First API water test results

[sjsuper76]

I bought my 55 gallon already set-up and running.

It came with 1 Pleco - 6"+

2 Gouramis 3" each

10 Tiger barbs (full grown, maybe 1.5" each)

1 catfish (not sure what kind) 3.5"

1 rory catfish 2"

4 mystery orange fish 2" each

and LOTS and LOTS of snails.

After reading endless posts on this site, I went out and bought the API Water Testing kit.

my results were:

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrites = 0ppm
Nitrates = 40ppm
pH= 6.8

Does this seem about right? I thought the nitrates would not be that high. Is 40 bad?

 

[uscamaro]

NitrAtes are ok, it's the NitrItes that you don't want. Usually you're suppose to cycle the tank and do the water tests first. If you set all of this up with the fish recently, I would recommend to do a water test every day for the next 2 weeks to keep an eye out for an ammonia spike. Enough ammonia will kill your fish

 

[Fishguy2727]

Nitrate is not nearly as toxic as nitrite, but you still want to keep it minimal. It should never go above 20ppm before a water change. Test it in your tap water too, you may find a lot of it is coming from that and not the bioload.

 

[HN1]

Looks good. Regular water changes and careful feeding should bring the nitrates down. With high nitrates and lots of snails, I would tend to think that the tank has been overfed in the past.

 

[pennyt]

i am facing similar problem. Discussed in thread
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...he-usa-water-softener-137522.html#post1189140

please share some good suggestions.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

Looks fine but that's about as high as you want nitrates to get. First thing to do is test your tap water for nitrates then you can figure out what water changes you need.