Water Tests?

[therock0861]

Ok I just tested my water and the readings are Ammonia=0 Nitrites=.075 and Nitrates= .5 are these dangerously high considering I just finished putting a Maroon Clown and a Percula Clown a week ago making 1 Blue Damsel, 1 Clarkii, 1 Maroon, and 1 Percula? <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" />

 

[fshhub]

your tank is fairly new, isn't it, did it finish cycling yet??
youdidn't recently loose a member of the tank which may stil be in there did you??, the nitrates are not a big deal, in fact, they are good, but the nitrites, you really want at 0
if you have finished cycling, and didn't loose anything, then did you recently add anything else, like sand, a new filter or lr??
HTH
oooops, oversite there, your bio load may be a bit heavy for your tank, especially if it is a new tank, this may be the problem too, if you are refering to the 35 gallon in your sig, that is

 

[therock0861]

Yes it finished cycling a week or so ago and I added the maroon Clown and a Percula Clown about a week ago and yes i have the same tank.

 

[therock0861]

Oh yeah there is green algae starting to grow on the tank too but just on the glass.

 

[therock0861]

Anyone have any other input?

 

[fshhub]

sorry,b ut i would thin the load a little, and the clowns, i would watch them all for signs of aggression or nipping, clowns often have a rpob with other clown species
and do a water change, if it is done cycling, that should hellp some,a bou a 20% change
also, look at your feeding, could be overfeeding too

 

[jastim]

I agree that the load is a little high. However, I am not sure I would do a water change at this point. I think what is happening is that you are going through a mini-cycle. Your tank is fairly new and you just doubled the bioload with your recent additions. In fact I would be a little suprised if you didn't see a small shift up in your nitrites. The bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites are some of the slowest growing so this is where you typically see the results of the mini-cycle. If you do a water change you will probably see another mini-cycle again. IMO nitrites at or less than 0.1 are not critical as long as they go down soon.
My two cents.

 

[jastim]

One more thing: What type of biofilter do you use? You may need to increase filter capacity with the bioload you currently have or beter yet thin the crowd a bit.

 

[therock0861]

Ok guys thanks for the input. If I plan on getting a bigger tank in the next couple of months will I be ok with what I have in there?

 

[therock0861]

Oh yeah all of the fish are getting along fine and they are not aggresive toward each other in fact the maroon and the damsel hang out together and the percula and clarkii hang out with each other.

 

[therock0861]

Ok I think if I have to get rid of one that I should probably ask which one should be the first to go, which do you think will be the biggest problem?

 

[therock0861]

I looked at the test kit I am using for Nitrites and the chart says 0 then .05 then .1 then .2 then .5 then 1 and above. I tested my water and it was between between .05 and .1

 

[therock0861]

Oh and the only reason I added the fish was because I thought four small fish would not be too much.

 

[jastim]

Like I stated above I don't think 0.075 is cause for great concern at this time. Just make sure it starts to go down a little bit each day. If it starts to rise above 0.1 then it might be a good idea to start doing water changes. When you do the water changes, make sure you siphon the gravel. That should help greatly. I would suggest monitoring nitrites daily or every other day. Also feed very sparingly right now. Underfeed rather than overfeed. If you see any uneaten food in the tank after feeding remove it.
Hopefully you will see your nitrites back to zero within a week or so.
By the way you never answered my question above: what are you using for biofiltration? If you don't have it already I would suggest adding lr but don't do it now at the risk of making your nitrites spike up even more. It would be a good long term addition however.
Good luck.

 

[jastim]

Oops, just noticed that you do have lr. Thats good.

 

[therock0861]

I have 25lbs of Live Rock and a bio wheel I plan on adding LR a little at a time till I reach at least 50 lbs and I am going to start slowly removing the CC and replacing it with small amounts of LS.

 

[mr . salty]

My guess is that although your tank seemed to have cycled,it is still a very young/immature setup.And adding even ONE fish WILL affect the water readings.You see your tank will only have enough bacteria at any given time to support the number of fish that is in it.So by adding even one new fish,you throw this bio system out of ballance.The tank then needs to do a mini cycle to build enough new bacteria to support this addition to the total load....By adding TWO fish to a tank as unstable as yours,you have REALLY thrown the system out of ballance.This explains the high readings.The tank may return to normal in a few days.But in the meantime you should be checking that nitrite every few hours.If it continues to rise you will need to start doing water changes to remove these excess nitrites.You should also consider getting rid of two of those clowns.Even though they seem to be getting along now,I can garentee you WILL have problems.Mixing clowns like this is not even reccomended in large tanks.Once your clowns establish thier individual territoties,the fighting WILL start....Getting rid of two fish will also solve your nitrite problems....In the future you should add fish only one at a time,and only once a month..This will give your tank ample time to adjust......TOO MUCH TOO SOON..