Are you running carbon or purigen in your filter full time? Are you topping up and changing with straight RO water?
tested my water after months
I never test my water, only when things are not going good. I got bored today and decided to test it. Im using Tetratest laborate kit
Planted 55 moderate, dose EI (csm+b, kh2po4, kno3 <gh booster once a week>) Decently populated with maybe 25 or more fish. pressurized co2
[STRIKE]Gh- 1[/STRIKE] Gh4...GH from tap is 3.
kh- 4 tap 3
ph- 6.5
no2- 0
ammonia- either 1.5ml or .25 its close to either
co2 concentration, over night I let the water sit out then tested it, I got a ph of 8. so whats my concentration.
How can my gh and nitrate be down to nothing? The tank is cycled to me after running since at least march. Also I dose 3/4 tsp gh every water change, but why is it stuck at 1?
Also WTH is up with the ammonia reading, is this tank not cycled at all? Last week I added 6 glowlight danios, but thats about it.
Thank you
Planted 55 moderate, dose EI (csm+b, kh2po4, kno3 <gh booster once a week>) Decently populated with maybe 25 or more fish. pressurized co2
[STRIKE]Gh- 1[/STRIKE] Gh4...GH from tap is 3.
kh- 4 tap 3
ph- 6.5
no2- 0
ammonia- either 1.5ml or .25 its close to either
co2 concentration, over night I let the water sit out then tested it, I got a ph of 8. so whats my concentration.
How can my gh and nitrate be down to nothing? The tank is cycled to me after running since at least march. Also I dose 3/4 tsp gh every water change, but why is it stuck at 1?
Also WTH is up with the ammonia reading, is this tank not cycled at all? Last week I added 6 glowlight danios, but thats about it.
Thank you
1 - 20 of 37 Posts
No carbon. Im running purigen but I am sure that its old and need to be renewed, its over 5 months now since that has been in there. Im doing 50% water changes with tap water.Are you running carbon or purigen in your filter full time? Are you topping up and changing with straight RO water?
I edited the origional post to include my ammonia.
ANY help is appreciated. THank!
Ammonia guess- your filter is too small for this many fish, hence the spike from new fish. Cleaning your filter monthly will allow your nitrobachter to reside mostly IN your tank and not rely on your filter. Alot of people use 2 filters to overcome possible spikes by only cleaning one at a time.
N guess-purigen OR low gh on your tap. Try adding more booster and retest. If you dont get a result, your kit is bad.
N guess-purigen OR low gh on your tap. Try adding more booster and retest. If you dont get a result, your kit is bad.
I just added this new filter 2213 mid december with media from my other filter.
I run 2 filters, a 2217 and a 2213. I usually clean the filter pads once a month. But I should at least see some nitrates right? Im confused.
Ill test the gh from my tap. That test is weird, when I started adding drops of solution, it said add drops till it changes color. Within the first drop you can see a small HUE of pink. So I don tknow if I did it wrong or not.
I run 2 filters, a 2217 and a 2213. I usually clean the filter pads once a month. But I should at least see some nitrates right? Im confused.
Ill test the gh from my tap. That test is weird, when I started adding drops of solution, it said add drops till it changes color. Within the first drop you can see a small HUE of pink. So I don tknow if I did it wrong or not.
GH test kits are not reliable, in my experience. Even one that works one week may be impossible to use a week later. My kits failed by never changing color as they are supposed to, instead, the first drop would give a color change, but not to the right color. That sounds like what you have. I was using API GH test kits, as well as one other one, before I finally found one that at least gave me the color change.
man wrong. I forgot to change the colors to get a reading LOL!
Gh4...GH from tap is 3.
Gh4...GH from tap is 3.
Glad you got it figured out! GH test kits give me fits as well. Drop, shake, drop, shake, BS, BS, BS....I use APIs and have more faith in my experience than any test kits results.
ill try for another kit soon then. But im still puzzled by my ammonia.Glad you got it figured out! GH test kits give me fits as well. Drop, shake, drop, shake, BS, BS, BS....I use APIs and have more faith in my experience than any test kits results.
Probably just the new fish and nothing to be alarmed about. I'd test it again tomorrow and see if it went down or up tho, for sure. Its gotta go down if youve had it up since March tho.
I just updated with my ph co2 concentration, I let the water sit out over night till now and now my ph is 8. So what is my co2 concentration?
I'm assuming your tank water was at pH 6.5, but that rose to pH 8.0 when it sat out overnight. If that's correct you could assume that your CO2 in the tank was 10 to the1.5 power times what it was after sitting out overnight. That is 32 times what it was after sitting overnight. The problem is that we have no way of knowing what the CO2 concentration was after sitting out overnight. When I did some testing I found that the concentration continued to drop for much longer than 24 hours. I never did find out what the lowest concentration would be. It could be 1 ppm, so the tank was at 32 ppm, but it also could be 3 ppm, so the tank was at 96 ppm. That is the flaw in trying to measure CO2 that way.
How do you clean the filter pads?I just added this new filter 2213 mid december with media from my other filter.
I run 2 filters, a 2217 and a 2213. I usually clean the filter pads once a month. But I should at least see some nitrates right? Im confused.
Ill test the gh from my tap. That test is weird, when I started adding drops of solution, it said add drops till it changes color. Within the first drop you can see a small HUE of pink. So I don tknow if I did it wrong or not.
I clean the ceramic prefilter media. Then I clean the reusable blue pads with jet water. And then put new polishing white pads. I dont rinse the bio media. I have the ball type ceramics and the rings, maybe more than it should have inside there.How do you clean the filter pads?
Thanks hoppy, I saw this method somewhere else and decided to try it. I do have a drop checker and it usually is a light yellow green. But in the morning its still pretty green. Its newer fluid.I'm assuming your tank water was at pH 6.5, but that rose to pH 8.0 when it sat out overnight. If that's correct you could assume that your CO2 in the tank was 10 to the1.5 power times what it was after sitting out overnight. That is 32 times what it was after sitting overnight. The problem is that we have no way of knowing what the CO2 concentration was after sitting out overnight. When I did some testing I found that the concentration continued to drop for much longer than 24 hours. I never did find out what the lowest concentration would be. It could be 1 ppm, so the tank was at 32 ppm, but it also could be 3 ppm, so the tank was at 96 ppm. That is the flaw in trying to measure CO2 that way.
well after a few days, before I dosed with nitrate I tested the water.
my ammonia level went down a little to .25
my No2 level stayed at <.3
Could my plants just be taking all the nitrates?
for the hell of it, I put a pinch of nitrate into some aquarium test tube water then tested the nitrate level. Its near the same. So is my nitrate test inaccurate?
my ammonia level went down a little to .25
my No2 level stayed at <.3
Could my plants just be taking all the nitrates?
for the hell of it, I put a pinch of nitrate into some aquarium test tube water then tested the nitrate level. Its near the same. So is my nitrate test inaccurate?
Nitrate test may be inaccurate if it did not respond to the KNO3 you added to the sample of water.
I would be more concerned why your tank is still showing ammonia.
Plants and Nitrifying bacteria ought to keep it at 0 ppm.
Other sources of ammonia:
Chloramines in the tap water. Ammonia in the water, other than from chloramines.
Dead animal in the tank. Other stuff decomposing.
More food added to the tank.
ADA soils and some top soils have problems with ammonia for about a month. After that there is much less ammonia and the bacteria and plants can handle it.
Something killing the nitrifying bacteria. Antibiotics, very low GH and KH, low pH, Washing the media with chlorinated water. (Bacteria live on ALL the media, not just the biomedia).
I would be more concerned why your tank is still showing ammonia.
Plants and Nitrifying bacteria ought to keep it at 0 ppm.
Other sources of ammonia:
Chloramines in the tap water. Ammonia in the water, other than from chloramines.
Dead animal in the tank. Other stuff decomposing.
More food added to the tank.
ADA soils and some top soils have problems with ammonia for about a month. After that there is much less ammonia and the bacteria and plants can handle it.
Something killing the nitrifying bacteria. Antibiotics, very low GH and KH, low pH, Washing the media with chlorinated water. (Bacteria live on ALL the media, not just the biomedia).
Is your ammonia kit testing for all ammonia or both types of ammonia? There are two types of ammonia. One is harmful and the other is harmless. There are different kits out there to test both of these types of ammonia seperately. The basic API Test Kit tests for both ammonia. The most dangerous ammonia is NH3 while the least dangerous is NH4+ (aka ammonium). Ammonium converst into Ammonia more frequently if your PH is above 7. So if your test kit tests for both types of ammonia, that is why your showing the amount of ammonia that you are. You can either buy a test kit that tests for both seperately or you can go on your way. Hope this helps!im still puzzled by my ammonia.
ok, I went and got a API test kit.
ammonia reading looked very close to 0ppm but it didnt look like .25ppm
ph 6.6
nitrite 0
nitrate between 10-20ppm
Now im stumped. Its like my tank is still cycling after almost a year.
This test kit was nh3 nh4
ammonia reading looked very close to 0ppm but it didnt look like .25ppm
ph 6.6
nitrite 0
nitrate between 10-20ppm
Now im stumped. Its like my tank is still cycling after almost a year.
This test kit was nh3 nh4
where do you live? i want soft water!
1 - 20 of 37 Posts
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