Understanding pH, Nitrite, and Ammonia

[Wind_Danzer]

When I was stocking up on items I would need for testing the tank, I bought an all in one Fresh Lab testing kit from Red Sea. I just finished testing the tank and the levels were as follows.

pH = 8.0
Ammonia = Between .25 and .5
Nitrite = .05

Now in reading the little instruction booklets that came with it, I came across a chart on the % of toxic Ammonia at different temps and pH values.

The tank is at 79*-80* and based on all the info , it says the toxic levels would be need to be around 5.8 to be bad. Am I understanding this correctly?

So everything is ok currently... yey or ney??

I'm a little annoyed at the acidity of the water but being a new tank I'm sure that will fluctuate with time too.

Thoughts/opinions welcome of course... that's why I'm posting here. *BOUNCINGS

 

[jumpfreak26]

any ammonia is bad, even a trace amount(1) for more than a day or two can kill your fish, so be sure to keep them down with w/c. or take out your fish and it will speed up, more ammonia for the bacteria to grow off of.

 

[wayne]

No, you're getting it wrong. Ammonia is far more toxic i nalkaline water than acid, and as yours has a ph >7, your water is technically alkaline. So .25 to .5 is not good. The temperature is barely relevant to toxicity I believe

In ocntrast nitrite is considerably less toxic in alkaline water

 

[Wind_Danzer]

Should I add more Nitromax to the water now? I was going to wait till morning here. I also removed the little tetra and placed it in it's own container of water, which fits nicely in the tank itself to keep the water temp the same. Plenty of room to move around too as it didn't use a lot of the tank much.

 

[wayne]

I have no ideea what nitromax is supposed to do. Personally I wouldn't, I would jsut give the whole tank time to mature, cycle

 

[Wind_Danzer]

Nitromax

I added a small bit last night and some more this morning. Both fish are doing well, the tetra looked better this morning then last night. I know fish aren't as active at night but he didn't look like he did the night before. Fed them this morning, and both ate.

Now well see how they are when I'm back in town on Friday.