Weird test results

Gena575

Gena575

AC Members
Feb 7, 2006
94
0
0
I tested the tank tonight...here's what I got.
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate between 5 and 10 (darker than 5 but not quite 10)

I am using the AP freshwater kit and had some strips laying around so I double checked with those and the results pretty much matched. The strips read a bit less ammonia. I even double checked my tap water (including a glass that I drank out of this AM LOL!) and there are no nitrates in my tap. I haven't seen nitrites at ALL this entire time. The tank has had 3 harlequin rasboras in it since 2/8 and a blue mystery snail since 3/8. It is somewhat planted with 1 bronze wendtti crypt, 1 java fern and a couple babies, 1 clump of java moss and as of Wednesday 4 small wisteria plants. I ditched the tall crypt and the not true aquatic green hedge Wednesday also. So, did I get lucky and am nearing the end of this cycle? My ammonia has not really budged off the 1.0 mark unless I do a water change. The fish aren't acting and have never acted stressed...my experience has been so different from what I read here. Very strange.

Edit: It is a 10 gallon tank.
 
Last edited:
LittlePuff said:
It sounds like a second cycle. Is that all you've added recently? Or did you replace the filter cartridge lately? How much/often do you gravel vac?


Kim
Click to expand...

It is all I have added period. I've never gotten a nitrite reading in this tank, ever. I haven't replaced the filter cartridge, just swished it a bit in old tank water during water changes a couple of times. The only gravel vac I've done has been very minor, like when I see food or gunk on top of the gravel. I wonder if my ammonia test is faulty? The production date on it is 10/05 so it should still be good. On the nitrite test it is 9/05 so that is well within the good time frame as well.
 
I'm glad this post is here, so I don't need to start another thread.

I had a bad infection in a tank, 1 fish died, one still in treatment. The thing is I treated the whole tank with antibiotics for 10 days. All fish in the tank are fine now, but the medicine killed my biofilter. Ammonia started showing off, so I've been doing 25% WC every ~36 hours. Nitrites don't show up in the test kit, but nitrates are at 10-20 ppm. My tap water has less than 5ppm nitrates, so those are not coming from the source.

My guesses are:

1- My nitrite test kit is bad. But this doesn't explain the high nitrate.

2- The antiobiotic kiled the ammonia eaters, but left the nitrite eaters alive, so they are eating nitrite and producing the nitrates, while the ammonia is barely being consumed. However, I've read the nitrite eaters are far more delicate then ammos.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
Bumping for some knowledge.... :shark:
 
Pato,

Just a shot in the dark, but since your tank is already "fried" -- try changing out the filter floss/sponge whatever for some new stuff. I'm wondering if there isn't some residual med that has "adhered" itself to your filter and is repeatedly kill off something.

Dunno. Worth a shot, IMO.

Roan
 
I just tested my water today and the tank shows 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and some nitrates. So, the filter seems to have recovered from the antibiotic action in a matter of a week. Everything seems to be normal now.

Thanks a lot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom