My params...
Nitrates: 80.
Nitrites:2.0 ( lower than usual! Yay)
Hardness:300
Alkalinity:80
Ph: somewhere around 7.2 and 7.8.


What do I do? it tells me on the bottle but it dosent work too great so i could use some expert advice. Im pretty sure water changes WONT help because the water i use (filtered water from in door ice and water thing) is high in everything (huh, you should see my tap water!) heres the params for that...

Nitrate:40
nitrite: 2.0
Hardness: 300
Alkilinity: 40
Ph:7.8


I was thinking disstiled water from the store (like 50 cents a gallon) is that lower in hardness and stuff? any help you have is great!

EDIT: oh, if i DO use disstilled water would it be a good idea to drain the tank completly? I do have salt in there so i dont know what its saturated to. Would it be safe to change it all? I wouldnt mind.

I am really afraid I do not truly understand all of your question.....so lets see if we can take it apart and find out what to do, ok?

You should test the water you are using for the tank and find out what is in that water. You are using tap water from the refrigerator filter, correct? Those filters do an ok job at filtering out large particles and some of the smaller stuff, but not too much else. Your water should be fine. Take a look, though and see if it has any nitrates or ammonia in it to begin with. (if you do not have an ammonia test, that is fine at this time, but it is definately something you will want to look into in the near future. ) What is in your tap water?

Secondly - since you do not list your ammonia levels, I am assuming that your tank is in the middle of a beginning cycle. First the ammonia will build, stimulating the first type of beneficial bacteria to grow. These bacteria process the ammonia into nitrite. This nitrite in the tank will stimulate a second type of beneficial bacteria to grow. This second type of bacteria will process the nitrite into nitrate.

When you get enough of both the types of bacteria growing in your tank, they will effectively process all the ammonia and nitrite your fish produce - leaving you with nothing but nitrate in the tank's water. This nitrate needs to be removed on a regular basis - through water changes or a combination of water changes and real plants. Nitrate is a fertilizer for plants - algae and other plants love it and will grow well with it. It is difficult to get enough plants in a tank to completely take care of all the nitrate messy goldfish can produce, but, with waterchanges and/or plants, you can effectively keep the nitrates down below about 40ppm.

Lets look at what you have -

Unknown ammonia. I am going to assume that since you are seeing nitrites, you have zero or at least very low ammonia. This means the first type of beneficial bacteria have grown in your tank's cycle. This is GOOD!

Nitrite is at 2.0 This means that the second type of beneficial bacteria has not grown a large enough colony to be able to process all the ammonia waste that is being turned into nitrite by the first type of bacteria.

Nitrate at 80 ppm. This means that either your tap water contains nitrates, or you have some of the second type of beneficial bacteria working for you (or both). You just do not have enough of it to take care of all the nitrite, but you have some. The fact that you are seeing nitrates is also GREAT. It means that your tank is almost completely cycled.

Now: You have noticed that your nitrites are lower than usual. That may be because your second type of beneficial bacteria is now just beginning to grow into the bio-load the fish are giving it. Once you start seeing nitrates, you are almost there. The colony of bacteria will bloom and you will see the nitrites drop quickly and the nitrates climb quickly. You then do a series of water changes to keep the nitrates ok, and you are home free. Your tank is cycled.

Untill all the nitrites drop, you may want to add a small amount of aquarium salt to the tank's water. A Tablespoon of coarse grained aquarium salt for every 5 gallons of water will bring the salt concentration to approximately .1% - a good level for a tank that is just about ready cycle completely.

I do not know what bottle you are reading - but, if you are not adding any water conditioners that absorb ammonia or nitrite or nitrate, or using zeolite or the ilk in your filters, you should be just about ready for a completely, happily cycled tank for your fish.

Change out a portion of the water to get the nitrates and nitrites down, and add the salt to .1% and keep testing. With luck, you should see the nitrites drop quickly now.....

Rather than confuse the matters more, I am using a new reply. You posted your tap water's parameters when I was typing!

Your tap water is not so good! Having both nitrate and nitrite in your water is really a big pain in the tank! Yuck.

I have horrible water, too, but I have gone the way of RO water. Distilled water is really empty water - when it is distilled all the minerals and everything is removed. Goldfish (and fish in general) need a certain amount of minerals and nutrients in their water to grow truly healthy and strong. IF you were to use 100% distilled water, you would have to supplement with doses of GoldTrace or a similar mineral replacement conditioner to replace the needed minerals and nutrients into the water.

If you are considering buying water at the grocery, I would suggest looking for the "drinking" water. Our store sells large 5 gallon jugs that you can refill from the spigot there for about $2.00 for 5 gallons. Our store's water is RO water - much better than distilled. Some stores sell "baby" water - water that has been finely filtered for use with infants. This, too, would be better than distilled water. Distilled will also be substantially more expensive and is typically only sold in gallon jugs.

If you do buy filtered water, you may still want to use about 10% to 50% of your water from the fridge filter, to bring up the buffer and the hardness (distilled and RO water has zero buffer and zero hardness - you will HAVE to ammend it).

I am also concerned that since your water has nitrite and nitrate in it already, you may or may not be seeing a cycle going in your tank. How long has the tank been running? Is there any way you could get an ammonia test and find out if there is ammonia in there, also?

Man - yucky tap water is a pain.......

Im a little confused. heh, lots of things. Ok, I just tested my tank so these are current. I dont have an ammonia test kit right now. when you talk about the tap water do you mean from the sink or from the fridge? If you mean from the fridge i posted those allready. ok so.... basically your saying ammonia-----nitrates----nitrites---cycled? im a little confused. heh. ill print it out though and try to understand it heh. im a little slow. I do add water conditionor/stress coat stuff. ok, i ran up and tested the sink water and my conditionor it says...

To remove chlorine and neutralize chloramine: add one teaspoon full blah blah un importand to this topic . Using proquatics ammonia deoxifier will instantly deoxify poisoinus ammonia

So i assume it dosent absorb ammonia.


Sink water params:
Nitrates: 30
Nitrites: .5 ish i think
hardness: 300
Alkilinity:40
PH:8.4

So distilled water? Is it better? softer? anythinger? and is it ok to change alllll the water in my tank?
the bottle i was talking about is my bottle of test strips btw

heh, i didnt see that second one...
So bottled water stuff? that sounds good then. I wish there was a way i could test it before i bought it. heh. Ive had my tank about a month. mabey i should just start all overe cause i think its messed up (the cycling i mean) And i can get an ammonia test.

Why do you think it's all messed up?

The cycle is ammonia - nitrItes - nitrAtes.

Other than you sink water having a different pH than mine - it's not that much different (although I have ammonia & nitrAtes in mine & no nitrites)

My tanks can handle the influx of ammonia now & tap water hasn't been a problem for me.

I switched to Prime when cycling to help neutralize some of the bad stuff.

I wouldn't break down the tank at this point - I would continue what you are doing with testing & water changes.

(My tank nitrites ofen got over 2 when I was cycling. I just tested frequently & changed alot of water.)

Hope this helps!

Jenn

PS - Keep an eye on your pH to make sure that it is stable. It appears that you don't have much of a buffer in your water & that your pH is changing the longer your tank water sits. You may need to add something to your water to buffer it so your pH remains more stable

I wouldn't start over. Your biofilter bacteria are probably almost up to speed. Having salt in the water now is a good thing. It will help protect against nitrIte poisoning. So do you have any idea how many teaspoons per gallon of salt is in the tank? When you do partial water changes, just add the amount of salt per Daryl's instructions till nitrite comes down.

I'd suggest getting a liquid test kit. The AP master test kit is good. It's less expensive per test and is more accurate. There's quite a difference between your tap water readings and the filtered water that may just be because test strips aren't that accurate. It would be good to have better readings to know if it's worth it to get a filter or buy water.

Also, you probably should switch to either Amquel+ or Prime for your water conditioner. Those will help with the nitrIte and nitrAte issues in your tap water.

ok thanks

PERFECTTTT! I got some baby water from the store and im so happy with the params from the baby water, i tested it right when i got home

Nitrate: 0
Nitrite:0
Hardness: less than 75
Alkalinity: 0
PH: 6.2

YAY!

You are going to have to add some alkalinity to that water as a buffer for your pH. One of the easiest ways is to add baking soda......

When you are sure that your cycle is strong and robust - you can also add some of the filtered water from the fridge. Some extra nitrite will be processed by the biocycle the same as if it came from a fish's ammonia. The little extra nitrate might mean you have to change water a bit more often than otherwise, but it will naturally help add the minerals and buffer to your tank.

I only added 1 gallon of the baby water to my tank so i figured it would even out. I havent tested my tank since i added it. Ill get a liquid test kit after i use these up, i got um... 8 left.

Wait, is the problem having nitrItes in your tap water? If it is, just add a few doses of prime, that should detoxify the nitrItes in the tap water, and you can focus on raising/lowering pH, GH, and KH...

Or maybe I misunderstood?