Testing levels of nitrates/nitrites in tank

[Anne L.]

How often should I be testing for nitrites, ammonia and nitrates in my tank? It's a newly cycled 10 gallon tank as most of you probably know already.

I tested ammonia and nitrites 2 days ago, and was at 0 ammonia, and possibly the faintest blush of pink on the nitrite test. It wasn't even at 0.1.

So are my nitrite levels safe seeing that this is a new tank? I don't want to hurt my new little pals.

[TKOS]

Ammonia levels can be tolerated by most fish up to 1 ppm without permanent damage. Nitrites up to 0.25 ppm. So keep it below that and you should be fine. There will be a few fluctuations at the beginnign as the bacteria adjusts to meet the fishes needs but it should be fine. In the beginning the tests are more frequent but within a couple of weeks you probably won't have to test unless there is a problem. After you add your cories test every other day for a few days and do water changes when needed.