Harlequin Rasbora - Impulse Buy, Now I Am Worried

[Ebreus]

Hey,
Sorry I've been away for a while. Just bought some plants for my shrimp tank and my LFS talked me into trying some Rasbora after mentioning my problems with keeping guppies alive. I've just finished acclimating them and got a dreadful feeling so I tested the water and now I'm even more worried about them.

I don't really trust my color vision anymore after the guppies but if I'm not mistaken this reads that the PH is horribly wrong for them and there's substantially more ammonia in the tank than there should be.
Test-tubes are using the API drop test in order: PH, High-Range PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate


It's unfortunately too late in the night for me to go back out today but I could take them back or get something to try and adjust the perimeters tomorrow. How bad a mistake have I made? I hope I haven't killed them.

 

[Cue]

50% water change now. Don’t worry about PH, just ammonia and nitrites for now. Hopefully somone else with more knowledge will chime in soon.

 

[Forgetfullfishy]

Do a 50% water change and another 50% water change after 5h to lower the ammonia level down. Nowadays, fish actually are fine with quite a wide range of ph so don’t worry about that now.

 

[86 ssinit]

Well from the colors in the vials I’m guessing you went with half amount tests? Also not sure which direction you’re going in. The tests look all out of order.

 

[Ebreus]

Well from the colors in the vials I’m guessing you went with half amount tests? Also not sure which direction you’re going in. The tests look all out of order.

They're left-to-right in the order I listed. The last two might be reversed.

50% water change now. Don’t worry about PH, just ammonia and nitrites for now. Hopefully somone else with more knowledge will chime in soon.

Alright, got water leaving the tank now. Thank you.

Do a 50% water change and another 50% water change after 5h to lower the ammonia level down. Nowadays, fish actually are fine with quite a wide range of ph so don’t worry about that now.

How important is this timeframe? I can try to be as close as possible but I don't think my housemates will let me change the water again at 4 in the morning.

 

[86 ssinit]

Ok this is my. Color chart and the vial on the left needs to be filled with tank water up to the line. Then you add the drops and shake. Very hard to tell what I’m looking at the first vial could be off the chart on the ph but the second is red and looks like a nitrate reading. Ammonia may be right order but wrong amount mixed. The last 2 could be right both showing zero or the last vial could be ammonia or ph. Why is there only a half inch of liquid in each vial?

 

[Ebreus]

View attachment 869246Ok this is my. Color chart and the vial on the left needs to be filled with tank water up to the line. Then you add the drops and shake. Very hard to tell what I’m looking at the first vial could be off the chart on the ph but the second is red and looks like a nitrate reading. Ammonia may be right order but wrong amount mixed. The last 2 could be right both showing zero or the last vial could be ammonia or ph. Why is there only a half inch of liquid in each vial?

These test-tubes are a lot larger than the ones that came with the kit. The ones that came with the kit broke over time. I use a syringe to measure for these and it's 5ml, or as close as I could get with as anxious as I was, in each tube.
Update: First water change complete and my housemates said they won't kill me for working on the tank in the early morning.

 

[86 ssinit]

What type of Shrimp do you have? Most shrimp would die with that high ammonia. Is there something dead in the tank?

 

[Ebreus]

What type of Shrimp do you have? Most shrimp would die with that high ammonia. Is there something dead in the tank?

Amano Shrimp, there's nothing noticably dead in the tank. I've noticed the shrimp will kill & eat members of the snail population. I don't think they'd have left one to rot but that would be the only thing I can think of that could be dead in there.
I misplaced my instructions for the API kit, I put the # of drops listed on the bottles in, shook, then waited a few minutes before taking that picture. Have I done something incorrectly?
The kit is pretty old, about as old as my account here.

 

[86 ssinit]

No the kit doesn’t expire. Those chemicals last for ever. But an expiration date does help sell product.
Now that you’ve done the water changes has the ammonia gone down? Also check your tap for ammonia and both ph and high ph.

 

[FishDin]

Keep the ammonia and nitrite each below 0.5ppm with water changes.

Your description of how your testing is correct for the ammonia and nitrite. For nitrates it's a bit more involved and your description would be wrong.

The nitrate tests do expire.

My Amanos never killed snails. Are you sure they are not just eating snails that were already dead?

 

[86 ssinit]

I’ve got test kits from 2003 and earlier. Nitrate test comes out the same for all of them. Even if you didn’t bang the heck out of the second vial and now are banging it the test is the same. I bought a new kit in 19 because of the expiration dates. It tests the same. Expiration dates appeared in the early 2000s to sell product. Chemicals can last for many years (hundreds if not thousands) there chemicals.
Notice no nitrate test. Even in 2003 nobody carried about nitrates. The only people who had problems were people who never changed water.

 

[Ebreus]

I've looked up the instructions for the API kit and made sure to test properly today, rather than doing it from memory yesterday. Here are the results;
Again from left-to-right: PH, High-Range PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate
I'm certain they're in this order this time.



Mistakes made testing yesterday:
Shook all tests except PH too lightly
Ammonia: Added drops #1, shook, then added drops #2, shook again
Nitrate: Didn't shake #2, didn't shake the test for anywhere near long enough

If I'm not mistaken these results read:
PH: High see High Range test
High Range PH: 7.8-8.0
Ammonia: 0-0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

However as I've said in the initial post I don't trust my color vision with the lives of my fish.

Keep the ammonia and nitrite each below 0.5ppm with water changes.

Your description of how your testing is correct for the ammonia and nitrite. For nitrates it's a bit more involved and your description would be wrong.

The nitrate tests do expire.

My Amanos never killed snails. Are you sure they are not just eating snails that were already dead?

I'm not sure. I watched one pull a snail off the wall of the tank and fuss with it. I assumed it was a predatory behavior.

 

[FishDin]

I’ve got test kits from 2003 and earlier. Nitrate test comes out the same for all of them. Even if you didn’t bang the heck out of the second vial and now are banging it the test is the same. I bought a new kit in 19 because of the expiration dates. It tests the same. Expiration dates appeared in the early 2000s to sell product. Chemicals can last for many years (hundreds if not thousands) there chemicals.
View attachment 869257Notice no nitrate test. Even in 2003 nobody carried about nitrates. The only people who had problems were people who never changed water.

I can only speak from my experience. Nitrate test was testing zero nitrates, so I congratulated myself for doing a great job. The tank was moderately planted and heavily stocked. I thought I had found the "sweet spot" where my plants were consuming all the nitrates. Then fish started dying. I couldn't figure it out. Someone suggested that it could be the test solution. In desparation I bought a new nitrate test. The nitrates were off the chats. Retested with old nitrate test. Still zero.

 

[86 ssinit]

May have been bag from new. Never added the chemical to the mix. How high was the nitrate with the second test.

I've looked up the instructions for the API kit and made sure to test properly today, rather than doing it from memory yesterday. Here are the results;
Again from left-to-right: PH, High-Range PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate
I'm certain they're in this order this time.

View attachment 869284

Mistakes made testing yesterday:
Shook all tests except PH too lightly
Ammonia: Added drops #1, shook, then added drops #2, shook again
Nitrate: Didn't shake #2, didn't shake the test for anywhere near long enough

If I'm not mistaken these results read:
PH: High see High Range test
High Range PH: 7.8-8.0
Ammonia: 0-0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

However as I've said in the initial post I don't trust my color vision with the lives of my fish.

I'm not sure. I watched one pull a snail off the wall of the tank and fuss with it. I assumed it was a predatory behavior.

Tests are much better now and the tank look perfect. How many 50% wc did you do?

I’m with you on the color guessing. I’ve stopped I put the vial right on top of the chart. This takes away the guessing. If you can see a color on the color chart through the vial that’s not it. It’s the last color you can’t see through. What’s funny is 90% of the test are plain as day but the nitrate test is just a guessing game testing their way. Reason is they are just trying to sell product. If you change 50% water weekly nitrates just don’t matter. That’s 20ppm. Yours is at about 5ppm.

 

[Ebreus]

May have been bag from new. Never added the chemical to the mix. How high was the nitrate with the second test.

Tests are much better now and the tank look perfect. How many 50% wc did you do?

I’m with you on the color guessing. I’ve stopped I put the vial right on top of the chart. This takes away the guessing. If you can see a color on the color chart through the vial that’s not it. It’s the last color you can’t see through. What’s funny is 90% of the test are plain as day but the nitrate test is just a guessing game testing their way. Reason is they are just trying to sell product. If you change 50% water weekly nitrates just don’t matter. View attachment 869297That’s 20ppm. Yours is at about 5ppm.

Just the one last night, I'm thinking that the errors I made in testing last night just produced strongly erroneous results. I did set an alarm and wake up early to try and do one after 5h from the first like recommended but couldn't muster the energy to do it or willpower to wake everyone so early.

Was worried about it and blaming myself until I did the test and found the water quality wasn't so horrifying.