I am at a loss with my readings! Not good.

[schoeplein]

What filter are you running? What media do you have in your filter? Filter may not be large enough to handle the load, not sure. My canister converted nitrites to nitrates after three days, but I have a pretty big canister filter. I still did 20-40% water change every day until the nitrites disappeared.

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[Noviceafter2yea]

Definitely a change. I'd say from 4 to 2. Can you do another change?

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Thank you! I totally don't see a difference so it is nice to have other eyes. I can do another change. After thinking there was no change in the readings, I was going to put off doing a change until tomorrow.

I will go do one now. But it may be difficult to see to take a picture of the results since the sun is down.

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

What filter are you running? What media do you have in your filter? Filter may not be large enough to handle the load, not sure. My canister converted nitrites to nitrates after three days, but I have a pretty big canister filter. I still did 20-40% water change every day until the nitrites disappeared.

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It is the filter that came with the aquarium. 20 gallon top fin. It has charcoal in it. I ordered a second filter - Aqueon 50, but doesn't have adjustable flow so I will have to be creative and use a water bottle to distribute water better.

Today I added a second filter bag that I presoaked in the extracted water behind the old filter that hopefully has some good bacteria. I did not add any charcoal to the second bag.

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

Another 40% change today

Thank you! I totally don't see a difference so it is nice to have other eyes. I can do another change. After thinking there was no change in the readings, I was going to put off doing a change until tomorrow.

I will go do one now. But it may be difficult to see to take a picture of the results since the sun is down.

Just did 40% change.
Ammonia .25-.5. Closer to .25
N2. 2-4. Looks dark to me.
N3. 15-20
Ph 7.4

Adding pic. Unfortunately shadow

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

Just did 40% change.
Ammonia .25-.5. Closer to .25
N2. 2-4. Looks dark to me.
N3. 15-20
Ph 7.4

Adding pic. Unfortunately shadow

Different angle, still shadow

 

[schoeplein]

When nitrite is over 2.0ppm it's pretty obvious. The solution turns a nasty dark purple. Just keep changing the water every day. The numbers will go down.

Also, skip a couple days of feeding for now. It will help reduce the ammonia being converted.

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[trennamw]

When I have a hard time reading I dilute the tank water with distilled or use extra drops and do the math. Or if I just want to know how much of a difference water changes make, I use strips because then I just want to compare, not get an absolute value.

For instance the nitrite and nitrate are hard to read at darker levels so I dilute .5 ml tank water in 4.5 ml distilled and multiply the result by 10. The ammonia test is hard to read no matter what but sometimes I do it in a shot glass instead so the curved test tube doesn't bend and reflect everything.