Stacie H.

I realized (with the help of this group! ) that my tank was never properly cycled. I now have a sensible water testing kit. I added Bio-Spira on Monday, emptying more than half of my tank and adding new water with the Bio-Spria, but my levels have not changed. Is this normal after 4 days?

Tuesday readings:

ammonia 0 PPM
nitrate 0 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
pH 7.6


Today's (Thursday) readings

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
pH 7.6

Actually, the nitrate was the hardest to determine. The yellow *could* have been a tiny bit darker than the 0 ppm color on the card, but was no where near the 5.0 color.

There is quite a bit of haze in the tank, but most of it seems to be film on the inside of the glass. I haven't lost any fish since I've added the Bio-Spira.

Any thoughts? Gunnie?

Gunnie

Stacie,
Tell me again the size of your tank, and what fish you have in it. I'm a little perplexed about the zero or near zero nitrates. Do you have a lot of live plants in the tank?

Stacie H.

All plastic plants. I have one rubbermouth pleco, one flame tetra, 9 neons, and 4 rosy tetras.

Stacie H.

Sorry! I forgot to mention...tank is 36 gallons.

Gunnie

Very strange. Sounds like a possible bacterial bloom. Just sit tight. As long as the ammonia and nitrites aren't showing up, I'd do nothing.

Stacie H.

Thanks.

You'd mentioned that I should not do any water changes for a week. However, I do need to rinse out my filter media again; the water seems to be going around the filters instead of through them. Would it hurt to take out enough water to do this and if so, then replace w/ clean water? Or should I wait a bit more?

Gunnie

Go ahead and clean your filter with old tank water and then top it off.

Stacie H.

Still no nitrates....sigh. And the water is still pretty hazy. Can I add anti-algae stuff...I haven't lately.

I'm pretty frustrated, as tomorrow will be 2 weeks. Maybe the Bio Spira was bad? It did come out of a fridge, but wasn't all that cold to the touch. Should I try some more?

fish_r_friend

I don't sugest using chemicals they can do more harm than good

Stacie H.

Ooops...tomorrow will be one week, not two. Also, I forgot to mention, my readings are the same as mentioned before....have not changed at all. I'm starting to wonder if I'm reading the results incorrectly, but I had my husband look at them too, and he's seeing what I'm seeing.

atmmachine816

If your using carbon remove it as it will remove the chemicals you put in the tank if you want them to work that is and get your money's worth.