Water Chemistry Not Adding Up?

[Ben Foster]

Hi. I’m in the middle of cycling my aquarium, and I have fish In there too. 4 danios. Everything is going well. However, I’ve been testing my water, and my chemistry isn’t adding up. My ammonia has spiked then gone down, my nitrites have spiked and gone down, and I did a water change to remove the excess nitrate (40 ppm). I decided to see if the cycle was actually established, so I waited one week and tested the water again to make sure ammonia and nitrite were at 0. I tested, and my ammonia is at 0.5 ppm, my nitrite at 0 ppm and nitrate at 5 ppm. Can anyone tell me why? False positive? Or is this normal? Thanks. Below are my readings.

 

[david1978]

A few questions. Do you have ammonia in your tap water or chlorimine? Ammonia sometimes is added to chlorine to help stabilize it .

 

[Ben Foster]

A few questions. Do you have ammonia in your tap water or chlorimine? Ammonia sometimes is added to chlorine to help stabilize it .

I will check

 

[AquaticJ]

When you’re doing water changes or adding new water due to evaporation, are you using water conditioner? Did you replace any media entirey or rinse it off in tap water?

 

[Ben Foster]

When you’re doing water changes or adding new water due to evaporation, are you using water conditioner? Did you replace any media entirey or rinse it off in tap water?

Yes, I used API stress coat, and no, I rinsed it once in tank water.

A few questions. Do you have ammonia in your tap water or chlorimine? Ammonia sometimes is added to chlorine to help stabilize it .

I do have ammonia in my tap water. What do I do???

 

[mattgirl]

Yes, I used API stress coat, and no, I rinsed it once in tank water.



I do have ammonia in my tap water. What do I do???

In a cycled tank a small amount in your tap water shouldn't pose a problem as the bacteria will process it along with the ammonia your fish are producing. I will recommend you get a bottle of Prime to use as your primary water conditioner. It neutralizes low amounts of ammonia so will protect your fish from it.

I am assuming you ran the ammonia test shortly after doing a water change and before the cycle had a chance to process it.

 

[Ben Foster]

In a cycled tank a small amount in your tap water shouldn't pose a problem as the bacteria will process it along with the ammonia your fish are producing. I will recommend you get a bottle of Prime to use as your primary water conditioner. It neutralizes low amounts of ammonia so will protect your fish from it.

I am assuming you ran the ammonia test shortly after doing a water change and before the cycle had a chance to process it.

Yup

 

[DuaneV]

How much is in your tap water? If its just a small amount, once your beneficial bacteria is built up it should be able to process it. If its a larger amount you might have a problem for a bit.

 

[Basil]

My well water is running between 0.25 and 0.5 lately.
I’ve been adding prime at my water changes and then testing the tank a few days later and ammonia usually is down to 0.
Although this week it looked like almost 0.25 so I’m hoping it was a false positive. But I’ll keep an eye on it.
So hopefully you’ll see the same scenario.

 

[DuaneV]

So that's a small enough number that your beneficial bacteria will eventually build up to the point of being able to take care of it, and using Prime will help too. What Prime does is, it binds to the ammonia and makes it non-toxic to the fish for like 24 hours or something, while your beneficial bacteria deal with it. So as long as you're adding Prime when you're doing your water changes and keeping an eye on the tap and tank, you should be okay.

 

[Ben Foster]

So that's a small enough number that your beneficial bacteria will eventually build up to the point of being able to take care of it, and using Prime will help too. What Prime does is, it binds to the ammonia and makes it non-toxic to the fish for like 24 hours or something, while your beneficial bacteria deal with it. So as long as your adding Prime when you're doing your water changes and keeping an eye on the tap and tank, you should be okay.

Thank you

So that's a small enough number that your beneficial bacteria will eventually build up to the point of being able to take care of it, and using Prime will help too. What Prime does is, it binds to the ammonia and makes it non-toxic to the fish for like 24 hours or something, while your beneficial bacteria deal with it. So as long as your adding Prime when you're doing your water changes and keeping an eye on the tap and tank, you should be okay.

Very helpful