nitrate tester --need I that works ?

[CAROLGYRL]

I have been told that if you take several nitrate testers, you will get a different reading on all of them. If all of your other levels are fine, how can the nitrate be 40 or more? ammonia is .50, nitrite is 0, phosphate .5, ph 7.8, carbonate hardness is 10dkh.

 

[LeGaCYWinZ]

Your ammonia shouldn't be .5?

 

[CAROLGYRL]

I know, I am doing water changes,2 back to back, I have already done one this morning. of 45 gallons( I have a 180 tank), my next water will be ready later today, then i"ll do another one.I don't know how to lower my ammonia.other than that

 

[LeGaCYWinZ]

Well doing the water changes to lower your ammonia should also help with lowering your nitrates. I would also suggest trying to raise the pH a bit.

 

[otrlynn]

You might get slightly different readings depending upon the brand of the test kit. For instance, the difference between 35 and 40 is probably not that important. In either case, you will want to take measures to lower it (probably by upping your water changes) If your ammonia reading is correct, that is a bigger problem. In an established aquarium (that has completed the new tank cycle) the ammonia level will be zero, unless something of significant size has just died and is decomposing in the tank. Ammonia is very toxic to everything in the tank, moreso than the nitrate. I would measure it again, perhaps take a sample to the LFS and ask them to verify your results. If ammonia is really .5, I suggest buying some Amquel or Ammo Lock at the LFS and use it according to the directions to lower the toxicity of the ammonia. However, in conjunction with using it, you need to do significant water changes several times a week to get it down. Hang in there.

 

[CAROLGYRL]

thanks, I did not know it was so bad to have the ammonia at .50, I will get it tomorrow.

 

[Michael]

how did you test for ammonia? also carol imo your phosphate is a worry too, forget the nitrate at present, the phosphate needs to be near 0, 0.03 at most, its very hard to test accurately also as it can get used up qyickly and some test kits wont show it, so if your showing .5 then it could be even higher, i suspect your ammonia reading is because your are testing with a salifert kit which can confuse some due to the cloudyness of the regent, or you have a dead fish in there somewhere, but its the phosphate you need to sort out before it gets outta hand and your corals start to suffer

 

[prickles]

too many water changes can make your ammonia go up. I had a tank crash (don't know why) where all my fish died in about 1/2 hour. I got all the dead fish out I could but missed about 1/2 dozen, and wanted to keep my corals and inverts alive. I was doing a 25% water change 2x/day to try to keep the levels down, and found that I was basically taking the bacteria out of the water. Therefore the cycle wouldn't end. I eventually slowed down on the changes, keeping the ammonia at what I thought was just shy of deadly, so that the bacteria would have a chance to regrow. After about 3 days of slower water changes, that worked and the cycle finished itself out. I was able to save all but 1 SPS colony.