Water chemistry improving in the days AFTER a wc?

[GrayLadyPat]

Hi, everyone...

I have a question, because I have not ever seen this with my community tank, and I am curious.

I did a pretty big wc the day before yesterday (around 70%,) and I was planning on doing one today. I tested my tank just now, and I saw the strangest thing. My pH was 6.5 (where it stays,) my ammonia was 0, my nitrites were 0, and my nitrates were negligible to the point of not showing up at all.

I have never had that happen before. In a mixed-species moderately planted community tank, the ammonia usually creeps up a bit between water changes, as do the nitrates, but it seems that my chemistry is actually better this morning than it was last night.

I still plan to do a wc this afternoon, but I am thinking that I will do a smaller one than I had planned... maybe 30% instead of the 50-60% I had originally planned for.

How is that possible? I even went to the store and bought a brand new master test kit and retested, and got the same results.

Thoughts?

[zimmjeff]

when you take the bad stuff out things get better, that's why we do water changes. Jeff

[GrayLadyPat]

when you take the bad stuff out things get better, that's why we do water changes. Jeff

Thanks! I didn't know water quality was that important (just kidding! Good answer, though. ;))

I was just wondering about it because even one day after a water change, the numbers don't usually get better, they get worse. I'd simply not seen it before, and thought it was curious.

[jimg]

sounds like you tank is starting to become established. did you ever test your tap water out of the tap or aging barrel? may also be possible you clean you tank too much and the filter/tank is not fully established or filter may not have enough surface area or tank may be too small for what you have in it.

[GrayLadyPat]

sounds like you tank is starting to become established. did you ever test your tap water out of the tap or aging barrel? may also be possible you clean you tank too much and the filter/tank is not fully established or filter may not have enough surface area or tank may be too small for what you have in it.

Actually, I am leaning toward tank establishment theory.

It used to be a simple community tank, and was well established. I gained 4 discus unexpectedly and have had to learn how to care for them on the fly. I think it may have shocked the tank to put 4 larg-ish fish (relatively speaking) into the mix at once, and that the chemistry is finally settling down.

As far as size, it's 60gal (US) minus the volume of a couple of decorations and various plants, so I am estimating about 57-58 actual gallons. I have 4 discus, a dozen cardinals, 4 red wag platies, 3 red-light tetras and 2 cories. My 3 ancient killies finally succumbed in the process of raising tank temp to discus levels. While I am sorry to see them go, they were at the end of their life cycle, and would have died soon whether adding discus or not.They were healthy when they died, it's just that advanced age and temperature didn't mix well...

In any case, thank you for your response. It does make sense now that you mentioned it.

Cheers!

[jimg]

Hope it all works out for you. good luck with them.

[Alfredo Llecha]

Check TDS/conductivity to find out where the nitrates had gone, TDS should be higher than that in your tap water. Also some water conditioners do make false readings if you used some in the aged water for your WCs.