I'm starting up my 2nd tank a Fluval Chi. My first tank is a Fluval Spec 3. The first tank was fishless cycled and I'm running a fishless cycle on the Chi as well.
The new tank is only one week old and I dosed .95 ml of Ammonia from a 10% solution to give a desired 5 ppm of Ammonia. Use this calculator. I seeded the tank with some bio max from my daughter's Betta tank. I checked the numbers last night and was rather surprised.
Ammonia 0-Low (expected)
Nitrites High (expected)
Nitrates 160 ppm (max of test) (unexpected)
Sources of Nitrate:
Water:
My kids Betta tank is using the same water supply and shows around 5 - 10 ppm of Nitrates. The water supply shows 0 ppm out of the tap and I cut it with 50/50 with some RO/DI water from the store. The final hardness is about 9 drops of GH and KH.
Substrate:
This new tank is using Eco Complete, my kids tank is just plain blue gravel (don't judge me), and my spec is using FloraMax. If I had to pick something I'd guess it is this but I was of the assumption that Eco Complete didn't affect the cycling numbers.
Filters:
I've been playing hopscotch with filters on this tank. I had a Fluval C2 to start but it was too loud and now I'm using a Fluval U1. Still that would explain a high ammonia (new cycle) and not sky high Nitrates.
Driftwood:
Other than plants the only other organic source is the driftwood in the tank. It's all been boiled and tannins are pretty low to none.
Other:
Following a post I read someplace else (reddit I think). I attached some java moss to a little ceramic tile and wrapped it all in a net. Looks cool but perhaps the tile is leaching nitrates. The picture on my tank journal does not show them yet.
I'm going to run a large water change tonight and check a day later. Just wondering if anyone else has seen this happen before?
The new tank is only one week old and I dosed .95 ml of Ammonia from a 10% solution to give a desired 5 ppm of Ammonia. Use this calculator. I seeded the tank with some bio max from my daughter's Betta tank. I checked the numbers last night and was rather surprised.
Ammonia 0-Low (expected)
Nitrites High (expected)
Nitrates 160 ppm (max of test) (unexpected)
Sources of Nitrate:
Water:
My kids Betta tank is using the same water supply and shows around 5 - 10 ppm of Nitrates. The water supply shows 0 ppm out of the tap and I cut it with 50/50 with some RO/DI water from the store. The final hardness is about 9 drops of GH and KH.
Substrate:
This new tank is using Eco Complete, my kids tank is just plain blue gravel (don't judge me), and my spec is using FloraMax. If I had to pick something I'd guess it is this but I was of the assumption that Eco Complete didn't affect the cycling numbers.
Filters:
I've been playing hopscotch with filters on this tank. I had a Fluval C2 to start but it was too loud and now I'm using a Fluval U1. Still that would explain a high ammonia (new cycle) and not sky high Nitrates.
Driftwood:
Other than plants the only other organic source is the driftwood in the tank. It's all been boiled and tannins are pretty low to none.
Other:
Following a post I read someplace else (reddit I think). I attached some java moss to a little ceramic tile and wrapped it all in a net. Looks cool but perhaps the tile is leaching nitrates. The picture on my tank journal does not show them yet.
I'm going to run a large water change tonight and check a day later. Just wondering if anyone else has seen this happen before?