you can do with fish in cycling is constant pwc's. The bad situations are when those idiots at the lfs sell people a new tank and 30 fish for it at the same time. Those people should go to jail, IMO. I'm a HUGE advocate of fishless cycling, but I think you'll be fine in this case. Bettas are very hardy fish and as long as you are diligent about always testing and doing pwc's you'll be fine.

 

[Revenantwing]

I do my pwc everyday and I'm very cautious and think about it the whole day lol. I got a betta and an apple snail too. Hopefully they are hardy as well