[philipraposo1982]

how can i have ammonia and nitrates and I have never put fish in it??

i have plants and a used canister filter but i thought he said he washed out the media.

I am so unsure of whats going on.

I wanted to test the water before i added the fish and colony to the tank (colony is nitrifying bacteria) and i got approx .20 ppm for ammonia and .3-.4 ppm nitrate in my tank.

any ideas of how this has happened?

I since added the fish and the colony as suggested and a very light feeding as suggest on the bottle. about 10 ish micro pellets from OMEGA.

i would love some input. i will be watchig water like crazy of the next few days.

 

[wrm130]

have you tested your tap water?

 

[philipraposo1982]

for ph only.

would there be ammonia and nitrates in tap water?

 

[wrm130]

possibly yes

 

[philipraposo1982]

ok i will test my tap water now

ok so its looking like the tap has none of either of the 2.

this is sooo weird..

 

[ctaylor3737]

You will still need to cycle The tank if your not aware it will go into a cycle even with the bacteria you added.

-Chris

 

[philipraposo1982]

i know i need to cycle my tank, which is why i added the bacteria. anyhow i was just curiou about the low ammonia and nitrates. I read it could of came from the water. either way since colony is in my tank now with the fish I would assume by tomorrow night I should notice some changes in the parameters.

hopefully atm colony works!

 

[Fiftymeatballs]

it's probably your canister filter since you said "i thought he cleaned it" which means you didn't check or clean it yourself

 

[philipraposo1982]

Of course I cleaned everything.minus the media. I did however look at the media and it appeared good.

 

[Aqguy]

Is your test kit good ?

 

[philipraposo1982]

Lol.. Yeah its fine thanks for asking.

 

[Fiftymeatballs]

Of course I cleaned everything.minus the media. I did however look at the media and it appeared good.

People are trying to help you out, don't be defensive. We can only go off what your saying. If you didn't clean the media from a used filter, well what do you think is in the filter media? Organic debris that can give off ammonia. Just consider it more ammonia for your cycle, not a big deal.

 

[PlantedRich]

This is really not a big mystery once thought through. You have ammonia most any time there is organic stuff decaying. Foor or dead plant matter? You have nitrates when some of this ammonia is being converted. So do you have some decaying stuff being processed by a small bacteria colony but maybe not a large enough colony to convert it all at this time? Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are not either or type things but a progressive process. Your cycle is likely started with some good bacteria left in the filter. He may have cleaned it but that doesn't mean he cleaned it to the point of killing ALL bacteria. Some is working for you and will likely get back up to speed much sooner than if there were none there.
Worry not, nature has a way of getting it done!

 

[Diana]

Ditto Rich.

Also, the plants can have some beneficial bacteria on their leaves, stems and roots. Not a big population, but enough to turn a few molecules of ammonia into a few molecules of nitrate. Which is all it looks like you have. Most test kits do not measure decimal fractions of nitrate. 10 ppm, 20 ppm.... are more common increments.