should i do a water change!?

djmodifyd

djmodifyd

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Jan 26, 2006
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i'm confused
2 out of my 3 lfs's said do a water change, the other one didn't
so i thought i would ask the experts

last week (about 5 days ago) i tested my water with these results
ph 8.2
ammonia: .25
nitrate: 20 ppm
nitrite: 0 ppm

now....5 days later, i tested it again.
i have no fish or anything in there

ph: 8.2
ammonia: 4 ppm
nitrate: 10 ppm
nitrite: .5 ppm

should i just leave my tank? or should i do a wtaer change to get some of those levels down?
i don't have any fish...so i don't have anything to kill in there..(unless some of my bacteria could die?)

thanks for helping an idiot
 
ammonia comes from fish waste or a bottle. are you doing a fishless cycle and adding bottled ammonia? if not, then there's got to be something alive in the tank that's rotting to produce ammonia and nitrites......
 
RockabillyChick said:
ammonia comes from fish waste or a bottle. are you doing a fishless cycle and adding bottled ammonia? if not, then there's got to be something alive in the tank that's rotting to produce ammonia and nitrites......
Click to expand...

well, it is fishless, with no added ammonia.
it was set up before, then i did a 75% water change and dug into the gravel really well....the water out of the gravel came out clean. and every time i've done a water change since i havn't seen any dirt or grunge come from the gravel.

i have about 50 lbs of lace rock in there...could there be something living on there? i've noticed a bit of white fuzz growing on them?

me be confused :(
 
there must be some bacteria or something alive in there if your getting ammonia. was your filter already established? if so, then your good bacteria could be dying and producing ammonia, which the other bacteria are eating and producing nitrites and nitrates.

if you don't have fish in there, then theres no reason to do a water change. but if you plan on putting fish in it, then you want to cycle the tank. best way is to fishless cycle with clear ammonia.
 
RockabillyChick said:
there must be some bacteria or something alive in there if your getting ammonia. was your filter already established? if so, then your good bacteria could be dying and producing ammonia, which the other bacteria are eating and producing nitrites and nitrates.

if you don't have fish in there, then theres no reason to do a water change. but if you plan on putting fish in it, then you want to cycle the tank. best way is to fishless cycle with clear ammonia.
Click to expand...

it was established
but i had a major pH crash that i believe killed most of my bacteria. i had a white film covering my heater, glass, filter tubes, and so fourth.
so i believe i'm starting completely over with cycleing

yes...i'm building it an african cichlid tank...so i will be putting fish into it, but i want to get it cycled first and not kill the fishies!

should i do a water change and put clear ammonia in it? or should i leave it and let the ammonia that is already in there start the bacteria collony?
thank you so much for your help!
 
if you had your tank crash, just to be safe, i would start over. take everything appart and boil everything you can, scrub the tank with vinegar, replace the filter cartridge, wash out the filter box, boil the gravel or replace it, whatever you want. then you can start with a prestine tank and be sure there's nothing nasty lurking in the corners. then add ammonia to start a fresh cycle. make sure you get clear ammonia. the ingredients should contain NOTHING but "Water, ammonia, and chealating agent" if it contains surfactants or it foams when you shake the bottle, DON'T USE IT. walmart has a bottle for $1 in the cleaning aisle. just read the label.

if your not worried about harmful bacteria or anything in the tank though, then just leave it. 4ppm ammonia is perfect for starting a cycle. but you would still have to "feed" the tank more ammonia once that level starts going down.
 
well, i have noticed my water is getting VERY clear......almost better then it ever looked before (i never actually let my tank cycle when i first got it......)

now that it has been sitting for a week or so....it is alreayd looking better, my bio-wheels have brown bacteria growing on it.....and i don't think i ever saw that on there before.....lol

i'll just let it sit....and try to work it self out, my seachem ammonia alert is on "toxic" the highest it goes......

i hope it works its self out......i'm starting to get anxious about getting some cichlids in there!
 
you may want to do a water change if you ammonia is that high, as too much ammonia can kill off your good bacteria too. you want to keep it around 4ppm until it starts to drop on its own, then add ammonia to keep it at 2ppm. then when you get nitrites, wait until they too start dropping. when you can add ammonia up to 2ppm and within 24 hours both your ammonia reading and your nitrite reading are 0, your tank is cycled. then you do a large water change to get the nitrAtes down to decent levels (because they have been building this whole time) and add fish, or keep feeding ammonia to keep the bacteria alive if your not ready to add fish yet.
 
Unless you want to have another pH crash, we need to find out *why* you had one in the first place.

There is no need to clean and bleach everything out and start over. That's pointless and has nothing to do with a pH crash.

What I need are your GH and KH numbers out of your tap. If you don't have a kit, please pick one up. It's more than likely that your pH crashed because your KH is too low and it bottomed out.

Even thought you have a high pH, you may have to add crushed coral to your tank to stablize it. This is another reason why I need those KH and GH numbers.

The ammonia you are seeing probably comes from your tap. Assuming you are using Amquel or Prime or something similar, the chloramines are unbound and revert back to chlorine and ammonia. The chlorine is removed and the ammonia is rendered into a harmless state that is not toxic to your fish but can still be used by your bacteria.

Roan
 
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