1st water test that I have done need advice

cajinfry

cajinfry

Fishkeeper in the making
Jul 3, 2006
75
0
0
Texas
Ok no lashing but I have had my tank for 5 weeks with fish in it. 6 total. I have been doing the take to the store sample test and they said everything looked good. So I finally broke down and bought a master kit and not the test strip one this is the drops.

Here are my reading's

Nitrite = .25
Ammonia = 0
Low PH = 7.6 looks to be high from what I hear so I did the High PH
Hi-PH = 8.0
Nitrate = 20 or 40 hard to tell with the card it came with

So those are my reading I am going to to my first water change tomorrow and wanted some advice prior to doing it.

1) is it prime or cycle I should use for the chlorine/chloramine?

2) PH looks to high how do I bring it down? Water Change?

3) since this is the first water change the tank has had how big of water change should I do?

Fish in tank

3 Green Tiger Barbs
3 Albino Tiger Barbs
2 Bala Sharks ( I know will get too big... Looking for home, about 1.5 " right now)
3 Mollies
1 rainbow Shark
1 Albino Chocolate Pleco ( Will move to new home later about 1.5" right now.)

Dual filter and bio wheel filter system

Not sure what else you need.

Chris
 
Did I miss the tank size? You may have made some errors til now, but hey, you're getting on the right track. Most of us do, too.

Nitrites should be at 0, so yes, do a water change. Nitrates in question--yes, water change. Depends on tank size, I'm guessing medium size with bioload, it's your first change so maybe @30%, wait a day, do another. If you change too much at this point it may put the fish into shock.

PRIME is what you want, it's great stuff, alot of folks here recommend it.
Congratulations on realizing you needed a "real" test kit and that some of your fish will get too large--it's often hard for humans to admit we make mistakes lol. Hope that helps, I'm sure others will chime in.
 
Those readings dont seem too bad actually. the Nitrites are probably there because the tank hasnt completely cycled yet or possibly b/c you have yet to do a water change. a ph of 7.6 - 8 isnt that bad but it could be a little lower. however, i would definetly not use any ph buffers. a ph that is slightly high but stable is better than a ph thats in the proper range but fluctuates. test the ph of your tap water and see if there is a difference. the nitrates should be lower but its not bad. a water change should take care of it. ive been using amquel + for a while now on my tanks for dechlor and i love it. i would probably do about a 25% water change and you should be fine. what size tank? do you have an air pump? what brand/model filters?
 
Tank Size is 50g. The tank as those black grate like shelves on the bottom where the gravel sits about an inch of the bottom. There are 2 tubes on each corner of the tank with air lines going to a bubble stones that are about midway down the tank wall in the tubes. The way it was explained to me is that the bubbles create a vacuum and pull from under the gravel supposedly this is good to keep waste load levels down in tank. At the top of those tubes are these cartridges of what I think is a carbon filter or something little blacks rocks in there. I also put 1 air line and stone behind a rock formation. I also have a potted giant hygrophila in the tank. I read in some post somewhere that I really dont want to put any other chemicals other that the stuff for the chlorine. The tap water has a PH of 7.2.

The color cards that came with my kit.... The colors on some test are so close it is hard to tell the actual reading. That is why I picked 2 numbers for my nitrate. Also I have not purchased a gravel vac yet because I want the python... Could I just do a water change and skip the vac for another week?

thanks for info
Fishkeeper in the making :dive:
 
I don't think another week on not vacuuming will hurt--just make sure you DON'T overfeed, or that uneaten food will contribute to "pollution"; or, the extra poop generated by it. Every other day is fine, fish will probably beg, but it's better than ammonia building up! :D
 
yeah ...
take it easy on the feedings for a bit :D
it really makes cycling that much easier...

fish are such good beggers though gwah
 
Glad to hear you followed advice in your other posts.

The filter you described is an undergravel filter (UGF). It is okay, but work better with power heads on them, and even better if you convert them to RUGF (reverse undergravel filter). But lets not worry about that right now. Lets work at getting that tank established, you are doing good.

Yes the Prime will be great for your water changes. Follow the directions, add it to the tank right before you start putting the new water in. Like has been said, do a couple of 30% changes (15-20 gallon), two days apart to get those nitrites to zero. The nitrates will come down a little on each change. Your nitate readings are a little high for some folks, me included, but not dangerous. Those nitrites are bad though.

You can put off the gravel vac for another week, but please no longer. The UGF pulls water down through the plate and up out of those airlift tubes and out those cartridges with the black carbon in them. This means any uneaten food and all the poop is being trapped in the gravel where it will decay and cause water problems.

Didn't I notice in another post you got a Penguin 300 with bio wheels? Is it set up and on this tank? If not please get it or another similar HOB (hang on back) filter soon.

I think your pH is fine. On your tap water sample, put some in a shallow bowl, let it set out overnight and do a round of tests on it and it will more closely indicate the true tap levels.
 
Yes that Penguin 300 filter is on this tank. What are the power heads you speak of? I will go check out the python at walmart. I saw it ia my LFS for 39 dollars. Hoepfully the do price matching I paid 31.00 with tax for the Master Water test kit and then found it on Live Aquaria for 18. Grrrr.
 
Just wanted to say that I made the same mistake getting my master test kit. I paid about the same as you. Guess what??? Petsmart.com has it for $3.86. NO JOKE!!!!!!!!!! I'll buy mine there next time for sure!!!!!
 
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