My water levels...

[Lexilove]

I tested my water Today and this is what I got




High rAnge ph





Nitrite





Nitrate





Ammonia

Now what should I do?

 

[shellieca]

WATER CHANGE to lower the nitrItes. I would do at least a 50% water change. How big is your tank? How long have you had it running? I am assuming you have fish in the tank. Your ammonia should be <.5 (which it appears to be), nitrites should be 0, nitrates <40.

 

[Samzter]

A water change. Do like 50-60%. By the looks of thing your readings were: high range ph:8.2 ammonia:0.50-1ppm nitrite: 1ppm and nitrate:40+ppm . Seriously, I would do a big water change.

 

[Lexilove]

It's a 20 g high and it's been set up for bout 3 months. And okay I will tonigh

 

[shellieca]

It's a 20 g high and it's been set up for bout 3 months. And okay I will tonigh

Hmm, it should be cycled but with those water readings I'd keep an eye on it to make sure something hasn't gone awry. Someone else may chime in, but you shouldn't be showing any nitrites. Does your tap have any ammonia, nitrites or nitrates?

 

[Cynic]

Do you use a water conditioner?

 

[butterfly_koi]

Try sticking the tubes against a white piece of paper instead of the color chart. You can read the levels better. When you stick the tubes next to the colors on the chart the colors always appear to seem darker than they really are.

 

[Lexilove]

I do use a water conditioner and not sure bout tap readings

 

[Lexilove]

Tested my tsp water and saw that ammonia was at 1 nitrite was at 0 and nitrate was at 0 what should I do?

 

[shellieca]

Tested my tsp water and saw that ammonia was at 1 nitrite was at 0 and nitrate was at 0 what should I do?

Wow, that's not what you want to see. I don't know what you could do in that case. I hope someone else knows what to do. Hate to ask the question, are you 100% sure you put the right amount of drops in from both bottles? I know I've done the test more than once cause I wasn't sure. Just a thought.

 

[Lexilove]

I'm a 100% sure even if I know I still follow with the instructions to make sure I did it right

 

[butterfly_koi]

The best you can do is just keep up with water changes and monitor your levels closely. Any time it seems anything may be going up do a water change.

 

[Lexilove]

The thing is I only see it go up after a water change :/ I'm thinking of buying water from walmart and testing it. If it has safer levels guess I will be paying for my water :/

 

[shellieca]

The thing is I only see it go up after a water change :/ I'm thinking of buying water from walmart and testing it. If it has safer levels guess I will be paying for my water :/

Or do half tap & half bought because once the tank is cycled the ammonia should be processed relatively quickly. If you do half & half that should cut down the amount of ammonia you're putting into your tank from your tap. At least I would think that'd be the case. You could try it & see what happens.

 

[shellieca]

The best you can do is just keep up with water changes and monitor your levels closely. Any time it seems anything may be going up do a water change.

The problem though is her tap is at 1 for ammonia so doing a water change doesn't lower it, at least not when using her tap.

 

[butterfly_koi]

The problem though is her tap is at 1 for ammonia so doing a water change doesn't lower it, at least not when using her tap.

Understandable but buying water all of the time can get costly, once the BB is matured in the media it will process the ammonia quickly. It could be chloramine that you are seeing, it can read as ammonia.
How long did you allow the tap water to sit before testing it?

 

[Lexilove]

Not very long... Do you think I should retest it?

 

[butterfly_koi]

Let it sit out overnight and test it in the morning, in order to get an accurate reading the water needs to gas off.

 

[Lexilove]

Otays will do thank you SO much for the help

 

[abstract373]

lots of people think its a crock but it worked for me i used safe start by tetra to kick in my bb and it worked over night for me that may help with the ammonia to bring it down till your able to figure out your water issues