29gallon tank. odd test result

[charlieweaver21]

So i have a tank that been up for a maybe 8weeks now. Have had mollys in it from the beginning to cycle. And then i decided to do live plants last week. (Week 7) so i just did it with water and all still in there. Was a pain and made a mess of water on the floor lol. But plants are taking of my grass grew almost double the size in a week. So i added some new fish pleco. Iridescent shark and a gold crab. Worked and now a week later i did another water test and this is what i got
Gh 100
Kh 120
Ph 7-7.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0. That cant be right? Or is it with a planted tank.

Ammonia. 0

So how can ammonia and both rites and rates all be 0. Its thia normal for a planted tank. I use a fertilizer and even a bacteria supplement. Any ideal?

 

[fort384]

Yes, in a planted tank this can happen - but it is not normal, or good. If your plants are growing quickly, they are uptaking your nitrate to get nitrogen. In tanks with good lighting and fast growing plants, one has to often supplement the tank with fertilizers, or the plants will start to die.

Here is an article to help explain the different needs of plants in an aquarium: Introduction to Fertilizing the Planted Tank - Aquarium Advice

 

[charlieweaver21]

That is right my plants like doubled in a week lol i was like this is sweet but i guess not. So what do i do to slow it down. Less light or what

 

[fort384]

Let's talk a bit about your tank:

What kind of light are you using?

What kind of substrate?

What kind of plants did you buy?

 

[charlieweaver21]

Well i have stardard 17 in full specturm 20watt

Plants are water wisteria and i dont know how to speell it. Anackairs something like that

Then i just have 40 pounds of gravel

 

[fort384]

anacharis. Ok, you do have a couple of faster growers there, and fortunately neither requires a ton of light.

What I would recommend is cutting back on the light some. How are you currently lighting the tank?

IT might not be enough to just cut back light though. Anacharis sucks of nitrate pretty quickly, and if there is none, you may start to see some stunted growth, some yellowing of the plants, and even some die off. You may need to consider adding a nitrogen supplement. This can be done in the form of KNO3 powder, or dosing a liquid supplement like pfertz N or Seachem Nitrogen.

It is detailed a little bit further in that article I linked you to above.

 

[charlieweaver21]

If by how have i been lighting it you mean how long. I never read much and well i know ibhave been light it way to long. I have been lighting it from when i wake up at 7:30 till bed which is like 10. So like 15 hours so today i cut it down to just 8. Amd im just going to keep doing this. I wann get a timer i am just little short on money wife is already yelling. But i also notice that i light might have been bothering my pleco and irisidescet shark because they have been hiding in my ordament and pretty much never coming out even to eat.

 

[fort384]

Yes, good call. You might even going back to 6 or 7 hours.

FYI, you don't need an expensive aquarium timer from the fish store - you can get a much cheaper outlet timer form walmart or home depot. As soon as the word aquarium or fish gets printed on it, the cost goes up about 400%

 

[charlieweaver21]

Yeah but even another 10 bucks is too much for me right now i think i have spent a good 300 in the last month

 

[fort384]

$300? You are just getting started man

Definitely pick up a timer when you can swing it. It will make things a lot easier.

In the mean time, if you can try to get the lighting down a bit, and then test in a week or so and see if you have built any nitrate back up, that would be good. You want to keep 10-20ppm NO3 in a planted tank, as plants require nitrogen. If you still test at 0 nitrates, you might have to look at fertilizers if you want to keep the plants healthy. But again, make sure you are looking at what the fert is - most of the liquid mixes at the big chains are NOT sources of nitrogen.

 

[charlieweaver21]

Yeah the only been at this for maybe 8 to 9 weeks so im really new at this

 

[fort384]

LOL just wait till the bug really hits you. I think I am in close to $5K on my latest tank... though I have never added it all up, because I am afraid to know.

 

[charlieweaver21]

Yeah im already really wanting to do a reef tank lol im a stay at home dad only work everyother week in. Navy reserve . So yeah got too much time on my hands not enough money. But thinking of selling some of my gun colletion

 

[aqua_chem]

Did you violently shake both nitrate test kits for at least a minute prior to using them? Failure to do so could have given you a false negative.

 

[charlieweaver21]

I just had the like test strips? Are those not fine?

 

[fort384]

They are generally less accurate than using a liquid test kit. While they will give you a general idea, the liquid test kits are far more reliable.

 

[aqua_chem]

I would call It "low nitrate" rather than 0, as they really aren't that accurate. Good for quick estimates, but I wouldn't use them as the basis for any major tank decisions like fertilization choices. Unless you're seeing deficiency symptoms, I wouldn't mess with it yet.

 

[fort384]

I would call It "low nitrate" rather than 0, as they really aren't that accurate. Good for quick estimates, but I wouldn't use them as the basis for any major tank decisions like fertilization choices. Unless you're seeing deficiency symptoms, I wouldn't mess with it yet.

I would agree. The place to start here is lighting anyway. If you reduce to a normal photo period I would think you would eliminate the need to add fertilizer.