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Posted by David C. Stone on March 11, 2005, 11:59 am
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> Hi all,
>
> I'm doing a fishless cycle on my 20H tank. I've been testing ammonia
> and nitrite daily, but haven't been testing nitrate very much. I
> figured there wasn't any point to it until I saw nitrite, and the
> nitrate test is a royal pain to do -- it's the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
> test, where you have to add 10 drops of one solution, shake the 2nd
> solution for 30 seconds, add 10 drops of it, and shake the test tube for
> another minute.
>
> The last time I tested nitrate was March 4th, when I first added the
> ammonia, and the result was 0 ppm. Since then, I've done daily ammonia
> and nitrite tests and gotten 4 and 0 ppm, respectively. On March 6th, I
> dropped some food in the water to add a little phosphate to the system,
The food could also be a source of nitrate.
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Posted by Bill on March 13, 2005, 12:57 am
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> The food could also be a source of nitrate.
I was thinking that that could be a possibility, but I wasn't sure. The
food itself is just the cheap stuff that came with the bundle, so I
figured that it wouldn't hurt to use it for this and not actual feeding.
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Posted by Ozdude on March 13, 2005, 2:22 am
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>> The food could also be a source of nitrate.
>
> I was thinking that that could be a possibility, but I wasn't sure. The
> food itself is just the cheap stuff that came with the bundle, so I
> figured that it wouldn't hurt to use it for this and not actual feeding.
Well going off my experience of fish foods, this definitely could be a
source.
I've seen some foods of late about the place which claim to have "lower
phosphate and nitrate", so I presume your cheap or average
multi-flake/pellet food wouldn't have these manufacturing considerations. I
also notice these "... free" foods also cost considerably more than your
average fish food on the pet store shelf.
I am looking at taking the plunge and purchasing one or two varieties of
these low or zero phosphate/nitrate when my current flake supplies run out,
which will probably be about the time I get my canister filter, which should
be able to cope better anyway with high levels of things - well better than
my two internals seem to be lately.
I too have high nitrates on occasion. They show up as above 0 on my AP test
kit, but when I take a jar of the same water to the LFS and get it tested it
comes up 0, so I've taken to not bothering about my home reading any longer
as long as it doesn't go above where my test kit has it at.
To be honest, I haven't tested the water for a couple of weeks because I've
been keeping up daily gravel vaccing and water changes, but I will test it
tomorrow and I hope the nitrate hasn't gone up.
I've cut the feeding's right down over this intensive maintenance period, so
I'd be surprised if any of my levels were higher than 0 ;)
Oz
--
My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith
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>
> I'm doing a fishless cycle on my 20H tank. I've been testing ammonia
> and nitrite daily, but haven't been testing nitrate very much. I
> figured there wasn't any point to it until I saw nitrite, and the
> nitrate test is a royal pain to do -- it's the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
> test, where you have to add 10 drops of one solution, shake the 2nd
> solution for 30 seconds, add 10 drops of it, and shake the test tube for
> another minute.
>
> The last time I tested nitrate was March 4th, when I first added the
> ammonia, and the result was 0 ppm. Since then, I've done daily ammonia
> and nitrite tests and gotten 4 and 0 ppm, respectively. On March 6th, I
> dropped some food in the water to add a little phosphate to the system,