please help within the next hour

[Newbneedshelp]

i am leaving in about an hour so ell let me get started.........well about 2 days ago and a day after i did a water change my tanks nitrate reading s were at 20 and now they are at 5........anyone know why or what happened? i was going to go get some more fish today but now i dont think i can because of this? or could i lol? well please help and thanks!!!

 

[Cafe Jeff]

Because of the water change the nitrate levels fell?
Jeff

 

[Newbneedshelp]

no three days ago i did the water change and 2 days ago the nitrates were at 20

 

[Cafe Jeff]

My mistake.
That seems very vast for the nitrates to go up.
Sounds to me like the water you replaced in the aquarium was already high in nitrates. This can sometimes happen and is why the saltwater guys often go to such lengths to insure that there water is nitrate free. Jeff

 

[Newbneedshelp]

thank you for the help so it looks like ill be waiting a week or two before i get fish wow this is a tuff thing to wait theough

 

[deeni0z]

Did you feed your fish a lot? If they eat a lot -> they poop a alot -> ammonia goes up -> ammonia goes down, nitrite goes up -> nitrite goes down, nitrate goes up

 

[Newbneedshelp]

uhm no i didnt feed them alot.......well ecept my neighbor dropped in like 5 piches of blood works....damn kids well could that have done anything and would it be ok to test the city water for nitrates with my test kit or is that a bad idea?
thanks all

 

[deeni0z]

never a bad idea to test your source water!

 

[Newbneedshelp]

well ive been endlessly watching this post lol and well i jsut tested the water and the nitrates are only about 2.5.......this is really strange lol

 

[deeni0z]

what type of test kit are you using? I heard the "quick dip" test strips aren't the best.

 

[Newbneedshelp]

liquid test kit...i dont trust the stips either ive heard many bad thing about them

 

[Menagerie]

The nitrates were 5 and then 20, or were they 20 and then 5?

 

[Newbneedshelp]

20 then 5

 

[Menagerie]

Okay, what are the ammonia and nitrite readings as of today?

 

[Newbneedshelp]

ammonia .25
nitrite 0
its only 2 and a half weeks into the cycle and ive seen no large rises in anything but i ahve seen them go to about 2 or 3 and then fall back down about a week later....then i started seeing nitrates, seems alittle quick to me

 

[Menagerie]

Hmmm, that does seem odd. How did you cycle the tank?

 

[Newbneedshelp]

well ill give you all the stats
i have an penguin bio wheel 125
ive been using cycle once a week
i have 4 zebra danios and 2 java ferns
a rockfrom my yard which i boiled and a piece of fake drift wood

 

[Menagerie]

How large is the tank?
I have a bad feeling about the Cycle messing with your cycle.

 

[Newbneedshelp]

10 gal but the people i got it from ( a mom pop type shop very good) have been keeping tanks for the last 30 years and have used cycle sense it came out and they say it works good but i dunno you probly know more

 

[Menagerie]

I don't know that I know more, but from the readings I have done, Cycle does not contain all the needed bacteria. When you cycle a tank with an ammonia source, either from a fish or straight ammonia, the ammonia converting bacteria establishes on the filter media. As this happens, you will get a spike of ammonia. Once the bacteria are established and the ammonia is converted to nitrite, you get a spike of nitrite and the nitrite loving bacteria establish to convert the nitrite to nitrate. In a fully cycled tank, ammonia and nitrites should be at undectable levels, while nitrate can be up to 40ppm without harming most fish. (You may have already heard all this, but I have been away).
Since you still have an ammonia reading, the cycle has not completed.