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I have been letting my tank cycle for 2 weeks now with 2 large pleco's, a few zebra danio's and gourami (sp?). I just used the Mardel 5 in one test and it shows the Nitrate at 80 ppm, Nitrite at .5 ppm, Hardness at 425 and for the total Alkalinity/buffering capacity the colors to choose from range from yellow to green but my little square is bright blue and the colors for ph go from orange to dark red but my square is bright pink. I took the test twice now nad have gotten the same results. It is a 75 gallon aquarium and I have a rena filstar xp3 and just hooked up a marineland magnum pro as well. I would appreciate any input and help that anyone has to offer. Thanks!!!!!

I forgot to add, I checked the ammonia level and it was at 0 using Mardel Amonnia test strip. Thanks again.

Hi there and welcome,

I'd be concerned with the Nitrate test at 80ppm. Thats high. Have you been doing water changes during this period.

I would try and get that nitrate reading down by doing water changes, do you have plants in the tank? An ideal nitrate reading, if its a planted tank, would be 20ppm.

As far as the ph goes, there should be numbers on the test card ranging from 6.0 up to 8.0 or there abouts, although you say you used a 5 in 1 (never used one of them, sorry) My ph test card ranges from yellow, greens and then up to blues, sorry I cant help you with that one.

The more experienced members on here will be able to give you advice on the other readings.

Cheers
Crusha

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Those who say they cant, Never will !!!

I do not have any real plants, all silk ones. Haven't done any large water changes yet but I'll start now and see what happens...thanks for replying

I would guess a 5 in 1 test means dry test strips dipped in the water. These are very inaccurate and rarely give a good ph or hardness reading. The ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate part is good for showing if there is any present and sometimes an approximate value but can be as much as 5 off on ammonia/nitrite and 10-20 off on nitrates. Definitely get a good quality liquid test kit such as aquarium pharm's master kit. I occasionally use test strips when I just want to see if there is any testable amounts without wasting my liquid kits but if I want to know the actual value I pull out my aquarium pharm kit. In the meantime do some water changes to make sure the nitrates are kept low enough. Below 20ppm would be ideal but at least get them testing below 40 for now.

I'll get the liquid tests tomorrow....let me ask you this as well....I asked in another section and received a few replies but still had some questions for people. How do you do your water changes? Let the water sit in a bucket for 24 hours? Add something to the water to help it get "balanced"? or something else? I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right b/c I want to get some furcata rainbows and see if I can breed them b/c I love how they look. Thanks in advance

You don't have leave water to sit for any length of time provided you check for a few things. First test tapwater ph, fill a bucket, and leave it overnight with an airstone. If the ph has gone up less than about .5-1 then it's fine but if like my water the ph goes up 2-3 you need to let it sit until the ph balances. Also check that your tapwater kh is higher than 3 or you'll need to add a buffer like baking soda. You do have to add a water conditioner/dechlorinator if you use tapwater. Brand doesn't matter just make sure it eliminates chlorine, chloramine, and binds heavy metals. I prefer Prime but it really doesn't matter. All that's left is to remove tank water and pour in new water. Make sure to dechlorinate each bucket with your water conditioner before pouring it in the tank and make sure the water is of close enough temp to the tank that it doesn't cause too big of temperature swing.

When I do my water change, which is 50%, once a week (I have a 49 gallon)I use a gravel vac attached to a garden hose long enough to reach outside. Syphon from the bottom of the tank right into the gravel, you will see the gravel float around the syphon tube and all the dirt that has been sitting in the gravel will be sucked up out of it.

Only do a section at a time, in other words maybe do 1/4 of the tank at each change, that way you wont be removing all the good stuff as well.

If you can, save some water into a bucket and rinse out your filter media, depending on what type of filter you have, if its an external canister filter then you will only need to do that maybe monthly (depends on your fish load also). Dont rinse it under plain tap water or you will kill the beneficial bacteria.

When its time to top it up I just run the garden hose from out side into the tank. YOU MUST DECHLORINATE your water, if you are using a bucket to top up then add this to each bucket before you put it into the tank. I use the Sera brand Aquatan, it also contains a "stress coat" for the fish. Because I use the hose i add the required amount straight to the tank in one hit.

Some people like to warm their water to match the temp in the tank but I have heard that its not a good idea if your hot water pipes are made from copper.

Hope this helps you out ... have fun, its not the most fun job in the world but it is necessary to keep the water changes frequent, especially if your nitrates are high.

Cheers
Crusha

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Those who say they cant, Never will !!!

I purchased the aqua pharm master test kit and I got a PH of 7.8, ammonia .25, nitrite 0 and nitrate 40. Going to do some of the recommendations and give it another week before I add some more fish to the tank. One thing I did find out that might help everyone is that at Petsmart, they honor their online prices at the store. I got the test kit for 13.99 and at the store it's 27.00. They also had a rena filstar xp3 for 109 and at the store it was 175 (bought both of course) Just letting everyone know...a little bit of time online can save a lot of money. Thanks for the help