Water not great??

[asteve70]

Hi guys & gals, I'm having a bit of an issue with my water. I have a 65gal planted tank with 5 beautiful discus in there. I've had them for 8 days now and they seem to be happy finally. I did a 50% water change yesterday because the tests with API's liquid test showed the ammonia was around .025 to 0.50 ppms. I waited until today to do another test and the ammonia shows between .50 ppm and 1.00 ppm, the ph was 7.2, the nitrite was between .050 ppm and 1.00 ppm and the nitrate is 5.0 ppm. Any suggestions as to what could be wrong? Please help!!
Thanks
Steve
asteve70

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Steve,

I suspect your tank is having a mini-cycle from adding your discus eight days ago. Daily 50% water changes will help with that. It is also possible you are measuring a false positive on your ammonia. Do you use a de-chlorinator?

I also moved your thread to the beginner section of the forum.
Pat

[100fuegos]

Mini cycle. Your BB colony is not big enough for the bio load just added 8 days ago. Your bio filter needs time to catch up. In the man time help your fish with big daily water changes of at least 50 %.