Strange water parametres

[Boo Penguin]

Hi everyone

I've been reading around and found that I should have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and nitrate <40

Currently I'm getting a nitrate reading of 40 and ammonia of .25

Is this weird? I though that when I started getting nitrate readings my ammonia reading would go down.

 

[carsona246]

It should, but maybe your tank hasn't completed the cycling process yet. If you have 40 ppm's of nitrate I'm assuming you haven't done a waterchange in a while, so if the ammonia is only at .25 ppm's I'd say your just about done cycling.

 

[Boo Penguin]

I always get a reading of 40... no matter when I do the test. I've done them before and after water changes but it never seems to shift... maybe I have faulty test strips... I have heard they aren't always reliable

 

[carsona246]

ah, test strips are actually known to not be reliable. I'd check out some drip test kits. Have you tested your tap water? Maybe it's got nitrate in it already. How long had it been since you'd done a water change?

 

[Boo Penguin]

I'll get a new test and then test the tap water... um water change was done about midday yesterday

 

[carsona246]

hmm, I'm guess either your test is off, or you have nitrates in your tap.

 

[Colinna]

You can take some water to your local aquarium shop and they'll test it for you. Some charge, others don't. But they use the API test kit usually.

 

[Boo Penguin]

Checked the tap water with test strip cause LFS was closed... but it doesn't say there is nitrate present

I have Java moss and a java fern in the tank... could they be causing this? If they don't get enough light?

Also is it possible that one of those blue air stones is causing this... I have one of those too

 

[carsona246]

decaying plant matter does cause ammonia, but your axolotl would be producing way more ammonia than plants. The alive platns would actually be consuming ammonia. Honestly if your tap water doesn't have nitrate and you have 40 ppm's of nitrate in your tank after 1 day you must have a seriosly high bioload. It sounds like your overstocked. An airstone wouldn't be causing ammonia. How big is your tank, and how big is your axolotl? I would guess you need to upgrade your tank size if you have 40 ppm's of nitrate in 1 day.

 

[Boo Penguin]

Mmm I don't think the tank is overloaded. Just did another about 30% water change. Nitrate down to 20. I've only got one axi (about 12cm) in a 10 gallon tank.

 

[carsona246]

Ideally you want the tank to have 40 ppm's of nitrate or lower in one week so you don't have to do more than one waterchange a week. If your nitrates get up to 40 ppm's in one day(i'm not sure if that was in one day, or over a week) than you might want to start thinking about upgrading so you don't have to do so many waterchanges. Nitrate is the least deadly toxin in your tank, so it's not super dangerous, but you don't want to have over 100 ppm's on a consistant basis. It could be that your plants arn't getting enough light, and are just all dying. If they look like they're healthy and growing well then I don't think the plants are the problem.

 

[Boo Penguin]

Light is a little bit of an issue, the tank is in my room which is fairly dark for most of the day. But the plants look alright, still maybe I'll try giving them a little more light.