My water parameters, can some explain..

[flyer1988]

Ok guys I got the master test kit from API, and would appreciate it if someone could give me thier opinion on what things I should fix/adjust.

Ph - 7.6
High Ph - 7.4
Ammonia - 0.5
Nitrite - 0.25
Nitrate - 5.0 or below since it was kinda light...

Ok, i was kinda confused with Ph and High Ph test, but im assuming that regular ph is for lower ph and high ph to test high ph, judging from what I got I suppose mine is around 7.5 or so Ph.

Ammonia - from what I know I should have it at 0 and did couple of days ago, but I started doing daily water changes and it went up to 0.5, could this be that I need more Biological filtration in order to balance the daily water changes im doing, by the way the tank has gravel and I do minimal gravel vacuum as I usually just go over whatever is at the top of the gravel.

Nitrite - I dont really know were I should have this, neither about Nitrate....

If anyone has any tips please let me know, for instance like how to lower ph or how to lower ammonia, anything is helpful.

[Jennie]

your ph is fine. Ammo/nitrites not so good. should read 0. are there discus in the tank. If so, you need to do a couple water changes per day to keep the ammo and nitrites in check

[flyer1988]

Yea, i got my discus in the tank.

The tank i got these reading from is a 40 gallon tank, how much water change would you suggest a day to lower them and how many times throughout the day?

[Jennie]

75% or more. You'll be surprised halfway through the day how fast it builds back up. 2x daily till bio is built up. Use prime as your conditioner

[flyer1988]

ok I'll go ahead and do that, any keep you posted on progress.

So basicly twice a day 75% water change rite?

[Jennie]

that's correct. ck nitrite and ammo before each change
ok I'll go ahead and do that, any keep you posted on progress.

So basicly twice a day 75% water change rite?

[flyer1988]

ok will do partner thanks a million, my fish and I, thank you.....:D

[PAR23]

What kind of filtration system do you have? I'm not sure but increasing your WC alone should not give you any ammonia/nitrites reading if your bio media is matured. It sounds like you are going through a mini cycle.

[SNap0283]

I had this happen to me a while back. Some of the bacteria column do live in the water, most but not all live on the fliter media. If you had fishless cycled and now do daily WC you might get a mini spike for a week or less while the bacteria you removed from the water is replaced with the necessary colony size in your filtration media. It could also happen if you drasticly increased for fish load in the tank recently.

If nothing has changed i would take a close look and see if you have decreased water flow through the filter or something alone those lines.

[Skip]

Flyer..
is this tap water?

the city may be putting in ammonia into the system.. but if you are using prime.. it will be non toxic.. BUT it will give a false postive in the api test kit..

[aalbina]

Given a pH of 7.5 most of your ammonia reading is going to be non-toxic. Are you using Prime? If so you'll have to get a Seachem test kit for ammonia - API test kits will read total ammonia (NH3 and NH4+) toxic and non-toxic. Prime will convert the toxic to non-toxic and a Seachem test kit will test toxic ammonia.

Don't worry about pH - as long as it's stable. Do you age your water?

Adam

[flyer1988]

ok guys sorry for the late reply, but i have been doing daily water changes of 60 percent to 70 percent as discover lover suggested, and doing this 3 days straight, today i tested out my parameters again with API kit, and it shoews that my nitrite increased from 0.25 to 0.5, and everything else is still the same same ammonia level and same nitrate level.

My filtration is a Marineland Penguin series 200b filter, and my current tank is a 37 gallon marineland tank.

I did do a fishless cycle but that was about 2 months and half and have had the fish in for about 1 and half month already, in addition i did manage to have a no ammonia at early stages, but since I began doing frequent water changes ammonia has gone a bit up.

As for my water, I use tap water with Aquasafe from the tetra company, I would love to use prime, but my local fish supplier dont carry any fancy brands, its a fairly small place compared to some other places. I purchased my discus at Houston over at gulfcoastdiscus, and visited citypets and I was like WOW!!! this is aquarium hobbiest paradise, I was amazed with all the products I felt i needed a whole day to go over all the things. Sorry i got a bit carried away.

In short guys, I still believe that my filtration is colonizing very few bacteria, I have nice piece of mopani wood in there which should help on the bacteria colonization, but I think with the frequent waterchanges it just aint enough, I have a spare Whiper filter tetra, might not be the best but its a spare and might as well put it at use, so i might get it up an running this weekend.

Well guys, In addition I am going to post some pictures, I hope you like them and enjoy them. In short, im not anywhere new the same knowledge that you all might have but I do see some progress non the less since I purchased them... Hope you all enjoy....

[flyer1988]

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[flyer1988]

I know the pictures show the fish crowded, but Im striving for a nice tank over 55 gallon hopefully this comming month, will be going to houston since I can get anything over 55 gallon were im at.

By the way what is your opinion on the coloration of the PB's, im trying to get them to show a thier reds, I feed at least 4 times a week Tetrabits and at the moment the fish are around 3.5 inch to 4 inches the biggest. Shouldnt I see more coloration at this point? or do you all think this is an average result. Im feeding them Ocean nutricion discus flakes, Ocean nutricion reef flakes, formula one pellets ocean nnutricion as well, and ocean nutricion formula two, and freeze dried blackworms, and of course tetra bits, and once a week bloodworms, With about 4-5 varied servings through the day and at the end of the day 50-70 waterchange. any tips are welcome.

I want to thank you all for your share of knowledge, in hopes to one day share that of which you all have teached.

[PAR23]

Nice set up......and the fish look healthy to me. They will likely gain more color as they continue to grow.

As for the ammonia and nitrite spike, it sounds like you are going through a mini cycle. Did you check your source water for ammonia?
Keep up with the WC until they read zero. May also consider adding a sponge filter as an added bio bed since the tank does look somewhat crowded.

HTH

[flyer1988]

Ok i just checked the tap water Ammonia, and it has a 2.0ppm

Yeah, its overcrowded specially with cories just love emm. I managed to conviced my girl on the tank and she agreed, hehe it was hard to convice her. Im just waiting for blackfriday see if maybe I can get myself a steal, and in addition I will get some days off at work and college so that should be perfect.

[PAR23]

Ok i just checked the tap water Ammonia, and it has a 2.0ppm


So that's where your ammonia is coming from. You have 2 options that I can see. Continue with your WC until your bio has time to catch up or set up a storage barrel with a matured bio filter in it so that it can start the nitrification process.

HTH

[flyer1988]

Well, I will most probably continue with the water changes, and possible look at a sponge to house some more bacteria. I will keep you posted on progress. thank you for your quick replies and helpful tips.

[Eddie]

Just use Safe or Prime, which will convert the ammonia to ammonium and the nitrifying bacteria will still build.

Eddie

[Hopeful]

I use stability from seachem to kick start QT tanks. I have always had good luck using it.