My poor Bala.
- Thread starter Dea
- Start date
FYI Dea, if there is one sure way to irritate experience fish keepers trying to help you it is to say your params are in a 'safe' level. I understand what you mean, but it is an exact science. Any ammonia or nitrite is unsafe and would signify a yet uncycled tank. But if you told us the levels that you measured we could tell you how far from cycled you are.
Just out of curiosity, why were you testing for salt in the first place?
Just out of curiosity, why were you testing for salt in the first place?
Okay, sorry. PH. Roughly between 7.5 and 8.0 Ammonia is somewhere around 0.6 - 0.8 Nitrites 0.0 And the nitrates are 0.0 too. I've been keeping up with the 50% water changes. Still have two happy fish. I've started feeding them again. Only very small pinches. The kits I used - NO2 for nitrite. API ammonia liquid test kit. N03 kit for nitrate and profitest for my PH which gave me the high salt reading. Is it because my PH is high? When I went back to the LFS She suggested doing a complete tank clean and starting the cycle again, because the PH tester only gives a reading to 8.0 it could be over, not really a fan of those brands of test kits, only the API ammonia liquid was the easiest to read.
Dea, there's no need to be concerned with pH, especially when your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are not stable or indicative of a tank that cycled. 0.6-0.8ppm ammonia probably isn't lethal, but it sounds like you've got a way to go before the nitrogen cycle in complete in this tank.
From what we've discussed in other threads, pH is only a concern if it changes constantly.
From what we've discussed in other threads, pH is only a concern if it changes constantly.
No, definitely don't start over. Keep monitoring for ammonia and nitrites and do water changes to keep them at zero (or as close as possible). Eventually nitrates should show up indicating a nitrogen cycle.
If you could cycle without fish you'd wait for nitrites to run high, then convert to nitrates. Nitrites are very toxic to fish, so you don't want any in a tank with fish. Eventually you should see 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites and 5-40ppm nitrates. On a cycled tank you do water changes to keep nitrates below ~40ppm.
If you could cycle without fish you'd wait for nitrites to run high, then convert to nitrates. Nitrites are very toxic to fish, so you don't want any in a tank with fish. Eventually you should see 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites and 5-40ppm nitrates. On a cycled tank you do water changes to keep nitrates below ~40ppm.
