Water testing help

[Nativ3 Girl]

I bought the test kits i needed for my 10 gal tank .... now i need to know
what to do, and if my tank is cycled

Amonia was .50

For the Nitrate it was 10

And Nitrite was 5.0

I know amonia is high. Last time i had it tested at the store it was higher than it is now and i replaced 2 gal and added AmQuel. The guy said it is what i needed to bring down the amonia. Is that what i need to do again?

I dont know if there is anything i can do for the nitrates

And the nitrites is where its supposed to be right?

now im going to read more of the beginners online booklet to find out what nitrite and nitrates are for. lol

Thank you for helping me i really appreciate it.

-Kassandra

[fins_n_fur]

I'd do a water change to get the nitrItes down to near 0 and test everyday. They differently, but equally poisonous to your fish. It sounds like your tank is nearly cycled. NitrAtes are about right.

[terrapin24h]

ammonia is ok for a tank cycling.
don't worry about nitrate that isn't poisonous in small amounts(under 70ppm)
nitrite is highly poisonous, and youll want to do water changes to keep its level down. If you are cycling with fish, this tends to be the hardest part of the cycle on them as the bacteria that converts nitrite to nitrate takes a long time to grow. Change out some water to keep your Nitrite level down and feed your fish sparingly. Good luck, and keep us posted

--chris

[Fishalicious]

Have you already got fish in the tank??? If not leave it be as it looks like it is at the peak of the cycle which means it should be cycled pretty soon...

If there are fish in the tank then you really need to do a waterchange quickly..anything above nitrite of 4 can kill fish quickly.... below that slowly...when cycled your nitrite's should always read 0

[fins_n_fur]

If memory serves, this is a tank with fish.

[Nativ3 Girl]

yes i do have fish in the tank.

I just went and changed out 2 gal of water. After that i tested the nitrite again and it wasnt any lower should i change out more water?

[gm72]

We need to get those nitrItes down. I'd do maybe another 2 gallons?

I agree with Fishalicious, you are probably at the peak of your cycle. You are doing the right thing by watching the parameters closely. Nice job.

This is why we strongly recommend fishless cycles. Maybe for your next project you will consider doing so.

[Nativ3 Girl]

Yes Next time i AM going to do a fishless cycle. I hate the thought of my poor fishes being poisoned. I researched pretty good before i got the tank and i wanted to do a fishless cycle, but everything that i read made it seem like it was harder to do. And others said that it didnt even work. Live and learn right? I will do fishless cycle next time. youll be getting alot more questions lol.

_Kassandra

Now i am going to go do 2 more gal Thanks

[Nativ3 Girl]

Yay im so happy. i just went and changed out 2 more gal and retested my nitrites and theyre down to .25. i will retest them all tomorrow and see what i will have to do next.

[gm72]

Great job! Nice work. Keep on watching those parameters and stay on top of things!

You'll love fishless cycling when you try it. You'll wonder why you never did it before!

[Mvjnz]

You only need to cycle a tank once. After that you use the established filter to start any new filters. I have not cycled a tank since I got my first one 6 months ago.

Just thought I'd point that out.

[gm72]

That's a great point and one with which I completely agree. I did a fishy cycle for my first tank and fishless thereafter. Once I had my 3rd tank or so the cycle was almost instant. My use of prefilters also helps the process because I can just take the sponge from one and put it on a new tank. Boom, done.

[Nativ3 Girl]

would i just drop the sponge in the new tank or in the new filter? If it goes in the filter i dont think that wil work, next time i am plannin on getting a 29 gal. old sponge wont fit in new filter. *blush* its a DUH question but i need to know lol sorry

[CAllain]

I recently had to jump-start a cycle for a new tank, and the filter was much smaller than my existing one so I couldn't transfer one of my sponges to the new filter. What I did, was I rubbed the sponge against the sponge for the new filter to get as much of the "slime" on it as possible. The slime on the filter is where most of the bacteria are, so that does speed up the cycle.

[Nativ3 Girl]

Thank you Callain i will remember that when i start my next tank. thats pretty resourceful.

[terrapin24h]

there are alot of ways to get bacteria from one tank into a new one... You can do the sponge trick, or you can put your new media in the old tank for a couple weeks before hand, or you can put gravel from the old tank in a nylon stocking and hang it in the new, or you can take your biomedia from the old tank, dunk it in the new tank, and the scrub it with a brush to break off some of the bacteria into the new tank(i do this with my bio-wheels). Once you have a bacteria farm there are lots of ways to do it.

--chris

[Nativ3 Girl]

How will i know when i have a good amount of bacteria in my first tank?

[fins_n_fur]

When you consistently have readings of no ammonia and no nitrites.

[gm72]

Exactly. You'll know when your tank reads cycled water parameters of 0-0-20 (or so).

[tanks4thememories]

You only need to cycle a tank once. After that you use the established filter to start any new filters. I have not cycled a tank since I got my first one 6 months ago.

Just thought I'd point that out.

If I may also add Cycling a tank is different from having an adequate bio filter base to support a given Load.

[Nativ3 Girl]

ok i tested my water again today and they were

Nitrate 20

Amonia at .25

and nitrite at 2.0

it was high so i did a 2 and a half gal water change, since the nitrite is alot higher and the amonia is relatively low, that means that the amonia is being eaten up and and turned into nitrite? is that right?

- Kassandra

[gm72]

You got it!

[Nativ3 Girl]

Im excited . I think this will really end up being a long term hobby for me. Its fun.

[gm72]

Oh just wait until you start adding tanks!

[fins_n_fur]

Sshhhh, you weren't supposed to tell yet LOL

[Nativ3 Girl]

Who tell what yet?

I just did another test.

Nitrites 1.0

Amonia .25

Nitrates 10

It all went down just cause i did a water change right?

I think im testing too much, ill run out of test drops in a month lol. thats ok though id rather keep an eye on it.