NooB water parameter question

R

rajseth

Learning FW
Feb 6, 2007
106
0
0
central NJ
Got a Betta in a vase for a kid's B'Day.
Started a 10G tank with the Betta Jan 6 - Petsmart Top Fin 10G kit.
Got the bug, bot a 29G tank, 100% new water (newbie - remember)
and started over - with Penguin 200 & Heater & some plastic ornaments. Fortunately I did keep 10G tank's gravel plants & power filter.

Got an API test kit, and have 1st test result: pH 7.6, NH3 barely registers, NO2 1.0, NO3 10.

mom & pop LFS said leave it alone, no water change, guessed 2-3 weeks from nitrite drop. He also noted that high pH was characteristic of local water supply and would come down as I 'fished' up the tanks.

He sounded confident and trustworthy to me. Has twice now talked me out of buying something. Any opinions here? What is OK for nitrite spike during fishy cycle?
 
You don't have to worry about how much nitrites are just make sure that they come down thats all. As long as they don't go over 5 I believe that is very stressfull for a fish.
 
have to disagree with you, Dr. Nitrite is as toxic as ammonia, and should really be kept to no more than 0.25ppm, just like ammonia, during a fishy cycle.

nitrate looks ok, so hopefully it will be a short spike of nitrite.

as an aside, frequent water changes won't hurt your cycle, so don't listen to the "no water changes for 2-3 weeks" stuff. you should water change as often as necessary to keep ammonia/nitrite<0.25 and nitrate<20 during a fishy cycle, and once your cycle is established (ammonia/nitrite=0, nitrate<20) you should do 33% water changes weekly or at the very least bi-weekly to keep your water clean and your fish healthy and happy.
 
I agree with Lunchbox on that. Start dojgn water changes. Keep your fish happy. The first change may have to be rather large to get those initial readings as low as possible. From that point on smaller changes every other day should be fine. But remember any new fish will lead to a spike. So keep new addtions to a minimum and wait until the params settle before adding more.

Good luck. And remember our home test kits are only so good. Chances are they can't read small amounts of ammonia and nitrite so even if they read zero right now there is probably a little bit extra for the bacteria to feed on from and grow.
 
Thanks all. My instinct was to do a water change - LFS said will slow down my cycle. I think I will go with a 25% change...
 
I kind of think it really helps the cycle (and fish) to bring the nitrites right down to .25 or lower once they spike.. but every cycle is different..
 
Water changes will not slow down the cycle, I do not trust any stores like pets unlimited or anything, I only trust Aqua Creations, the only real only fish store around me.
 
Well - did two waters so far , 50 & 25. Also added a few danios - real small ones - 2 leopards & 2 zebras. Figure with 40g could get away with that. Now (2 hours after danios & 25% change) have 1.0 nitrites & 10-15 nitrates. Will have to do a h2O change tomorrow too, I guess.... but at least the fishies are happily darting around, and my son tells me that his danio already went across the waterbridge twice. So everyone is having fun.
 
I am revamping my home-office, so pics may have to wait a few days - but right now it is an ugly 2" PVC (opaque) from HomeDepot that is the bridge for "proof of concept" purposes. I have ordered a clear acrylic one from the folks at www.aqua-bridge.com (no affiliation) where you can see neat pics. But I shall post some pics as soon as I can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom