1st water test results, need some advice please

ok here are my 1st test results, I dont think they are so good.

temp 19 degrees c,
ph - 7.6+
high range ph - 8.2
nitrate - 5.0
nitrite - 0
amonia - 2.0

so I need to do another 25% water change to bring amonia down right?

and I need to get the PH down as well? Should I order some API PH down treatment?

Any other suggestions please?

PLEASE please please please tell me there are no animals in that tank
If there are YES you MUST do a water change and do it NOW 2.0 is way too high, deadly high change 50% of the water refill it, test and if it's still above 0.25 change another 25% then test again and keep going till it drops.

2ppm of ammonia is deadly enough but the pH of over 8 makes it even more so.
The pH down is a good product but if you are using it with animals in the tank be very very careful and drop the pH no more than .2 per day which can be hard to do.

If the tank is empty it's not so much of a panic but you will still need to get that ammonia way down. You don't really want it getting above 0.5.

I would actually advise you to not use any chemical to mess with your ph. Stability is the key, and in my experience chemicals that mess with your ph will cause your ph to go crazy. I'd just leave it, or stick some driftwood/peat in the tank to slowly lower your ph. As mereB said an ammonia level reading of 2 ppm's is pretty high. I'd try to keep your ammonia below .5 ppm's. At least your getting some nitrate, which means your cycle is starting. Just another tip, when you do your waterchanges try to make sure the temp of the new water matches the temp of the tank water. This is especially important if your doing large waterchanges.

thankyou for the advice, I feel like an evil witch now I would have tested days ago if my test kit had arrived on time but they sent me the wrong thing.

I think the filter may be a bit clogged. I've got new carbon and foam on order hopefully to be delivered tomorrow. I read in the instructions that I should cut half a piece of foam to put in with half of the old foam.

I've done a 50% water change. Used tapsafe and let the water stand in buckets for a bit first. I've added some stress coat and stress zyme as well, taken more food and poop out and given them some more food to make up for upsetting their tank. Cant wait for my tank hoover to arrive, will be much easier than using a tea strainer. They are currently gobbling up thier dinner happily. I had a pannik and thought Athena had a bumpy rash on her head but then I realised it was just bits of sand!

I feel like such a faliure already :'(

don't feel too bad, while 2 ppm's is definatly not in the safe zone, at least your caught it now, and have fixed the problem. Most people who don't do research just let their axies just sit in the water with 3-4 ppm's of ammonia until they die, and then they wonder what happened. One way to fix your filter clogging problem is to rinse it out in used tank water. Don't use tap water, because the chlorine will kill all the beneficial bacteria you have in your filter pads. However if you stick the pad in used water and shake it around a bit it should help unclog it, and you can just stick it back. A little tip, I have no faith in using carbon in fish tanks, if it saves you some money, I'd just do without it. using a siphon definatly makes waterchanges easier.

ok, after a 50% water change (added tapsafe to new water and left to stand for a while before adding), adding stress zyme and stress coat, removing more waste and washing out the filter media in a bowl full of the tank water I have re tested:

Ph - 7.6
high ph - 7.6
amonia - 0.5
nitrite - 0
nitrate 5.0

does that sound better?

The filter was quite gunked up so I guess thats why readings were bad. I have two very happy looking axies looking at me right now. Trying to tell me they haven't been fed. Hoping to play on my terrible memory. But I did feed them already. Little tricksters they are!

Well the ammonia is much lower, but the nitrate should be at 0 now that you've done the waterchanges. do you have nitrate in your tap?

i have no idea! I guess I could go and do a test on the tap water. maybe all the water that came out of the filter when i picked it out made the difference?

I thought the nitrate might go down but I double checked the result and its still 5.0. maybe it was higer earlier and i didn't read the test right. thats probably what happened. I got my mum to double check it all this time round. as we've never done this before I wanted a 2nd opinion on the colour chart and the colour of the water.

those test kits can be hard to read, nitrate is the least dangerous toxin, so as long as its under 40 ppm's there is nothing to worry about. Just try to keep the ammonia below .5 and the nitrite below 3 and your golden.

theres no nitrate in my tap water so level must have been 10 ealrier when i did the 1st one and now 5. the nitrite was 0.