# Explain these readings to me



## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

My sister has a comet goldfish in a 23 gallon tank. (I know how terrible this is, please don't tell me.) He hadn't had his water changed for 6 weeks. (Also terrible). At the 4 week mark, I dropped some Safe (the same as Prime, but more concentrated) into the tank.

The pH is 6. The water is extremely soft. I know this is bad too.

After the 6 weeks, the readings were:
Ammonia: 0.2
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20-40ppm.

How is this possible? How were the readings so low? I was dreading finding something like ammonia: 8 and nitrates: 4 billion and 2.


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Depending on the size and age of the goldfish, filter capacity, live plants, how much it gets fed, the decaying waste matter, how old/established the tank is, and if it's cycled or not, the levels aren't very common yet they aren't unheard if eithe. I would say that the tank is cycled and the goldfish is emitting low amounts of ammonia, unless you have live plants as presumably the nitrates would be higher without them


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Let me explain a bit better


The amount of nitrifying bacteria mainly depends on one thing, other than the amount of oxygen, light, etc. mostly food. As in ammonia. The amount of nitrosifyers can very greatly depending on the amount of food, in this case ammonia present. Nitrosifyers, such as nitrosococcus, And nitrosomonas. (there are more types of nitrosifyers but these are the only in an FW system) will convert toxic substances such as ammonia into equally toxic ones, in this particular situation, it would be nitrites, nitrites then get converted into less harmful substances by nitrifying bacteria. By nItrobacter (there are more types of nitrosifyers but these are the only in an FW system) the result of this would be nitrates. So the amount of nitrates you have can represent the amount of ammonia being produced. With live plants this process of destination can be puzzled greatly. So from the low levels and no water changes or replacing water that has evaporated I would predict that the goldfish is very small.


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

Sorry, I should have mentioned...the goldfish is ten inches long. The tank is bare bottom, no live plants. It is cycled (and thanks, I do know how the cycle works, but your explanation was great ). He is overfed, in my opinion. He should be emitting more ammonia than all of my fish together.


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Hmmm. I'm puzzled is it an open topped tank? Does she refill it if it is? My dad has a fairly overtired ten gallon, cycled with no "watr changes" but it's an open topped tank so he has to replace about 40% of the water weekly


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

Nope, it has a hood and doesn't get topped up. If I have spare water from one of my changes I'll tip it in, but it's usually a litre or less, and doesn't happen often. Maybe once a month, if that.


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

In acidic water, ammonia (NH3) emitted by fish is converted into less toxic ammonium (NH4+), which is more easily/quickly consumed by bacteria. In retrospect, the low pH could have actually saved him.


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

That's why I thought, but wouldn't it still have shown up on my ammonia test kit? Can the API kit actually distinguish between the two? Wouldn't it have shown up in the nitrate reading?

I want to add coral to the filter to raise the hardness and pH, but I can't trust my sister to do the water changes if I do.


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

No, the API test is for NH3/NH4+ together. What I'm saying is that the ammonium is being consumed at a steady rate (though the .2 indicates that there is perhaps not enough surface area to handle all of it).

I can't find much info on the nitrate thing. Oddly enough, searching it turns up with mostly goldfish related questions. xD
The only thing I can think of is if you're doing the nitrate test properly, or if your filter contains nitrate absorbing medium.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

The #2 Bottle for API Nitrate test MUST be shaken for 2 minutes prior to it being added to the test tube. The liquid is prone to separating and giving a false result.


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

It said to shake for 60 seconds in the manual, which I did. Followed all the instructions exactly as written.
The filter has wool, ceramic noodles and activated carbon, which hasn't been changed recently so is probably just carbon.


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

It says shake it for 1 minute but even API admitted that it is best to shake it for 2 minutes.

Change the Carbon if it hasnt been changed for a while. Carbon only has a finite life and will clog and produce toxins if not cleaned / replaced regularly. The wool can also be a toxin factory if not changed often as well.

It is quite important to do weekly water changes with goldfish.


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

How well circulated is the tank? It's happened before that someone had low nitrate when taking water from the surface, but incredibly high levels when water was taken from the middle/bottom.
Worth a shot if you haven't done a lot of water changing yet, even so it might answer the question.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## djembekah (Feb 13, 2012)

my instructions say shake bottle #2 for 30 seconds then after its added to the bottle shake THAT for 60 seconds. wonder why that's different.


sorry this has nothing to do with your question x3


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## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

It would really benefit to shake the #2 bottle for 2 minutes before adding it to the test tube and then shaking that for 1 minute.


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## djembekah (Feb 13, 2012)

that's good to know! thanks


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

Tazman said:


> It says shake it for 1 minute but even API admitted that it is best to shake it for 2 minutes.
> 
> Change the Carbon if it hasnt been changed for a while. Carbon only has a finite life and will clog and produce toxins if not cleaned / replaced regularly. The wool can also be a toxin factory if not changed often as well.
> 
> It is quite important to do weekly water changes with goldfish.


Not my tank. I wouldn't be keeping a full-grown comet (or any comet) in 23 gallons. I get in trouble for trying to do extra changes/generally make his life better.



Olympia said:


> How well circulated is the tank? It's happened before that someone had low nitrate when taking water from the surface, but incredibly high levels when water was taken from the middle/bottom.
> Worth a shot if you haven't done a lot of water changing yet, even so it might answer the question.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


The filter is pretty powerful, but you're right, I don't know if it circulates the whole tank. I'll give that a go.  He had a 50% water change the other day.



Tazman said:


> It would really benefit to shake the #2 bottle for 2 minutes before adding it to the test tube and then shaking that for 1 minute.


I'll remember that for future tests, thanks.


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