no3 in water bad? Good?

[millerb7]

So cycling my tank. 19 days in. Got some media from a friend ( although hasn't helped much).

Finally started to see ammonia drop from 4-5 to 1-2. Been dosing back up. Zero no2. Had zero no3 too. Finally got some no3 to show up but no no2. Thought I was maybe skipping the no2 phase. Tested my tap water and got some no3 reading. Lower than the tank but not by much.

I don't get how the tank had ZERO if my tap water apparently contains it.

Anyways will having it in the tap water hurt anything?

Hopefully I start seeing some no2 movement as I'm at day 19 now.

 

[Dale_I]

I have an ambient reading of about 5 ppm of nitrate in my tap water. Not a lot you can do about it, other than realize that it is there. I tend to do more frequent water changes since I know I'm not starting from 0 and the upper level of toxicity does not change. Or, if I do it once a week, will do a larger than 50% water change. Usually in the 60 to 70 percent range or 30 to 40 percent on Wed and another 30 to 40 on Sunday.

 

[jlk]

Hi! Sounds like your right on track because your ammonia levels are starting to drop. It is possible that the zero reading of nitrate came from test inaccuracy. Ive found the nitrate tests a bit tempermental-make sure you thoroughly shake & bang the bottles before using them for the liquids can get crystals. Having a detectable nitrate level in your water source (you dont mention what the reading is) is not a cause for concern and it should not affect your cycle. However, as Dale mentioned, you have to be aware of the presence of nitrates because they will build to a toxic level quicker because your not starting from zero. Keep up the good work!

 

[librarygirl]

With ammonia starting to drop more you should see nitrite fairly soon, but just be patient, it'll happen. It's also possible you'll never see nitrite with enough seeded media, but we won't know that for a while yet. Once ammonia starts dropping to 0 in 24 hours we'll be able to see what happens. A small amount of nitrate in your tap water is fine. Nitrates willl keep building with a fishless cycle anyway due to the conversion. When you have fish though you'll want to do a weekly water change to keep those down under 20.