Question: Should these be the best/correct water readings?

Hi,

My tank readings were absolutely **** as to what my axie was in! so i changed him to the new tank (and my god does he love his new little mansion!)..i know i should have waited a little longer for the cycling but the readings of his old tank i felt bad leaving him in that.

His readings to his current tank were :

PH: 6.4
AMMOINIA: 4.0ppm
NITRITE: 0.25ppm
NITRATE: 0ppm

The new tank readings:

PH: 7.6
AMMONIA: 0.25ppm
NITRITE: 0ppm
NITRATE: 0ppm

Are the new tank levels ok for him to be in ? Besides the PH being just a tad too high?

I usually do my best not to let ammonia get above .25 ppm's. My uncycled tank usually takes about a day or two to get a reading of .25, so daily waterchanges were what I usually had to do. If you still have any filter media that hasn't dried out I'd stick it in the new tank to put whatever beneficial bacteria your old tank had in the new one.

carsona246 said:

I usually do my best not to let ammonia get above .25 ppm's. My uncycled tank usually takes about a day or two to get a reading of .25, so daily waterchanges were what I usually had to do. If you still have any filter media that hasn't dried out I'd stick it in the new tank to put whatever beneficial bacteria your old tank had in the new one.

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i thought ammonia was best to be at 0ppm? I had gold fish cycling the new tank for a week, but removed them and put my axie into there when i seen how bad the readings were in his old tank.

Ammonia is BEST at 0 ppm, but its going to rise some as the tank cycled. What carson is saying is you don't want it to get about .25 ppm. If its at .25 or above, you need to do a partial water change to lower it so that it doesn't bother your axie. Make sure you continue to monitor it and do frequent water changes as necessary to keep ammonia and nitrites at tolerable levels.

Oh, and your pH is absolutely fine. Axies prefer hardwater so 7.6 is great!

animalloversfb said:

Ammonia is BEST at 0 ppm, but its going to rise some as the tank cycled. What carson is saying is you don't want it to get about .25 ppm. If its at .25 or above, you need to do a partial water change to lower it so that it doesn't bother your axie. Make sure you continue to monitor it and do frequent water changes as necessary to keep ammonia and nitrites at tolerable levels.

Oh, and your pH is absolutely fine. Axies prefer hardwater so 7.6 is great!

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that makes me feel better thanks! yes, ill keep an eye on him and his water ... to keep everything as right as it can be, so i can introduce new little buddies within a few weeks.

Sounds like you are (just like the rest of us) a little impatient with the cycle.

Your new tank wont cycle in a week, there are no short cuts, you just need to have patience. I tried a short cut, one of those "seeding" liquids, waste of time and money, it still took 4-5 weeks to cycle the tank

It can take 4-6 weeks for a tank to cycle, daily 20% water changes for the most part of the first few weeks, then depending on the reading you are getting you might reduce those changes to every 2-3 days in the later stage of the cycle.

It can go up and down, so keep testing often even when you get that first "perfect" reading.

Bren

I just tried using seachem's stability, total waste of $10.