Done a nitrate test is this bad result?

Question

1st: nitrate (No3) color card 80ppm (mg/L)

2nd: Nitrate (No2) color card 0.50ppm (mg/L)

Answer 1

Do you have any fish in the tank? It looks like your going through the cycling process =P Thats a good thing. If you have fish in the tank do a small water change to lower the nitrates. If not you can let the cycling take its toll. It should be done cycling in about a week. Then you can add all your fish with out worrying of a nitrate spike.

Answer 2

80pmm is way to high, you need to do a water change now. It should be >20pmm.

The Nitrite is high as well as it should read 0 but you are getting close.

Answer 3

Amonia is converted into nitrites then into nitrates.

amonia is the most harmful

Nitrates are far less harmfull than either.  Fish can tollerate levels of this and will get used to it, We do the %water changes to keep the nitrate level low.  If you add a new fish to a tank with high nitrates it could die quickly as it has not had time to adjust to these levels.

High nitrates also promote algae growth.

It sounds like they are probably very high, are they at the strongest colour on the card?  Idealy they should be at zero.  Especially amonia and nitrite.

Answer 4

well according to my 'interpet easy test' kit

Nitrate is best at 0 - 25 but 25-50 ok for hardy fish.

Nitrite is best at 0 - 0.1 but 0.25 is ok for hardy fish, toxic starts at 2.0

Doesnt your kit come with a book?

Diffent types of fish can tollerate diffrent levels but yes they are both on the high side but not toxic yet (according to my test book), i would do a partual water change 25% then retest it agen tomorrow, if its still high i would do another water change agen (25%) in a few days.

what fish do you have?

How oftern do you clean it? it should be around once a week.

Answer 5

you have nitrate listed twice. Nitrites should be at 0 as well as ammonia. nitrates in small excess, (No more than 20ppm will be ok only if you have plants (LIVE) to soak up the excess) From this I can see that your tank is not yet fully cycled.

You need to do a water change 25% do not add fish. If you do have fish it is imperative that you check and monitor these readings or they will succumb in these poor conditions.