So we are now a few weeks into cycling squrits tank. I did a water change before I went to sleep last night and it was below .25. I woke up to find it around 5.0. Did a large water change and got this reading
Still not happy I did a 50 percent WC and got this
Still thinking I could get it lower I did another 50 percent with little change
Its around .25. Is this OK. I don't want to stress him out with too many water changes and I'm probably gonna have to change it again tonight
try putting some the heavier dose of Prime (read the directions on the panel as I do not have it handy) to do the emergency lowering of the nitrite and nitrates and 50% WC every day for next couple of days. Then revert to normal dose of Prime by Saturday.
Dealing with nitrites is definitely a hassle as you'll likely be changing water very frequently, and you'll be doing this for at least a couple weeks.
Try and keep it below 0.5, and no more than 1ppm. If you are unable to tend to your tank for whatever reason, put a healthy dose (maybe two doses) of a nitrite detoxifier like Kordon AmQuel+ or Seachem Prime beforehand, and change the water when you get back.
I have been using prime with the water changes. Also the website you have linked says stop feeding. My guy donsnt let any food fall and eats it all. Should I still stop feeding or is that to help with uneaten food decaying?
The fish break down the protein in the food which eventually gets converted to ammonia and expelled from their gills. The more food they eat, the more ammonia produced.
Also, excess food in the tank (not eaten by the fish) eventually gets broken down to amino groups, and then converted to ammonia by the bacteria in the tank.
do you have plants in the tank?
what kind of substrate?
Do you add ferts?
what is the result for tap water without conditioner/fert?
what is the result for tap water with conditioner/fert?
do you have plants in the tank? yes
what kind of substrate? gravel
Do you add ferts? no not now
what is the result for tap water without conditioner/fert? 0
what is the result for tap water with conditioner/fert? 0
I havnt been checking the amonnia as much as the nitrites becauae i always though the nitrites come from amonna being converted so therer shouldnt be amonnia and my water dosnt have amonnia in it either
So I came home to this
I also performed a expairement since I had the kit out.
I added around a ml of API leaf zone to a 16 oz bottle of tap water with no conditioner just tap water
I gently mixed it an let it set for a few minutes to test it and got this from the test
Your tanks seems to be at stage 2 of its cycle. Now it needs a big enough colony of the guys who convert nitrite into nitrate then youre safe. Do you have any filter media from a tank thats already cycled? That can help kickstart the population and speed up the cycle
Nope. This is our first tank. I just wanted to make sure .25 was safe an doing back to back to back water changes where OK or should I wait after doing a change to test the water
Maybe someone near you can loan you a bit of cycled filter media or something.
No nitrites are safe, infact they are worse than ammonia, but yeah keep up your water changes to stay on top of them.
Be careful though, if you take out too much water you will end up killing off your bacteria population and starting your cycle again. Its probably better to test your water both before and after to see where your tank is at in its cycle. You could also start testing for nitrates, when you start getting them you can breathe a little easier knowing the final stage of the cycle is taking place
I just hope I dont have to do a large WC tomorrow. Its his fast day and I like to feed him after a water change as a "treat" for having to put up with the change
To be honest I wasn't checking nitrates this morning. I was only checking nitrites. Tonight was the first time I checked nitrates. I'm just hoping I don't have another 4+ ppm nitrite spike in the am
make sure you did the shaking for the nitrate test correctly
10 drop Bottle 1, shake Bottle 2 for 30 sec, add 10 drops into vial, shake 1 min. read results in 5 minutes
Revised version:
Make sure you shake the bottles correctly for nitrate test:
10 drops bottle 1, gently move bottle 1 up and down to mix the solution, shake bottle 2 vigorously for 30 sec, add 10 drops from bottle 2 into vial, shake the vial vigorously for 1 minute, see results after 5 mins.
Shake vigorously as if trying to create bubbles inside the bottle. I am getting more "defined" biceps from doing this since Jan.
You might want to think about moving your fish to a smaller quarantine tank until your bigger tank settles itself out. I'd even think about finishing off the cycle fish-less.
On the smaller tank, it would be much easier to change the water and you wouldn't have to retest multiple times a day like you're probably doing now.
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