Water chemistry.

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J

James Gil

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 26, 2009
87
0
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merseyside, england.
Hi guys. I'e had a tank set up (55 gal) and cycling for a while now. As i have no access to water chemistry test kits due to financial reasons, i took a sample of my water to my local pet superstore where they tested it for me. The results are as follows

PH 7.4 ( a little high for the fish i intend to introduce but i can fix that with bog wood and some plants)

Ammonia was at 0
Nitrate (n03) was at 0
Nitrite (n02) was also at 0

now my question is, should the nitrate and nitrite be reading 0?:confused: i dont think thats normal, im sure the nitrate has to be higher than that. What do u guys think?
 
I would think the nitrate would be reading something by now if the tank is really cycled. Have you been feeding the tank? If you have just been running the filter/filters without introducing something for the BB to feed on then you have not cycled the tank. How have you been doing your cycle?
 
Hi and thanks for the reply. Ive had the tank running empty for about a week now and ive just added some nutrafin 'cycle' a biological aquarium supplement which is suppose to add all the good and beneficial bacteria to my filter system. On the bottle it says 'allows immediate introduction of fish' after the dose of bacteria has been added to the tank. Personally i think thats crap as u can see from the lack of nitrate. Just wondering if its gonna be safe to introduce my severums into the tank.
 
I don't think your tank is properly cycled. If you added BB to the tank and then didn't have any ammonia for them to feed on then they didn't have a chance to get established in your filters and the tank. But that's just my opinion and someone else might have some other insight on this.
 
"Cycle" by Hagen doesn't work, it's another of those gimmicks that isn't worth your money. Do a search on this sight for "fishless cycling" and you'll find articles about cycling with ammonia. There's no way around it though-you'll HAVE to get your own test kit. No fishkeeper should be without their own test kit. Get the liquid test tube kit, not the paper strips. It's take a minimum of about 4 wks to cycle a tank (with or without fish so you might as well do it fishless.
 
I was going to post the link to "Cycling and You" but none of the links in it will open for me.
 
Thanks for the replys guys, im only asking as i really need to move my fish. I have a pair of gold severums at about 6-6/12 " in a 25 gal holding tank, which is obviously too small and a month longer in this tank seems a little long. Do you think i would be able to introduce the fish now as its cycling or would that be too dangerous? sorry for all the questions im a bit of a noob with water chemistry.
 
To speed up the cycling process... you should take the filter media in your holding tank and put it into the filter of your 55 gal. tank. that will help with the cycling.
 
twk1;3068642; said:
To speed up the cycling process... you should take the filter media in your holding tank and put it into the filter of your 55 gal. tank. that will help with the cycling.
Click to expand...

I agree, I always have good results using an established filter on my new tanks.
 
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