Can someone give me advice about my fishtank lvls?

Question

I just tested my water and the test came out like this...

Nitrate 20

Nitrite .5

Hardness 300

Chlorine 0

Alkalinity 80

P.H 7.2

so whats the next step to take to make my tank safer for my fish? btw i did a 25 % water changed yesterday...

the reason i'm worried is because i lost a danio last night and i want to make sure it wont happen again.

Answer 1

ok based on those readings means your tank has not completly cycled and if you tested for ammonia you will get a reading of between .25 and 1.0

once the tank has cycled nitrite and ammonia will read 0

your tank is still cycling and this will take a month when you do the partial water changes do not touch the gravel

you should test the tank for ammonia every day and do the partial water change anytime the ammonia reads above 1.0

the cycle process takes about 30 days keep a close watch on ammonia levels do not clean the filters or the gravel untill the ammonia and nitrite levels both read 0

once they read 0 only clean the gravel a half at a time with at least a week inbetween and the filter cartridge once a month

feeding every other day a small amount will help keep ammonia level down at safe levels

Answer 2

your tank is almost finished cyling

STOP using amquel, you're informed correctly, it will mess up your reading

the only chemical you NEED is the water conditioner, that's it

nothing more nothing less

keep doing about 10% waterchanges every 3 days until you see your nitrites fall

once they're at 0 you do 25% weekly partial waterchanges with a gravel siphon

Answer 3

What size is your tank? 25% seems a bit much! Maybe 10% but no more than 15 % ever because it is to much stress on the fish? Did you use R/O water? What kinda of filter do you have? .05 nitrite does not seem that bad, however you do want it at 0.0 ppm.  Adding some live plants would help also. Have you checked your filter? If you clean it take it apart all the way and clean it with a brush. How many fish due you have in the tank?

Answer 4

what's your ammonia level? how long has the tank been set up? you want to wait until your nitrites and ammonia are both at 0 before adding less-hardy fish. when that happens, you know your tank has actually cycled.

what are you adding to your water?

Answer 5

Nitrite's that high can be poisonous for fish. Add 1 teaspoon per gallon of aquarium salt to the tank to protect them. Check out this website to help you even more. There is area's about tropical fish and water quality help