Water Change Confusion

So I have to be honest. There will be periods here and there where lack of tank maintenance get the better of me. It usually never gets this bad but this time around I neglected water change for about 4 months and only did top offs in my 40G tank.

Unfortunately it took a death in one of my guppies to make me stop making scheduling excuses and clean it up since it was getting pretty bad with algae. So I did a water perimeter check first and was surprised to find all the perimeters were good. No ammonia, no nitrite, no nitrate.

Does anyone know what this means? How did my guppie die? And also, what does water changes do other than remove nitrate? I'm curious what my lack of water changes caused. My plants have been struggling to grow if that has any part of it.

Regardless, I will be better about doing regular water changes but would like to learn more. Thanks everyone!

 

When you test nitrates are you vigorously shaking bottle 2 for at least 30 seconds, shaking the bottle vigorously for at least a minute, and then waiting 5 minutes to compare colors? If you don’t mix it up enough it completely throws off the test.

 

Everything living must eventually die.

 

Unless you had an enormous amount of plants, you had nitrate. Old test kits give wrong results, often a zero reading.

Water changes remove nitrates, and growth-inhibiting pheromones produced by the fish. They also replenish carbonates (KH) and other trace minerals.

 

Everything living must eventually die.

True

When you test nitrates are you vigorously shaking bottle 2 for at least 30 seconds, shaking the bottle vigorously for at least a minute, and then waiting 5 minutes to compare colors? If you don’t mix it up enough it completely throws off the test.

Probably not 30s more like 15. I'll make sure to be more thorough next test thank you =)

Unless you had an enormous amount of plants, you had nitrate. Old test kits give wrong results, often a zero reading.

Water changes remove nitrates, and growth-inhibiting pheromones produced by the fish. They also replenish carbonates (KH) and other trace minerals.

Hmm, if that's the case I'll get some new ones to compare. I bought my water test kit a year ago, maybe I got a bad one. Thank you for the insight.

 

If you have an LFS you can take it in and get it tested in the mean time. My ammonia always shows that I have .25, and I took water in to 2 different places to get it tested so I could be sure it was a faulty test kit and not my water. The .25 color I consider my 0 now, but it makes me nervous so I bring water in for testing whenever I'm headed that way.

 

If you have an LFS you can take it in and get it tested in the mean time. My ammonia always shows that I have .25, and I took water in to 2 different places to get it tested so I could be sure it was a faulty test kit and not my water. The .25 color I consider my 0 now, but it makes me nervous so I bring water in for testing whenever I'm headed that way.

Hmm, now that mention it, there have been times were I felt pretty skeptic about my test kit results.

 

there are other things in the water besides ph, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. I have the Pond Master test kit that includes a Phosphate test. Even moderate amounts of phosphates will fuel algae growth. also other dissolved organic materials that needs to be removed. I don't use any substrate and after a few days there are plenty of visible crud on the glass bottom.

also, the fish, invertebrates, plants and bacteria consume minerals in the water. water changes replenish those minerals.

 

I don’t think it’s that it’s faulty, I can make my zero ammonia look like .25 if I go into the wrong lighting. You want it against a bright white background with bright white lights close

 

-shrug- I have what I have. There aren't any bright white lights in my living space, and natural lighting looks the same. I've tried my phone flashlight. It's never looked like the 0.