55gal (us) nitrates 20,,nitrates off chart,, hardness soft,, chlorrine 0,, alk 40-60,, ph 6.8-7.2 doing 50% wtare changes every other day still not coming down.. tank has only been up 5 weeks. is this normal??

test your tapwater before you go any further !!!see if you got high levels there before you add it to the tank ........if it is high you will have to source and obtain lov level nitrate water read the threads on here about nitrates these will give you instant answers untill you get more replys....you must test your tapwater immediately .....is your test kit old or new and what type of kit is it????????????

I assume your ammonia is zero? Also, are you carrying out a pH test with the higher and lower? The reason I ask is you've given us two readings.

You are registering nitrate which obviously means you have the correct bacteria present. It's difficult to say why your nitrite is off the scale. It could well be that you have to wait a couple more weeks. Try reduced feeding to limit the amount of waste being produced. Maybe someone else has got some ideas

good spot ofl the first post starts with quote"niteRATES 20 niteRATES OFF CHART" i dont know now if we are investigating..... niteRITES... or... niteRATES....i was assuming nitrATES

Tap water checks out zero across the board. using quick test strips. are they acurate or garbage

Sorry it my nitirtes that are way off, nitrate are 20

MY TANK READS 1.5mg/l for nitrates with chemical nutrafin test kit ....
and above 250mg/l with tetra test strips ......so i would never go by the strips for any of the parameters....the others conflic not quite this much but a huge difference in readings between test methods.....hope this answers your question i wouldnt mind betting you a weeks wagws that if you test with the nutrafin test aquarium kit you will get massive diferences in your readings

Looks like Im going to go get a real test kit and stop using strips..Thank you.. Doing 50% water changes every other days cant hurt them any..

i would say to keep the water changes but dont wash your filter or media and test again with a proper kit...let us know how you get on ..or hope someone on here got some more advice, but for me this is all i can give??

Thanks for the help.

Hi, lets start again. you have a 55G tank. how many fish? and what filter?
Also please test for the full range.
Ammonia.
Nitrites.
Nitrates.
PH.
If you list in this order we will know whats what.

Alright finaly got a real test kit..( been snowed in for two weeks)
55 gal us tank
6 fish 1 oscar 2 balo 3 cichlids
fiter aqueon 55 (hob)
ammonia o ppm (mg/l)
nitrites 0 ppm (mg/l)
nitrate 0 ppm (mg/l)
PH 7.2
I have thrown the test strips away