Different chemestry, same water, some questions...

[ashesofyou]

I have 3 tanks in question... one 10 gallon, a 45 gallon, and a 50 gallon...

I understand that in different points in your cycle, there will be different water chemestry, but will it differ as much as mine?...

Here are the stats:
Tank #1
45 gallon
9 zebra danios, juvinile (to cycle, has been with fish for about 3 weeks)
NitrAte: 20ppm
NitrIte: 5.0ppm
Total Hardness: ~15
Total Alkalinity: 0
PH: ~6.8

Tank #2
50 gallon
7 zebra danios juvinile (to cycle, has been with fish for about 4 days)
NitrAte: ~5ppm
NitrIte: 0ppm
Hardness: 100
Alkalinity: 80
PH: ~6.7

Tank #3
10 gallon
4 African Dwarf Frogs, 1 cory catfish (has been up and going for 2 months since a move, kept the gravel wet to retain bacteria, before that had been going for about 2 months and had just cycled)
NitrAte: 30ppm
NitrIte: 0ppm
Hardness: 10
Alkalinity: 60
PH: 6.4

Directly Out of Tap:
NitrAte: 0ppm (duh)
NitrIte: 0ppm (duh)
Hardness: 35
Alkalinity: 50
PH: 7


My question is... is it normal for tanks in the same house to vairy so much in their water chemestry? I know they will go through an adjustment period until everything settles, but why would hardness be 100 in tank #2, and only 10 in tank #3? It doesn't seem like the hardness would differ that much!

Also... in tank #2, it has only been up and going with the fish added about 4 days ago... why am I already showing nitrAtes? I had my water tested at my LFS, and he said that if he didn't know any better, he would say that the tank had already cycled... (I can see why, no nitrItes, but a small number of nitrAtes)

In tank #2 I lost 4 zebra danios this afternoon who were doing very well earlier this morning. Went to do my evening count, and there was one floating, and three stuck to the filter, leaving me with a total of 7 live. They showed no sign of illness, and I could see nothing unusual on their bodies. Any ideas on what could have caused it?

I took a sample of this water to my LFS, as I had just noticed my liquid tests were expired... (no wonder they were giving wacky results). Everything was "right on" the results I have posted here for you, but at the LFS, my PH tested around 8.4 or higher. (off the scales)... I got new test strips, and now here at home that same tank is testing at about 6.7. Thought that was a bit odd... anyone have input?

Thank you sooooo much, and I'm sorry my posting is so long, but I would rather give too much info, so everyone can get an educated guess, than not enough, and make you shoot in the dark
If you need anything else to get an idea of the situation, let me know!!!
(oh, and sorry if there are any spelling errors, I'm using the opera browser, and the spellcheck won't work :-([/b]

 

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

well, have tank 2 and tank 3 been set up the same amt of time with the same amt of water changes? did you start tank 2 with a full tank of fresh water? that's a large diff in hardness if so....would wonder either about the quality of the kit or the actual test ( did you retest and get the same results?)and were all these results what you got after you bought the new kit?and you said test strips? there is a huge diff in a ph of 8 and 6 as 7 is 10x more acidic than 8 and so on--have you added anything to the tank in between tests?btw--rely on yourself, forget the handy fishstore ppl, most of them don't know what to test for, much less what they should get as a result, granted there are exceptions, but they are few....

you may have some nitrates in your tap water, did you check it with your new kit or the old one?...did you check for ammonia?

and by my math, granted i am tired, i get a total start of 15 danios to start with in tank 2? again, have you checked ammonia? that's usually the big fish killer so early in the game, although that is a lot of water to have gotten toxic so fast....what kind of filtration are you using? what are you feeding? how much? how often? how long have you kept fish? what temp are your tanks? why is there such a variance in your alkalinity? phew, i have more questions than you! lol


we have a lot of chemistry buffs here so we will try to help if we can, good luck...