Bad water test results . . .

[tayhudson]

So I just did a water test and my results are:

pH: 7.6 - This has NEVER changed.

Ammonia: 0.25 - This is the lowest its been yet. (I know it needs to be 0)

Nitrite: 5.0 - This has NEVER happened before. It has been 0 for the past 2 1/2 months. I don't know what happened or what to do.

Nitrate: 5.0 - I know it should be 0. But it's always between 0-5.0

I don't know what to do about the Nitrites. I know the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate should always be 0. Is there anything I can do? I keep up with water changes and do what I'm supposed to.

 

[FallenAngel]

A good 50% water change twice a day should do it.
Nitrate is usually between 0 and 10 ppm anyway and 5ppm shows the tank is mature.
It should not harm fish being that low.

But Nitrite is much more harmful to the fish, as I said, 50% water changes, twice a day should do it.

Good luck

 

[tayhudson]

A good 50% water change twice a day should do it.
Nitrate is usually between 0 and 10 ppm anyway and 5ppm shows the tank is mature.
It should not harm fish being that low.

But Nitrite is much more harmful to the fish, as I said, 50% water changes, twice a day should do it.

Good luck

I just don't understand why it jumped from 0 to 5.0 between tests. It's so crazy. I waited the 5 mins and it was so purple I freaked out! I use the API freshwater master test kit, the liquid one. Sighs, when it rains it pours. Thanks for the info tho

 

[FallenAngel]

That's alright

Did you add to many fish at once? It would have gone through a mini cycle then if you did.

PS: Do you know anything about brown spots that resemble ICH, but brown? Lol. No one is answering on my thread...

 

[tayhudson]

That's alright

Did you add to many fish at once? It would have gone through a mini cycle then if you did.

PS: Do you know anything about brown spots that resemble ICH, but brown? Lol. No one is answering on my thread...

I added 1 GBR about 2 weeks ago and 1 green sev after that. I had to take some fish out maybe that's what did it. I hope it goes away. It freaks me out.

I've never seen it in real life, but I have a book called "the manual of fish health"

Can you get a picture and send it to me in a PM?? Maybe we can figure it out.

 

[coach_z]

Background:
your ammonia should always be 0
nitrIte should always be 0
nitrAte can be anywhere between 5-10 and 40
your pH is fine, dont bother with it.

you need to do some large water changes. was your tank cycled?

 

[tayhudson]

Background:
your ammonia should always be 0
nitrIte should always be 0
nitrAte can be anywhere between 5-10 and 40
your pH is fine, dont bother with it.

you need to do some large water changes. was your tank cycled?

I know what they should be. I do water changes frequently. And yes it was.

 

[carpenter547]

in the mean time and if you continue to have trouble getting your nitItes down try about a teaspoon of salt per gallon. assuming your fish can tolerate that the salt will help to temporatry block out the nitrItes. just my 0.02 i can provide you with links that go WAY into detail but that is only if you are interested and can understand. me that info is like bug flying by on a motorcycle doing 100mph yeah that bad. bottom line 1 teaspoon per gallon and it will effectivly cut the effects of nitrItes down from 5.0 to like 2 ppm type not a long term thing again but until you figgure out the cause could help.

 

[SPL15]

My guess is that your tank was never really cycled because you say 0.25ppm is the lowest your ammonia has ever been, Nitrite has always been 0 & nitrate has staed fixed @ 5ppm. 2.5 months does seam a bit long for these conditions, but the data you gave shows that the tank was never fully cycled. Who knows why, but if you aren't seeing constantly rising nitrates and they just stay at a low level (5ppm), then there obviosly is no oxidation of nitrite to nitrate.

Do water changes to get the level down a bit. When I was cycling, the nitrite never reduced for an entire week beyond what the test could measure (5ppm) until I got the level down to 2ppm with a large water change & switch to a tank twice as large. & then it was only 18 hours until I read 0ppm with a large spike in nitrate to 80ppm (Nitrate was 0 ppm before hand everyday for 1 month)

Even since the initial cycle about a month ago, I had several periods where nitrite read around 0.5ppm & it took several days to go back down to 0ppm. I've found that in my newly established tank that changing the filter floss disrupts my bacteria enough to raise nitrite. I've since fixed this issue by loading 3 liters of Ehiem Substrat pro into my rena xp3. I'm guessing that the nitrite to nitrate bacteria finally have enough space to claim as their own in the large quantity of undisturbed subsrtat pro that they do not colonize the filter floss as much as they did initially.

What kinda filtering do you use?

 

[carpenter547]

ok i just read up on water chemistry some it says that high nitrIte readings can raise nitrAte readings. any way amonia turns into nitrIte turns into nitrAte sounds like mabey fish just dumped outa alot of amonia and it is being converted. use some salt and check for a couple of days.