new tank need help

[Trumper]

Patience (and Francis) are my middle name!

 

[Menagerie]

 

[Trumper]

ok, the ammonia is staying at right around 1-1.5 the last couple of days, as are the nitrites (3.0 but seeming to maybe climb) and nitrates (35-40).

Ich is also finally seeming to respond (read: die). I also put another small filter on to bring my cycling up to 540 gph.

I am going to not do a water change tonight and see how the levels look tomorrow.

 

[Devilishturtles]

That sounds good trumper. As soon as your nitrates get high like that, it means there is sufficent bacteria in the tank. They will start to take over the nitrites and the ammonia, which is why in a cycled tank, most people will never see any ammonia or nitrites, just nitrates. Keep up the monitoring and good luck!

 

[Trumper]

ok so now I am starting to think this tank cycling stuff is pretty cool...I checked the ammonia this afternoon and it was down to 1 or below for the first time since I started testing. Then I tested the Nitites/Trates and the Nitrites have exploded all the way up to past 5. I have yet to see an increase in nitrates (too soon, right?) but I am pretty close to having a safe environment, right?

 

[Menagerie]

Nitrites have exploded all the way up to past 5

Have you done a water change?? This is not a safe level for the fish.
How are your fish doing?

 

[Trumper]

yes did one this am and the nitrites dropped back down to 3. did not have time to test all the parameters, but will do so at lunch.

the fish are acting ok...last signs of the ich are gone and they are darting around and eating as normal

the snails are hanging at the top of the tank though, which is a new behavior.

 

[Trumper]

ok here are the parameters:
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrites: 4.5
Nitrates: 40 and climbing
PH 7.2

I did a 45% water change this am and since then the nitrites have jumped back up this high. This is a normal part of the water cycle, right?

And I am assuming I should continue with daily water changes until the cycle completes?

Thanks again!

 

[Christmasfish]

Yeah, so far so good.....
Your readings were way higher than I ever had except the bag water my tetras canm in one christmas.
They were in a gallon minitank...obviously they perished.
but the readings abouve are what some of our first tanks came in at.

 

[Trumper]

excellent!

the ammonia is at an undetectable level...nitrITES are still high at 4 (after water change of 50% this am) and nitrATES are still only at around 30 or so...how long do the Trates take to conquer the trites?

 

[Trumper]

still the same news...Trites at 4 and trates at 25-30, with daily water changes of 40-50% and vacuuming the gravel over 2 days twice now with the same readings...am I missing something? What else should I be doing to further this along? Ammonia is also absent.

I still have the 4 in there (2 platies which I mistakenly have been calling mollies ) and the 2 plecos and they are fine, eating as soon as the algae tabs hit the bottom. What else can I do to drop those trites?

 

[Menagerie]

If I already asked this, I'm sorry. Have you tested your tap water? I am surprised with those large water changes that the nitrites are still so high. Also, are you using the strip tests or liquid tests?

 

[Trumper]

tested it for what? I guess the answer is no to that...

I am usingf the strip tests for Nitrites and Nitrates (liquid for ammonia)...that was all they had at Petsmart or my LFS the last few times I checked.

aside from PH, ammonia and the Trites and trates, what should I test for? I dont trust the lfs to test my water as I went in there 2 weeks ago and they tested my water as fine 10 minutes after I tested it as being huge on ammonia with my test supplies and my friends. I wish these testing supplies came with a control solution...

edit: tested again (with the strips) and came up with trites at about 2 and the trates between 25-30.

 

[deli_conker]

I'm coming into this one a little late, but...

I always got wonky results with the strip tests. I use the "master test kit" that doc wellfish puts out. It's all liquids and the ammonia test is 2 reagents. the only drawback is that it doesn't come with a nitrAte test; you have to buy that separately.

If your ammonia test is a 'one bottle' test, then it may be giving you false positives. It can pick up ammonium something-or-other (help me out guys!) as well as the ammonia that the fish are kickin' out.

To be doing water changes like that and still having nitrate levels at 40 ppm is pretty strange. Do the math; 40 ppm - 50% water change = 20 ppm (unless you have nitrAtes in the water being added to the tank).

I would suggest getting a different water testing kit and see what results you get from it. I may have missed this earlier, but what type of filtration do you have (I remember the 'scrubby' comment, but I'm not too familiar with marineland's product line)

 

[Trumper]

I have the Emporer 400 biowheel and a penguin 120 (can't recall the exact number) biowheel, but the total GPH is 560. The ammonia is negative right now and has been since the nitrites spiked.

I have seen that Doc Wellfish master test kit and am now kicking myself for not getting it. I will do so this evening and do a full test of the tank's parameters.

I am not so worried as I haven't had a fish die in almost 2 weeks, the ich is completely gone and all residents (even the snails, who have almost doubled in size; how do they breed and when, btw?) seem like they are happy and hungry.

We are almost ready for cichlids or aggressives!

 

[Menagerie]

I was wondering if nitrates are in your tap water. It doesn't hurt to check your tap water for ammonia and nitrites too, to see what your "base line" is. Also, depending on what you use as your declorinator, you may be getting false positives for ammonia.

 

[Trumper]

ok when I get home I will get that master test kit and test both the tank and the tap water.

if my baseline is high in nitrites (ammonia has ceased to be a problem; i was thinking there may be a steady source of it though to keep the trites so high, perhaps the tap water) what is my next course of action? is there some way I can treat the water prior to plopping it into the tank?

 

[Menagerie]

is there some way I can treat the water prior to plopping it into the tank?

That will require additional research :?
Let us know what the readings are. My fingers are crossed that your tap is fine and it is your test strips that are off.

 

[Trumper]

Test strips were close enough for it to count

Got the Doc Wellfish kit and here is what I got:
Baseline tap readings:
PH 7.6
GH 14
NO2 0
Ammonia 0

Tank readings:
PH 7.8
GH 12
NO2 3.0
Ammonia 0

There were no nitrate tests except the strips, but that never seemed high, always well within the safe range for the strips.

There is also a new featyre to the tank: Algae. I have 6 snails and a pleco in there and want to avoid using any chemicals if I can...should I add more plecos or is the NO2 level still too high?

The GH also jumped out at me; is 12 not too high for tropical aggressives, which is what I plan on populating the tank with?

Thanks again for reading and all your comments

 

[Trumper]

and now to top it off one of our apple snails plopped a whole crapload of eggs up above the waterline! the bottom looks like it has been picked at by the platies but there are a ton left! I love this stuff.

While I am at it, I just tested the levels and all was the same except for the most notable: no2, which dropped all the way to .5 overnight.

this is good, right? All is well and I am ready to populate?