Question; can you take a cup or two of existing tank water in a cup/bowl and swish/rinse the filter in there?
Did 2 total 100% Water changes and still high nitrate
- Thread starter newbietanker
- Start date
Safestart doesn't need to say cold. I believed it worked the first time. As you mentioned, you just wasn't aware of the need to really shake the nitrate test bottle first.
Dump the water, clean/squeeze the sponge really good. Refill. Get a new bottle of Safestart. Next day put fish in.
OR put fish in now. Get just one fish, of what ever you planned to get at first.
I can appreciate wanting the best environment for your fish. But 40ppm is not bad for the fish. It's not stressful. Just because 10-20ppm is the 'target' range that people around here shoot for, doesn't mean 40ppm is awful. The water will continue to stabilize once you add fish. Then you do regular water changes and try to get the nitrate down to the target level. Fish lived wonderful, happy lives for decades with nitrate 80-100ppm. They bred, thrived, were healthy. New science, new technology, etc. now has gotten people to want 0 nitrate.
There's no such thing as a 'perfect' tank, no matter what people want to believe. They all will fluctuate some due to location and water source. Doing a fishless cycle does not give fish a cleaner environment or better home. They start pooping in the water and foul it up just like a tank that was started with a chemical. In a few days or weeks, they both are dirty on the bottom and have the same bacteria growing. You would be able to tell which one was done as a fishless cycle if everything else was identical.
Your fish will be fine. Just acclimate them/it and start doing regular maintenance and everything will smooth out as you go. You're worrying too much and taking the fun out of it.
As said earlier in the thread, that's been my thoughts on this as well.
I'm not getting the concern over 20-40ppm nitrates? Sure, 40 and beyond, you'd need to do water changes often, but 20-30? That's fine.
The OP has verified this tank consumes ammonia and measures 0ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrites.
I'd be out the door shopping for a fish or three.
I commented earlier but it was only posted today because I'm new here. Unless you want to continue the experiment...
[It's such a small tank for so much fuss. What kind of fish are you thinking of? If you are thinking a Betta, just throw the fish in the tank and change 1/4 of the water every day. Your filter will eventually work. I have a Betta in a one gallon without filtration and I change the 100% of the water every 3 or 4 days. He's doing great.]
[It's such a small tank for so much fuss. What kind of fish are you thinking of? If you are thinking a Betta, just throw the fish in the tank and change 1/4 of the water every day. Your filter will eventually work. I have a Betta in a one gallon without filtration and I change the 100% of the water every 3 or 4 days. He's doing great.]
Different species have different tolerance levels for nitrate. For some that's way too high, but probably okay for your average community fish.
jasonfishaddict
AC Members
All of these reasons are why I said what I said. It's only 6 gallons so set it up the way you want it to look. I wouldn't suggest you add fish without cycling first but from what I've read, it's cycled. You didn't say what kind of fish you wanted so I didn't suggest you add fish now. It is safe, however, for most commonly available species though.
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