New tank test level results

[lowtech]

Just had a question about test results on the water on my new tank. My fish, along with 2 snalis, has been in the tank for about 5 days. I took some water level readings tonight and here are the results...

Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 5.0
Ph 6.8
Ammonia .50

...it is a 55 gallon tank and I used Proaquatics bacteria starter. There are also live plants in the tank and I have added leaf zone plant food to the water.

The test book mentions that some of these levels should be 0 and I am still knew so I was just looking for thoughts, direction or links to other threads.

Here is a pic...

 

[qumqats]

I took some water level readings tonight and here are the results...

Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 5.0
Ph 6.8
Ammonia .50

The fish in the tank produce waste in the form of ammonia.
This ammonia gets turned into nitRITE by one kind of bacteria.
This nitRITE gets turned into nitRATE by another kind of bacteria.
In a fully cycled tank your
ammonia
and
nitRITE
levels should be zero 0 because the biological filtration should be able to more then keep up with the bio load in the tank.

ammonia is very poisonous!
nitRITE is poisonous!
nitRATE is only slightly poisonous and only hurts the fish at high concentrations.

Your tank isn't fully cycled!
Don't add any more fish!
At some point you'll have to start doing water changes to keep the nitRATE levels down.

 

[guppy]

See if you can beg,borrow or steal some filter sludge from an established filter and add it to yours, the bacteria in your filter are not well established and those readings are not good. Do not add any more fish.
I, for one, do not trust the commercial bacterial starters. Your tank is an example why.

 

[repair]

See if you can beg,borrow or steal some filter sludge from an established filter and add it to yours, the bacteria in your filter are not well established and those readings are not good. Do not add any more fish.
I, for one, do not trust the commercial bacterial starters. Your tank is an example why.

I agree that most of them suck but I've had great sucess with - http://www.marineland.com/products/mllabs/ML_biospira.asp

 

[slammer]

I have used Bio-Spira with mixed results...I have gone back to cycling the ol' fashioned way...To our OP I would suggest the following...

Add no more fish at this time...

Do 10-15% water changes every other day to get the levels back down...

Get some filter media from an established system (a tank you trust!) and use it...

Good luck!

Slam

 

[joeytoe]

I typically keep a extra canister filter Simply for starting new tanks. got my 29 gal cycled in like 2 days.

 

[gasser]

I don't see any mention of a fishless cycle to get your tank started. Set your tank up. Put a raw shrimp in your tank in an accessable location and let it rot. Plenty of ammonia will be produced and the bacteria you want is ubiquitous in nature. they will start growing on their own. You can speed it up with seedings from established tanks as previously mentioned. Any source of ammonia will do, even out of a bottle. Now ammonia is toxic to the bacteria that reduce the nitrite to nitrate so you will see your ammonia drop long before you even start to see your nitrites drop. perform a second seeding once you see your ammonia drop to a lower level to start reducing those nitrites. Once you see everything start to drop then remove the shrimp. Once all you have is nitrates then just do a water change and add your fish.

this way, no fish has to endure the toxic effects of a new tank curing out.

Jeff