I seem to not be able to find a list of optimal levels in the water.

I know the pH should be like 6-7.5

And ammonia is bad. SO obviously 0 is good.

But what about Nitrite and Nitrate?

Here's what i got on my first test about 24 hours after my fish and his tank arrived at my home.

Nitrite - 0

Ammonia - 0-.25

Nitrate - 5.-10.

pH - 7.0-7.2

K.Krsntsn wrote:

stable pH from 6 to 8 will be fine. just avoid the erratic fluctuation.
abrupt changes say "from 8 pH to 6 pH is more stressful than stable 8.


0.25 is really dangerous and toxic to fish


nitrite is potent and once processed by good bacteria will become
nitrates. nitrite should be zero while nitrate should be 5 to 20.
higher than 20 signals you for a water change but fishes could still
cope up to 40 but stressful already.


regular water change to bring down ammonia.
do not clean yet your filter.

great, 24hrs in and he already has toxic amonia.

possible..... even tap sometimes has ammonia...
better check it too

PAUL wrote:


so hypothetically. if the tap has ammonia, is there a way to condition that?


EDIT: i tested straight tap water. and it came out to .25.

so now what? do i need to find the fish another new home? or invest in some expensive reverse osmosis system?

Im not expert but i find it pretty irresponsible for tap water to have ammonia in it. Is that why my pH was so high?

some people store the water in a bucket or basin overnight to
stabilized it. but if it is really what coming out of tap, the
filter set up will process it and convert them into less toxic
elements.

PAUL wrote:


I was thinking, shouldn't the tapwater conditioner actually taken care of that?

Problem with storing, is i dont have some where to store like 13-25 gallons of water. i would just fill the bathtub up. But my girlfriend has to take a shower in the morning.

PS thats pretty sick thats in the tap water.

basically yes, and you treated the new water only.

you could try a product like prime for water declorination. prime has the ability to convert ammonia into a none toxic form and this will still be food for the beneficial bacteria in your filter. you sill still get a reading for the ammonia on your test but it will not be toxic to your fish.

as for storing water to have the ammonia dissapate on its own i know what you mean about not having places to store it. on my water change day i do about a total of 300 gallons so storing water in my situation is unpractical as well.

so i did a 30% today and added a teaspoon of salt to every 5 gal and 10ml of StressCoat to each 5 gal too. I also turned the HOB onto high-flow.

Hopefully this all helps with his ammonia and HITH issue. His HITH is pretty bad.

I did all water sucking through cleaning the rocks. they were pretty bad, all 3 buckets i pulled out were completely black/brown. sick.

Once you have had your tank a while and your filter has enough bacteria to cope with your fish waste you will get a test result of zero for nitrite and ammonia. In the meantime do daily water changed until you have no ammonia and nitrite are zero.

This will help your HITH, you will continue to have to do lots of water changes to keep your water the best it can be to have a chance to cure that

since he was delivered with maaaaaaaaaaaybe 2 gallons of water left in the tank. would it be beneficial to get some of that stress zyme or something similair?