Zero nitrate??

[SANND]

As some of you know, I recently had to tear down all my tanks because of a plumbing leak that landed my entire downstairs ceiling onto the floors, and everything on the floors! Anyway, I had to tear down my 3 tanks and move everyone into various QT tanks stashed around the house.

I've only set up 2 tanks because I lost my clown loach and two frogs , but my plants really suffered so I was left with just a couple that I left in the danio tank. Well, after reading the Nitrate thread I got a little worried about my upside down catfish tank that has a piddly little java fern floating around because according to the math, my weekly 25% WCs weren't going to keep the nitrates in control. So I finally found my test kit and tested both tanks....the danio tank nitrate levels was were i expected, between 10 and 20 according to the color chart. The catfish though came up completely clear, zero...i tested it 3 times and then tested the other tank again in case i was messing it up somehow. So I then thought maybe i was going thru another cycle so i tested nitrites...zero, and I tested for ammonia...zero!

I'll test again in a couple days but how the heck is that possible??

 

[DclownD]

uhh has ur cycle just started lol?i remember 0 nit nit and ammonia it was at the begining of my cycle lol

 

[Lotus]

Sorry to hear about the disaster

It's all a balance of how much waste the fish produce, how much the plants remove, and how much you remove through water changes. It's entirely possible you have zero nitrates if there's one fish in the tank. What size tank is it in?

 

[SANND]

It's a 30 gallon with 5 upside down catfish that range in size from 4" - 1". They are light eaters, I feed them about twice a week and I change about 25% once a week. I cycled the tank completely before I put them back in so I'm really confused by the stats. :cornfused:

Is it possible they aren't pooping enough? :s

 

[Lotus]

You also have to remember that most hobbyist test kits aren't very accurate. I recently bought a nitrate test kit that didn't register nitrates in any of my tanks, although my other test kit said so.

With 4 in a 30g tank, I would guess that they aren't producing much waste, especially if they're light eaters. The water changes could be keeping the nitrates very low. Was the reading just before water change time?

 

[SANND]

I tested one week after my last water change. I've just tested again and I'm getting the same results. I thought I might have a bad test kit so I tested my other tank as well and did get the result I expected (nitrates between 10 - 20 tonight on the danio tank and off the chart in the 5 gallon that has a butt load of snails and I rinsed all my filter floss in last monday)

So I guess they just aren't producing enough waste to support bacteria. I'm guessing if I want to add any other fish to that tank I'll need to use bio-spira? :s

 

[Lotus]

No, you wouldn't need to add Bio-Spira if you add more fish, but you would need to add them slowly (a fish or two a week). The tank is probably cycled, but has a low bioload.