Author Topic: Cloudy (Read 10272 times) 28 replies

Lellynelly · « **Reply #20 on:** November 15, 2016, 07:25:41 PM »

thanks Sue. I had a media swap at the weekend, and 'hoovered' up the fungus while I was at it..
My readings according to a simple test strip are as follows:
Nitrate 10, nitrite 0, GH 21, KH 20, PH 8.4, Cl 0.
these are the same readings I got 10 days ago.

Can I add plants and fish yet? My 2 angels, and 1 torpedo, are still stuck in a 50L tank and the sooner I get them out of there the better I would think.
Don't want to make them ill though

Sue · « **Reply #21 on:** November 15, 2016, 07:37:58 PM »

The nitrite is OK but without an ammonia reading it is impossible to say if the tank is ready yet.

I know test strips are not terribly accurate and members on here report that GH is one of the least accurate but the GH from your test strip at 21 is very high for angelfish.
Can I suggest you look for your water hardness on your water company's website - that will be more accurate than the strips.

Lellynelly · « **Reply #22 on:** November 15, 2016, 07:43:05 PM »

Quote from: Sue on November 15, 2016, 07:37:58 PM

The nitrite is OK but without an ammonia reading it is impossible to say if the tank is ready yet.

I know test strips are not terribly accurate and members on here report that GH is one of the least accurate but the GH from your test strip at 21 is very high for angelfish.
Can I suggest you look for your water hardness on your water company's website - that will be more accurate than the strips.

I got the same when I took a sample to the aquarist at the weekend. This is Norfolk UK, the water is exceptionally hard here. the aquarist did point out that any fish I have bought locally would be used to hard water anyway so not to worry

Sue · « **Reply #23 on:** November 15, 2016, 07:48:48 PM »

Even tank bred fish might suffer if the water is too hard for them, so keep an eye out for any problems.

Have you been adding ammonia to cycle the tank? If so, how much have you been adding? And what is the ammonia reading now? It could be that you haven't grown enough ammonia eaters to make any nitrite yet, which is why nitrite is zero.
The tank will only be ready for fish when you add 3 ppm ammonia and have zero ammonia and zero nitrite 24 hours later.

Lellynelly · « **Reply #24 on:** November 15, 2016, 07:53:00 PM »

Quote from: Sue on November 15, 2016, 07:48:48 PM

Quote from: Lellynelly on November 15, 2016, 07:43:05 PM
Quote from: Sue on November 15, 2016, 07:37:58 PM
The nitrite is OK but without an ammonia reading it is impossible to say if the tank is ready yet.

I know test strips are not terribly accurate and members on here report that GH is one of the least accurate but the GH from your test strip at 21 is very high for angelfish.
Can I suggest you look for your water hardness on your water company's website - that will be more accurate than the strips.
I got the same when I took a sample to the aquarist at the weekend. This is Norfolk UK, the water is exceptionally hard here. the aquarist did point out that any fish I have bought locally would be used to hard water anyway so not to worry

Even tank bred fish might suffer if the water is too hard for them, so keep an eye out for any problems.

Have you been adding ammonia to cycle the tank? If so, how much have you been adding? And what is the ammonia reading now? It could be that you haven't grown enough ammonia eaters to make any nitrite yet, which is why nitrite is zero.
The tank will only be ready for fish when you add 3 ppm ammonia and have zero ammonia and zero nitrite 24 hours later.

I added a water conditioner and bio boost - which the aquarist said should be all I need. I added per instructions when setting up and when changing some water last week and when adding more after I lost some during my substrate clean. I have just put a strip in the angels current tank and it's showing nitrate at 250!!

Sue · « **Reply #25 on:** November 15, 2016, 08:03:09 PM »

That sounds like typical shop advice I'm afraid. And without a source of ammonia going into the tank, those bacteria that were alive in the bottle won't have anything to eat and so won't multiply. Too many shops say you should add a bottled bacteria product and put fish in the tank as the source of ammonia. Adding the ammonia from a bottle s much safer as that way you can see if there are enough bacteria without risking fish's health. And you need an ammonia tester as well.

That nitrate is high. A lot of experts now recommend keeping it below 20. Because it is so high it could be dangerous to do a big water change - when nitrate is high so are a lot of other things we can't measure, and these make the tank water very different from tap water so a large amount of tap water going in changes the tank water too much for fish to cope with.
The answer is daily 10% water changes till the nitrate comes down quite a bit, then increase to 20%. As the level in the tank gets nearer to the tap water nitrate, you can space the changes out more, but do bigger changes to keep nitrate low.

Lellynelly · « **Reply #26 on:** November 15, 2016, 08:05:18 PM »

I wondered whether the nitrates being so high in their current tank might make it adviseable to put them in the new one. - the lesser of 2 evils maybe?

Sue · « **Reply #27 on:** November 15, 2016, 08:14:16 PM »

The problem is that in the old tank they need lots of water changes to keep the nitrate down. If you move them to the new tank, they have to cope with ammonia and then nitrite which means even more water changes. At least the old tank is cycled. Ammonia burns their gills making it hard for them to take in oxygen. Nitrite binds to their blood the same way carbon monoxide does to us. This means the blood can't carry enough oxygen and the fish effectively suffocates causing nerve damage.
Of the two scenarios, keeping them in the old tank and doing lots of water changes is safer for the fish until you know you have grown enough bacteria in the new one. The only way you can be sure of this is by adding 3 ppm ammonia and testing the tank for ammonia and nitrite 24 hours later.

The big problem is that it is impossible to make strips that test for ammonia together with everything else but you can buy ammonia strips. It is something to do with the length of time the strip has to be immersed for being different for ammonia than all the others.

Lellynelly · « **Reply #28 on:** November 15, 2016, 08:19:29 PM »

Ok Sue Thank you. will do a water change now

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Cloudy

Cloudy

Author Topic: Cloudy (Read 10272 times) 28 replies

Lellynelly

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Lellynelly

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