# whats next!



## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

Now that my water parameters are perfect! What next? Do I still change the water? How often and how much water do I change? 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, 0 ammonia.


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## Rohkey (Apr 25, 2011)

We need more information before we can help you. How big is the tank, how many/what kind of fish do you have, is it cycled or uncycled, etc etc. If it's cycled and there are fish and such, you probably should have some nitrates present.

Edit: Just saw your other post. You'll probably want to do a 15-25% water change once or so a week, but that's about it. Test the water every week beforehand to ensure that the ammonia/nitrites are negligible and the nitrates are under 20-30 ppm or so. If they aren't you'll want to do maybe 2-3 water changes a week until they are, but as long as they are within this range then one small change a week should suffice.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

*i/a*

I was going to give the same advice. As long as the Ammonia is 0, the Nitrites are 0 and the Nitrates are below 20-30 ppm you are good to go. 

The 15-25% weekly water changes are fine. (You don't want to not do them and then get an ammonia spike or something... that would be bad).

I can't figure out why you have 0 Nitrates though.... that one stumps me.... :fish9: Usually they should be somewhat present (under 20-30 ppm).... you must have the cleanest fish alive!

Have you lost any fish at all?


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

holly12 said:


> *i/a*
> 
> I was going to give the same advice. As long as the Ammonia is 0, the Nitrites are 0 and the Nitrates are below 20-30 ppm you are good to go.
> 
> ...


Really, hmm that's wierd I guess. About the nitrates. I tested and it comes up 0. I was changing the water about every 2 to 3 days for a while. So your saying it should have some nitrates? :huh:


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Usually. The fish make ammonia, the ammonia is converted into Nitrites (making your ammonia 0), the Nitrites are converted into Nitrates (making your Nitrites 0), then you are left with the Nitrates, and you get rid of most of them with the water changes. So, as long as the Nitrate levels are below 20-30 ppm, you are good. It's just odd that you have none.... could be because you were changing the water every other day, getting rid of them, but I'd still think you would have a trace amount. 

You've had the tank for 3 months.... so it's cycled..... and you aren't losing any fish.... so I think you're ok. If you are going to start doing water changes once a week instead of every other day, try testing then (before you change the water) and see if any Nitrates have built up.

I don't remember if you said or not - is your tank heavily planted? I've heard that heavily planted tank have really reduced Nitrates.

Keep us posted - I'm really curious to know why you have no Nitrates.


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

holly12 said:


> Usually. The fish make ammonia, the ammonia is converted into Nitrites (making your ammonia 0), the Nitrites are converted into Nitrates (making your Nitrites 0), then you are left with the Nitrates, and you get rid of most of them with the water changes. So, as long as the Nitrate levels are below 20-30 ppm, you are good. It's just odd that you have none.... could be because you were changing the water every other day, getting rid of them, but I'd still think you would have a trace amount.
> 
> You've had the tank for 3 months.... so it's cycled..... and you aren't losing any fish.... so I think you're ok. If you are going to start doing water changes once a week instead of every other day, try testing then (before you change the water) and see if any Nitrates have built up.
> 
> ...


I wonder if it could be because I am running a uv sterilizer? "The Green Killing Machine"?


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Maybe.... I've never used (or really heard of) a UV sterilizer. I'm assuming it's to kill algae? Is it a type of light, or chemical?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

UV will not affect nitrates. Which type of tests do you have? Liquid type or strips? If liquid type, I'd double-check the instructions again and make sure you are following to the tee. Deviate just the slightest and the result will be wrong. I assume you have fish in this tank and it is cycled?


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> UV will not affect nitrates. Which type of tests do you have? Liquid type or strips? If liquid type, I'd double-check the instructions again and make sure you are following to the tee. Deviate just the slightest and the result will be wrong. I assume you have fish in this tank and it is cycled?


Yes I have the Api liquid test kit, and tested it again today, its still looks like 0. I also have the test strips, I dipped one of those in there too ....it showed a slight trace of nitrates. Yes it should be cycled its been running for about 6 weeks now. I had a big ammonia spike , then nitrites and nitrates, Then acouple days ago it all tested 0, 0 , 0. using the same test kit. I lost 2 fish today, no symptons at all. they were swimming around and then the next thing I know, they were floating. The other fish seems to be ok, no one else has died in the last 5 or 6 hours.


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## tulip55555 (May 7, 2011)

I saw a post on another forum-it was a response to a question about the nitrate test from a representative of API. They said that if the 2nd bottle isn't shaken VERY WELL something in the bottle can solidify, which will result in a false low reading. You should tap the bottle on a hard surface and shake vigorously for at least 1 minute. It was also noted that if you let the test sit for longer than 5 minutes it will give a false high reading.


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## Rohkey (Apr 25, 2011)

tulip55555 said:


> I saw a post on another forum-it was a response to a question about the nitrate test from a representative of API. They said that if the 2nd bottle isn't shaken VERY WELL something in the bottle can solidify, which will result in a false low reading. You should tap the bottle on a hard surface and shake vigorously for at least 1 minute. It was also noted that if you let the test sit for longer than 5 minutes it will give a false high reading.


Exactly. You have to really shake the hell out of the #2 bottle, bang it on stuff and shake it for 2-3 mins. You should have trace amounts of nitrate. If you have a lot of plants that could be the cause of having no nitrates as they consume both ammonia and nitrate for their nitrogen source. Nitrates aren't really toxic to fish under the 50 ppm mark and even then are only toxic if exposed for a long duration, such as two weeks.


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

Rohkey said:


> Exactly. You have to really shake the hell out of the #2 bottle, bang it on stuff and shake it for 2-3 mins. You should have trace amounts of nitrate. If you have a lot of plants that could be the cause of having no nitrates as they consume both ammonia and nitrate for their nitrogen source. Nitrates aren't really toxic to fish under the 50 ppm mark and even then are only toxic if exposed for a long duration, such as two weeks.


Yeah, I read that on here some where too, about shaking the "bejezzus" out of it, lol! So i shook it and beat on it and and even set timers for the test. haha! But all in all, I'm ok ...as long as no ammonia or nitrites come back. My fish are all doing very well today! Thanks for all the comments!


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

benitahigg said:


> Yeah, I read that on here some where too, about shaking the "bejezzus" out of it, lol! So i shook it and beat on it and and even set timers for the test. haha! But all in all, I'm ok ...as long as no ammonia or nitrites come back. My fish are all doing very well today! Thanks for all the comments!


Eventually I would like to see if I can get some good photo's taken, so I can show everyone my tanks! haha!*pc I love my fish! <3


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## plecosrawesome (Mar 1, 2011)

Rohkey said:


> Exactly. You have to really shake the hell out of the #2 bottle, bang it on stuff and shake it for 2-3 mins. You should have trace amounts of nitrate. If you have a lot of plants that could be the cause of having no nitrates as they consume both ammonia and nitrate for their nitrogen source. Nitrates aren't really toxic to fish under the 50 ppm mark and even then are only toxic if exposed for a long duration, such as two weeks.


soo should i do this with my amonia test bottle #2 because i can never seem to ever be at 0 ammonia and my fish do fine, havent lost one in the 3 or 4months it been up... i guess maybe a false reading?


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## Rohkey (Apr 25, 2011)

plecosrawesome said:


> soo should i do this with my amonia test bottle #2 because i can never seem to ever be at 0 ammonia and my fish do fine, havent lost one in the 3 or 4months it been up... i guess maybe a false reading?


I don't think so. The ammonia bottle #2 doesn't need to be shaken at all to my knowledge. The reason the nitrate bottle #2 needs to be is because one of the components in it wants to solidify and if it isn't mixed properly then the reading will probably be lower than the actual amount of nitrates, but this never causes a false-high (false-highs can happen if you leave the test tube out for too long before reading the results).

Also know that a lot of tap water has ammonia in it (often in the form of chloramine which is a chlorine/ammonia bond) that gets converted to ammonium when you use a water conditioner. Ammonium is harmless to fish but will still be detected as ammonia with the test kit. So when you do water changes you're adding ammonia to the water, just in a harmless form that will get consumed by the filter before it turns back into toxic ammonia. This could be the cause of the readings. If you want to know for sure, test some distilled/RO water that definitely should have 0 ammonia/ammonium.

My tank is never at 0 ammonia either. Usually (using the API test) the test tube is slight shade of green indicating a little less than .25 ppm, and my fish have never shown signs of ammonia poisoning (I've had problems with them dying, but not from ammonia poisoning I don't believe lol).


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

A way to test and see if your ammonia test is reading false readings or not is to stop feeding for 5-7 days and then test at the end. If it reads zero, you're probably feeding too much or you're pushing your bio-load. 

Quite a while back I used to get the same thing on two of my tanks (when I only had two up and running) and thought it had to be a false reading. I added more plants, a lot more nutrient gobbing plants, and it went away and hasn't come back since. The plants that were in there weren't enough and I found I was overfeeding slightly.


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> A way to test and see if your ammonia test is reading false readings or not is to stop feeding for 5-7 days and then test at the end. If it reads zero, you're probably feeding too much or you're pushing your bio-load.
> 
> Quite a while back I used to get the same thing on two of my tanks (when I only had two up and running) and thought it had to be a false reading. I added more plants, a lot more nutrient gobbing plants, and it went away and hasn't come back since. The plants that were in there weren't enough and I found I was overfeeding slightly.


ok, another question, I have a Fluval canister filter on my 60 gallon, it has a very strong current. The water is always moving around like crazy, strong currents. Would it hurt the water quality if I turn it down so so much water is not passing through it so fast. The fish swim by it and it pushes them to the other side of the tank. It's a lot of movement!


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

It shouldn't hurt to cut it back a little. Which model?


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> It shouldn't hurt to cut it back a little. Which model?


I'm at work right now but I'm thinking it's a 306 or 406, I will check when i get home.....Ty!


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

ok I did water test today, 0 Ammonia, 5.0 ppm or higher Nitrite (its dark purple) , and 10 ppm Nitrate. I think the Nitrite is very bad. So I did about 30% water change with "Top Fin" water conditioner in each bucket of new water I put into the tank, then to also help to get the Nitrites down I treated the whole tank with a dose of "Seachem Prime". I will be doing another water test in about an hour to see how the parameters are doing now. I was just thinking the last time I did the water change this way, it was reading, 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrites and 0 Nitrates. So now I am wondering, Could it be the "Seachem Prime" that some of us are putting into our tanks to treat the water that is causing the 0 readings? Hmmmmm................because "Seachem Prime" actually says on the bottle that it does remove ammonia, Chloine, Chloramine and Detoxifies Nitrite and Nitrate. *c/p*


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

It doesn't remove it, but does make it non-toxic. You should do 50% daily water changes until the nitrites are at 1 or below.


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

ok ! Thank You!


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