adambowersva

I am still definitely a newbie to this, but learning as I go. My 10-gal tank is now about a month old and I finally got the $50 Master test kit and conducted several tests last night. Results are as follows:

Temp: 72deg
pH: 7.6
Ammon: .0175 (I think...the green was more emerald in color and didn't directly match any of the colors on the swatch and I guess this is calculated as 1.75ppm right?)
chlorine: .05
Nitrites: .01
Water Hardness...tests out as "Medium hard"

Tank Stock: 1 Cherry Barb, 1 Gold Barb, 1 Tiger Barb, 1 CAE
(All but tiger barb have been there since after the first week of tank start. Tiger has been in tank almost a week now. My education has improved since stocking the tank so if had to do over again the CAE and Tiger would have never made the tank, but I guess what's done is done...just wanna keep them all alive and monitor these two and will keep in tank as long as don't start causing major problems with other community member)

Also important to note I think is that I just changed the filter media over the weekend as well (don't know test results before change cause didn't have tests then). Filter is a Tetra 10 HOB I believe so there isn't room to leave old media in with new. So it's a fresh carbon filter replacing old one. Only thing that keeps some bacteria in filter unit is the black meshy type material filter that stays in without change (don't know what it's called)

The ammonia results I am really not too sure about since the color came out that way even after two seperate tests and seems to not directly match any of the colors on the swatch. However, I have noticed what I believe to be some slight color fade in the cherry and gold barbs (colors appear slightly duller to me which seems to be a potential sign of ammonia poisoning?). I now know that the tank wasn't properly cycled before stocking, but again...hindsight is 20/20. After receiving the test results as noted I conducted a 30% water change (even though 20% change was conducted on Saturday). I will also only feed them once a day till levels are in check.

Based on these results is there anything else I should do to aid this process and keep my guys healthy? Anything I'm doing wrong? Doing tests wrong?

Thanks for the help.

jdhef

Welcome to FishLore!

Changing the filter media will most likely cause a mini-cycle. It is recommended to keep the media in the filter until it literally starts falling apart. Of course the carbon isn't good for that long, but since carbon isn't necessary you can cut a slit in the filter and dump the carbon out. Then just clean out the filter media with used tank water when you do a waterchange.

Also, any time you have any ammonia or nitrites in the tank you should do daily 40%-50% water changes using "Prime" as your water conditioner until the ammonia and nitrite readings are zero. The Prime is important because it will detox the ammonia and nitrites for 24 hours, at which point you will be doing another water change

AlyeskaGirl

Welcome to fishlore!

What is your reading for nitrAtes? Also, you have a chlorine test & you show a reading? Chlorine is toxic to fish. What are you using for a water conditioner?

Why is your tank at 72? Thats a little cool for your tropical fish. 78 is the recommended temp. If you decide to turn it up, do it slowly as to not shock the fish.

Most of your beneficial bacteria lives on your filter media. You never just throw it away and stick in a new one. You stick the old one somewhere in the tank and let the new cartridge seed for 2 weeks before throwing out the old. That way you wont have the chance of a mini-cycle.

adambowersva

Wow, talk about a thread hijack there Kopeth .

Yeah I was a little concerned about changing out the full filter media without somewhere to just put the old one as well. Didn't think to leave in the tank alone. Was figuring that the bacteria in the substrate and in the floss would have hopefully been sufficient to avoid possibility of a mini-cycle...guess that may have been wrong?

As for the Chlorine reading...yeah that one surprised me. I have been using approx. 2ml of the chlorine/chloramine neutralizer with each water change so didn't expect any to be in there.

As for the temp...yeah I figured they should be a bit warmer as they are on the low end of the acceptable temp for these guys, but haven't gotten a heater just yet.

Any words on the possibility of my ammonia test having been wrong or read improperly? The green color of the test is a bit richer in shade than any of those on the swatch.

As for NitrAtes, for some reason the Red Sea Master Test Kit I got doesn't have tests for NitrAtes, just the nitrites.

Etcetera

Couldn't hurt to test it again. Either way, it sounds like the test is positive for ammonia and nitrite--which means you need to do a substantial water change. Prime is a good product, as has been suggested.

Too bad about the CAE. That's the sort of fish that's a little algae-eating cutie when it's young, but when it grows up it will try to EAT THE SLIME COAT OFF YOUR FISH. x_X What a terrible fish to sell to the public as a placid "algae eater"... You might consider a rehoming plan for when he gets bigger.