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Nitrate high? New Old Tank

600 views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  Lamb 
#1 ·
Okay so the other day I bought a 20g tall (was advertised as a 15g) well it was used for 10+ years so I rinsed it 20-30 times with HOT water. Filled it, conditioned the water and started the filter that it came with. The day after I bought 3 guppy (a trio to feed the fry to my betta as treats) and a cory? (not sure, the girl at petsmart picked him out for me.). I will be adding 5-6 female betta for a sorority into the tank this coming week. (going to have them in cups floating for a week or two).

Yesterday I noticed the water was dingy looking... strange as it's newly set up, and rinsed. So I checked the filter, no cartridges! My gosh. :shock: So I went out to purchase some new ones, got to the store and realized I forgot to check what kind it was! :shock::shock: Tried calling my husband, of course he didn't pick up the 20 something times I called. Poor guy was exhausted! He had staff duty (24 hours of answering calls, checking barracks, assisting the soldiers, etc.) Well I didn't want to go home and have a cartridge-less filter going, so I bought a new Tetra 10-30g filter. When I got home I did a 25% water change and started the new filter. The water is clear, and looks great so I check water perimeters in all of my set ups. The vases for the males (1.5g each) are at 0 ammonia, 6.6 Ph, 0 Nitrite, 0 Nitrate. I used gerber purified baby water so I would hope that the perimeters would be top notch. Lol. Well the tank is 0 ammonia, 7.2 Ph, 0 Nitrite, and 5 for Nitrate!

How should I go about making the tank perimeters more ideal? I would think that since it was a previously used tank and equipment that cycling wouldn't be needed. Everything is in order but the nitrate levels, so should I do another water change or is this just a fluctuation and should regulate?
 
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#2 ·
Congrats on the new tank. First because the tank was, I'm assuming, unused for a while, dried out & you cleaned it with tap water plus got a new filter there would be no BB & you are now going to be doing a fish IN cycle. You current parameters are good, nitrates do not have to be at zero, they should be less than 20 ideally. The nitrates you currently have are probably coming from your tap water, have you tested it. Since you are now doing a fish IN cycle you'll need to test daily & do lots of a water changes. YAY you! :)
 
#3 ·
Thanks! I got a great deal on it, and even better since I found out it's larger. But yeah, I was afraid that it was going to have to cycle. Should be fine though.... Do you think the females will be alright in there? I'll be doing 25% water changes every other day.
 
#4 ·
How many fish are you putting in? I take it you don't have a liquid tet test kit? When I cycled a 10g with one male Betta & 1 mystery snail I had to water changes sometimes every day for a week or more because of the ammonia &/or nitrites. I would do a minimum of a 50% & I don't think I add but a few fish.
 
#5 ·
I have 5 or 6 female betta coming for the sorority, I was going to isolate them in some containers in the actual tank to get them used to each other and keep them quarantined... I will be doing 100% changes in the containers everyday since they aren't very large. I'm sure they'll be fine... I had the old filter that had not been cleaned running in the tank so I'm sure there's some beneficial bacteria in it. I know nitrates tend to spike when new fish so maybe it'll regulate here in a little.
 
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