Help with my first test readings please

[BabyShark]

Hi,

I got a brand new tank running, started 4 days ago 

I finally got my testing kit yesterday (topfin test kit) I did some readings and here is what I got.

PH 6 

Ammonia 0.25 ppm

Nitrite 0 ppm

nitrate 20 ppm

 

Now my confusion is that should I do a water change right away or does some amount of ammonia help in any way to get the beneficial bacteria?

I mean should I wait few more days to see if ammonia levels go down by itself?

I do have live plants in there.

 

TIA

 

 

[BETTA999]

leave it for a couple of days more if it doesn't go down do a water change  

[laritheloud]

Don't water change if you're doing a fishless cycle. That said, your PH is low and you might struggle with growing a bacteria colony at acidic water levels; bacteria is slower to reproduce at low PH. You could add baking soda to bump up the PH and give you some mineral buffer for the bacteria colony to grow without fish (once you go to add fish, adding baking soda is not necessary). There's two approaches you can try from here:

1) You can keep adding an ammonia source, dose your tank to 2 to 4 ppm ammonia, and wait for a cycle to get started/complete (you would see ammonia drop and nitrite spike, then nitrite will drop and nitrates will spike; continue to add ammonia to 2 to 4 ppm when you see it drop). This is probably going to be a bit hard on your plants, and the tank will look uglier before it looks better. I find when I do a fishless cycle with plants, there is a large diatom and algae bloom, but it tends to 'right itself' after some maturation and the algae is gone after a few more months. This has the potential to take a long time, and we can't guarantee a timeline for how long it will take your tank to cycle. BUT at the end of this method, you'll be able to add a larger number of fish without fear of straining the biofilter's limits.

2) You can focus on growing your plants for about a month then add very small amounts of fish at a time. You can fertilize your plants weekly, do your weekly water changes, and just get into the habit of caring for your tank. You're not guaranteed to have a fully functioning cycle at the end of this, but the tank would be 'mature' enough to handle at least a small amount of bioload at a time.

Hope this helps.

[Odd Duck]

On 2/16/2022 at 8:46 AM, BabyShark said:

Hi,

I got a brand new tank running, started 4 days ago 

I finally got my testing kit yesterday (topfin test kit) I did some readings and here is what I got.

PH 6 

Ammonia 0.25 ppm

Nitrite 0 ppm

nitrate 20 ppm

 

Now my confusion is that should I do a water change right away or does some amount of ammonia help in any way to get the beneficial bacteria?

I mean should I wait few more days to see if ammonia levels go down by itself?

I do have live plants in there.

 

TIA

 

 

Can you show us pictures of the tubes against the white part of the card next to the color chart?  Sometimes the ammonia will have a very faint green tint, especially if your tap water has chloramines in it.  I would try adding ammonia aiming for just 1 ppm.  Then test again in 24 hours.  That will tell us much more about your filtration capacity.  That substrate can leach ammonia for a while, so your filter and plants may be close to handling it already.

[Colu]

You could Also add  some crushed coral to buffer your water and raise your pH

[Odd Duck]

With only a few days in, it’s more likely to be plants handling it than filter, but you’d be surprised sometimes at how soon you can add fish if you have enough plants.

[Patrick_G]

A benefit to using Stratum is that it’ll leach ammonia into the aquarium and help start the cycle. In your case it looks like it’s also leaching N in the form of Nitrate. A disadvantage is that it tends to lower the PH and that slows down the formation of bacteria. I’d follow @laritheloud’s advice in #2 above. Keep watching your parameters until you see nitrates rise and then start to fall then consider adding a small number of fish. Keep an eye on the PH! It’s a logarithmic scale so a 6 is 10 times less than a 7. Not all fish will be happy. 

Maybe @Streetwise can consolidate these two threads? 

Edited February 16, 2022 by Patrick_G

[BabyShark]

On 2/16/2022 at 9:58 AM, laritheloud said:

Don't water change if you're doing a fishless cycle. That said, your PH is low and you might struggle with growing a bacteria colony at acidic water levels; bacteria is slower to reproduce at low PH. You could add baking soda to bump up the PH and give you some mineral buffer for the bacteria colony to grow without fish (once you go to add fish, adding baking soda is not necessary). There's two approaches you can try from here:

1) You can keep adding an ammonia source, dose your tank to 2 to 4 ppm ammonia, and wait for a cycle to get started/complete (you would see ammonia drop and nitrite spike, then nitrite will drop and nitrates will spike; continue to add ammonia to 2 to 4 ppm when you see it drop). This is probably going to be a bit hard on your plants, and the tank will look uglier before it looks better. I find when I do a fishless cycle with plants, there is a large diatom and algae bloom, but it tends to 'right itself' after some maturation and the algae is gone after a few more months. This has the potential to take a long time, and we can't guarantee a timeline for how long it will take your tank to cycle. BUT at the end of this method, you'll be able to add a larger number of fish without fear of straining the biofilter's limits.

2) You can focus on growing your plants for about a month then add very small amounts of fish at a time. You can fertilize your plants weekly, do your weekly water changes, and just get into the habit of caring for your tank. You're not guaranteed to have a fully functioning cycle at the end of this, but the tank would be 'mature' enough to handle at least a small amount of bioload at a time.

Hope this helps.

I have added 1 tsb of baking soda - is that enough for 20 gallon? Thanks for the tip.

On 2/16/2022 at 10:00 AM, Odd Duck said:

Can you show us pictures of the tubes against the white part of the card next to the color chart?  Sometimes the ammonia will have a very faint green tint, especially if your tap water has chloramines in it.  I would try adding ammonia aiming for just 1 ppm.  Then test again in 24 hours.  That will tell us much more about your filtration capacity.  That substrate can leach ammonia for a while, so your filter and plants may be close to handling it already.

ok - I will take pictures when I run the test again. Thanks

On 2/16/2022 at 10:01 AM, Odd Duck said:

With only a few days in, it’s more likely to be plants handling it than filter, but you’d be surprised sometimes at how soon you can add fish if you have enough plants.

hmm, I need to find out what does `plant handling it` means. 

On 2/16/2022 at 10:09 AM, Patrick_G said:

A benefit to using Stratum is that it’ll leach ammonia into the aquarium and help start the cycle. In your case it looks like it’s also leaching N in the form of Nitrate. A disadvantage is that it tends to lower the PH and that slows down the formation of bacteria. I’d follow @laritheloud’s advice in #2 above. Keep watching your parameters until you see nitrates rise and then start to fall then consider adding a small number of fish. Keep an eye on the PH! It’s a logarithmic scale so a 6 is 10 times less than a 7. Not all fish will be happy. 

Maybe @Streetwise can consolidate these two threads? 

make sense, I just threw in some baking soda and some betta fish food. 

I am thinking of moving decors from my small betta fish tank as well. I got enough toys for the betta.

[Odd Duck]

On 2/16/2022 at 11:36 AM, BabyShark said:

hmm, I need to find out what does `plant handling it` means. 

Many plants will absorb ammonia directly and if you have enough plants, it can take more time for your other biofiltration to get up to speed or you can depend on your plants to “handle” the biofiltration.  In this case, I meant your plants may be handling all the bioload in your depending on what method you are using to develop your beneficial bacteria.

[Torrey]

On 2/16/2022 at 8:01 AM, Odd Duck said:

With only a few days in, it’s more likely to be plants handling it than filter, but you’d be surprised sometimes at how soon you can add fish if you have enough plants.

This is the 'best kept secret' of the hobby.

I will never again put fish into a [permanent] tank before the plants have finished the 'melt back and begin to grow' stage.

Plants have been more reliable than my mechanical driven biological filters. The 4' and Walstad inspired are able to handle a bioload I never would have imagined trying... except, livebearers🤦‍♂️

[BabyShark]

On 2/16/2022 at 2:02 PM, Odd Duck said:

Many plants will absorb ammonia directly and if you have enough plants, it can take more time for your other biofiltration to get up to speed or you can depend on your plants to “handle” the biofiltration.  In this case, I meant your plants may be handling all the bioload in your depending on what method you are using to develop your beneficial bacteria.

 

On 2/16/2022 at 3:02 PM, Torrey said:

This is the 'best kept secret' of the hobby.

I will never again put fish into a [permanent] tank before the plants have finished the 'melt back and begin to grow' stage.

Plants have been more reliable than my mechanical driven biological filters. The 4' and Walstad inspired are able to handle a bioload I never would have imagined trying... except, livebearers🤦‍♂️

ok so you are saying that I may not need the fluval u2 filter in there? I should be ok with some plants and a sponge filter?

[Torrey]

On 2/16/2022 at 1:18 PM, BabyShark said:

 

ok so you are saying that I may not need the fluval u2 filter in there? I should be ok with some plants and a sponge filter?

Not if this is one of your first tanks.

After over 4 decades of fish keeping, I built my first "filter free" tank last year. It's in my signature, the "Walstad-Inspired Scape"

There were several hickups I ran into, that could have wiped out my fish. Personally, I am glad I waited until I really knew my fish, and could recognize any distress signals, because I ended up needing to add airstones, and do a few more water changes than were included if I had "done it by the book".

Healthy plant growth will give you a buffer as long as the plants are healthy and growing. 

If the tank is under fertilized, if you end up sick and unable to take care of the tank, if a random ice storm interrupts power and the tank gets too cold, and the plants have a sudden die off, a lack of additional filters can leave the aquarium with dead fish.

That's why almost all my tanks have a UGF and a sponge filter. 

Because redundancy is an aquarium keepers best friend. 

Plants protect fish, as long as we are paying attention and doing our part. An ammonia spike from a tank of rapidly deceased plants is going to be lethal to fish.

Plants, plus filters, equal safe redundancy and happier fish

 

[BabyShark]

On 2/16/2022 at 3:48 PM, Torrey said:

Not if this is one of your first tanks.

After over 4 decades of fish keeping, I built my first "filter free" tank last year. It's in my signature, the "Walstad-Inspired Scape"

There were several hickups I ran into, that could have wiped out my fish. Personally, I am glad I waited until I really knew my fish, and could recognize any distress signals, because I ended up needing to add airstones, and do a few more water changes than were included if I had "done it by the book".

Healthy plant growth will give you a buffer as long as the plants are healthy and growing. 

If the tank is under fertilized, if you end up sick and unable to take care of the tank, if a random ice storm interrupts power and the tank gets too cold, and the plants have a sudden die off, a lack of additional filters can leave the aquarium with dead fish.

That's why almost all my tanks have a UGF and a sponge filter. 

Because redundancy is an aquarium keepers best friend. 

Plants protect fish, as long as we are paying attention and doing our part. An ammonia spike from a tank of rapidly deceased plants is going to be lethal to fish.

Plants, plus filters, equal safe redundancy and happier fish

 

got it! Thank you for explaining all of this.

I am happy to have a filter in there as it is keeping the water clear so far. 

[BabyShark]

Here's an update on the readings. 

Ph 6.5, previously 6.0

Ammonia 1.0, previously 0.25

Nitrite 0.2, previously 0

Nitrate 10, previously 10

 

What do you guys think? Going in the right direction? 

 

Thanks 

[quikv6]

Yes, right direction. In my opinion, a tank will cycle a bit faster with a PH above 7.0. You may want to add a bit more baking soda.

[laritheloud]

Definitely going the right way! Add some more buffer for sure to bring that PH over 7 and monitor, because you'll be seeing a lot of PH swings soon.

[BabyShark]

It's coming along nicely. Plants are showing signs of growth. 👌