I had a post about Nitrites and having a reading for well over a month. I went out and bought a Green Terror..around 2 inches. My Oscar is about 3 inches. There is a Pleco who is about 2 inches. I have a 75 gallon tank.

Currently I am no longer getting a Nitrites reading once I backed off on water changes. I tested Ammonia just to make sure and it is 0ppm too. I have the liquid test kit. I am assuming the addition of the Green Terror recently allowed Nitrates to kick in. I am however getting a ZERO reading for Nitrates..what is going on here? Am I missing something?

Maybe the test is not picking up the Nitrates in the tank yet. The Nitrites are def. zero now..the test tube liquid is teel blue. The Ammonia appears to be yellow or really really light green. Can a cycle go backwards? I am assuming it can if you do a water change without adding dechlorinator. I use more than enough PRIME when I do water changes. I have not changed the water in over 4 days. I am getting a zero reading across the board..

Also note that I have noticed my Oscar is more active and darker in color..He is very very active compared to the stages where I was getting a 1ppm reading of Nitrites and in the beginning when I had Ammonia readings.

how did you cycle your tank? Have you cleaned your filter?

I have a couple thoughts but need this info

I just put the Oscar and Pleco in when they were about 2 inches. I have an XP3 filter, I did water changes when the Ammonia got high in the beginning. The first Oscar I had got sick with Ick, i treated the tank right when I started getting Nitrites readings. The medicine I used killed the bacteria and I had to start from the beginning.

I bought another Oscar, very healthy. He has been through the Ammonia process and the Nitrite process. I did water changes every other day while getting a Nitrite reading. I just didn't see the Nitrates appear. I have never cleaned the XP3 out as of yet. I did maybe three or four gravel cleanings.

The Oscar is doing great the the Green terror is too. They ate their Cichlid Gold pellets tonight and the Pleco is sucking away looking healthy too.

What test kit do you have?

API freswater master test kit, liquid test kit


BTW that first Oscar died of internal parasite with the long white feces. I treated the tank like crazy.

But since then, my new Oscar is doing good with the other fishes

Are you sure you are testing correctly?? Shake bottle one for a minute, Add 10 drops from bottle 1, shake tube for 30 seconds, shake bottle 2 for a minute... add 10 drops... shake tube.... then wait 5 minutes... or something along those lines... i lost my directions. LOL??

what did you treat the tank with?

Nickisue wrote:


Your correct.You've got so many tanks you don't need instructions.
I just shske all the bottles as I test.

LMAO!!! Yes I think I could test water in my sleep...

I used to test water in my sleep when I was a child.
My mother wasn't impressed.

LMAO!!!