Ammonia, nitrate and nitrite readings

[jmf]

Hi

I have setup a new 4ft tank about a week ago with a Tidal 75 and sponge filter. I used a bag of media from my 5ft's canister filter with new sponges and matrix for the hob. On top of this I also used a seeded large intake sponge and some substrate from said 5ft tank.

This is how I have done all my tanks in the past without issue so didn't really give it a second thought. I decided to test the water today before a wc, unfortunately I got readings for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. I currently have 2 blood parrots and bristle-nose plecos in there. The only thing that happened was, we had a blackout for a couple of hours about 2 days after setup and it was very hot that day (in fact every day has been extreme ).

Anyway, whats my best course of action from here? Should I get some of that bacteria in a bottle?

Thanks

 

[MrsE88]

How high are the readings? If the nitrite is high I’d add salt to help protect the fish. I’d also add an ammonia binder and do water changes every other day.
This is what I did when I got overly excited and stock my tank before it was fully cycled.

 

[jmf]

How high are the readings? If the nitrite is high I’d add salt to help protect the fish. I’d also add an ammonia binder and do water changes every other day.
This is what I did when I got overly excited and stock my tank before it was fully cycled.

I tried 2 different ammonia test, API and Sera. API test was around .25 ppm where the Sera was 1ppm. I used Tetra EasyStrips and can't remember the numbers.

The reason why I used Sera as I went to a talk by the fish doctor (you can find him on youtube) and he said API tests are crap. Sera and JBL according to him are the best.

 

[Hendre]

Prime and stability from Seachem. As stated salt to help prevent nitrite toxicity, prime for ammonia and stability to seed the filter.

Also maybe reduce Feeding, that's the main imput of ammonia into a tank if I'm not mistaken? Drstrangelove

 

[MrsE88]

Hendre Forgot that^ I agree, stop feeding for now.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Hi

I have setup a new 4ft tank about a week ago with a Tidal 75 and sponge filter. I used a bag of media from my 5ft's canister filter with new sponges and matrix for the hob. On top of this I also used a seeded large intake sponge and some substrate from said 5ft tank.

This is how I have done all my tanks in the past without issue so didn't really give it a second thought. I decided to test the water today before a wc, unfortunately I got readings for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. I currently have 2 blood parrots and bristle-nose plecos in there. The only thing that happened was, we had a blackout for a couple of hours about 2 days after setup and it was very hot that day (in fact every day has been extreme ).

Anyway, whats my best course of action from here? Should I get some of that bacteria in a bottle?

Thanks

First, do a water change.

Second, retest.

Repeat until ammonia and nitrite are in acceptable ranges.

 

[jmf]

Would you guys suggest water changes daily?

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Would you guys suggest water changes daily?

Until your tests come back ok and your tank is cycled, sure.

 

[skjl47]

I got readings for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. I

hello; That you have a reading of nitrates is an indication there likely are some of the beneficial bacteria(bb) active. There are two main types of the bb. One takes up ammonia and converts it to nitrates. Another type takes up nitrites and converts it to the nitrates.
That you have some readings suggests that the population numbers of the two types are not yet large enough to take up all the ammonia and nitrites present as bio-load from the fish. In time this will get into balance as the bb population increases.

I agree with no feeding for a time as digestion of food and decay of excess food adds to the bio load.

Another area to check out is the accuracy of the tests being done. I use distilled water as a standard. Test the distilled water and the results should be zero for all three ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

distilled water is also useful for cleaning test kit vials.

lastly if the test kit checks out then test your source water.

 

[jmf]

Thanks for the replies. I got some stability, will test after dinner