Just need an opinion about levels........

[meowfish]

Hello all and thanks for looking I have been testing my 55g FW tank now for 4 weeks it has been setting up with the below fish in it. My reading are as follows in the tetra test kit they come with a chart and this is what they read pH 7.5, Ammonia 0 nitrates 0.8, KH 6-7, So I am wondering if my tank is almost done cycling and should I be concerned about the nitrates at that level? I am doing water changes every other day at 30%. Thanks for any replies:)

[kveeti]

Do you mean nitrAtes or nitrItes? For nitrAtes, that is fine. To know how your cycle is doing, we need a nitrIte reading.

[meowfish]

:( there is no test in there for nitrites. Now what do I do:confused:

[meowfish]

:eek: the test was for NITRITES and is at 0.8 there is no test in the kit for nitrates my mistake....now what:confused:

[phanmc]

You know you've cycled if both ammonia and nitrite is 0 and nitrate is present.

[Blinky]

You're probably going to want to go out and get a test kit for nitrates. When your nitrite levels go down to 0 and you see nitrates beginning to register, you know your filter bacteria is becoming established and you're ready for fish.

Be sure to test your tap water as well, so you know you're not seeing nitrate levels in your tank that were actually there all along (for example, water from our taps comes out at 5mg/L nitrate, so if I was testing a new tank to see if it had cycled, I'd hope to see levels above 5 so I knew that nitrate was being produced within the tank)

You'll always be able to use a nitrate test kit; watching the level of nitrates in your tank is a good way to know when you're due for a water change. I test the levels of nitrates and phosphates of my tanks weekly just to make sure everything's in order (though I admit I'm pretty darn perfectionistic about my tanks' levels, by no means do you have to test this much!).

You can also do partial water changes during the cycling process to lower your nitrite levels, it will help your fish feel more comfortable, and as long as you leave the filter media alone and dechlorinate the replacement water, it won't hurt the cycling process at all.