Amnagrla

I've had my tank for 4 months now. I lost a lot of fish at the beginning because my LFS didn't tell me about the cycle.. etc. I didn't buy a test kit until 3-4 weeks in. So I kept looking for signs of the cycle but I must have missed it...

Up until about 1 week ago, these are the results I would get:

nitrate: 0 -I would
nitrite: 0 do a water change
pH: 7.6-7.8 to take care of
ammonia: anywhere from 0-1 the ammonia.

Last week, here are the results:

nitrate: 5 -First sign of nitrate ever...
nitrite: 0 -water change
pH: 7.6-7.8 to take care of
ammonia: anywhere from 0-.25 the ammonia & nitrate.

Today, this is what I got:

nitrate: 0.25 -First sign of nitrate ever
nitrite: 5 -will do water change right now
pH: 6.6 -did a w.c. yesterday and
ammonia: .25 the day before.


Does this seem right to you? Aren't you supposed to get nitrite before nitrate??

capekate

Im thinking that if you had your tank up and runnng for 4 months you have already gone thru a cycle. Your test results from "last week" show a cycled tank, even tho you had some ammonia. This can just be from it needing a water change. How often are you doing water changes and how much each time? Did you do something different between 'last week" and 'this week"'s readings? Did you add new filter media? It could be going through a mini cycle at this point for some reason. New fish to the tank? changing out filter media? I see that you wrote you were going to do a water change after you got that reading. Have you taken any new test readings today yet?
While I cycled tanks, either fishless or with fish I always showed nitrates first then nitrite.
How are your fish doing?
~ kate

Amnagrla

haha okay. Here we go.
I normally do a w.c. every sunday... 25-30%. I rinse the filter in tank water and vacuum the gravel, too.
The difference between last week and this week is on Monday I got 2 new otos, 1 died overnight, then I bought 2 more. I chalked the 1 death to the frailty of otos. The ammonia on that day in the morning when I found the dead oto was .25 (I did a water change the day before.. and then after he died).
My fish are all doing fine at the moment. I did a w.c. about half an hour ago, I'm going to wait another 30 minutes before doing a test so let everything settle.

Amnagrla

Okay... just re-did the test.

Looks like everything is still high! I don't have time to do ANOTHER w.c. today, but I'll do it tonight when I get home from work.

nitrate: 5.0
nitrite: 0-0.25 (somewhere in between)
pH: 6.6
ammonia: .25

I'm really surprised. I treat with prime, too. I thought the ammonia would be all down by now.. I'll test when I'm home from work and see what happens then.

capekate

The prime will help to bind up the ammonia, but you would still be showing a ammonia reading.And with that low a PH in your tank water, the ammonia is not a issue at all at those readings. The nitrate level you are showing at 5 is not bad at all and shouldnt cause any problems with your fish. The thing that Im wondering about is having a ammonia AND nitrite reading, which in most cases would show a tank that is still cycling. Im wondering if maybe you shouldnt be rinsing out your filter media every week. Its really not necessary to do that often. Let that beneficial bacteria keep growing on the filter media. Good luck with your fish, I also have otos .. they are such kewl lil fish!
~ kate

Luniyn

Nah that's not high at all, especially with a pH that low. The Prime probably doesn't even have any toxic ammonia in there to bind up. If you can keep them around that level while you are dealing with this very extended cycle you are having to go through, then you should be fine. Well at least with any other fish you have in there. Unfortunately the Oto's are extremely sensitive to water that isn't almost perfect, however, if they live for more then a month the general experience is that they are hardy enough to last a while. Just keep a close eye on the levels and I wish you the best of luck!