Added fish to the cycling with plants - How's this look?

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Hello: This is a follow up post from earlier in the month....I've added plants, then a few fish, after a few days, added more fish and today finally added all the fish. There's about 20 small fish in the 55 gallon tank, with about 30 small (4" - 6") plants.
These are "beginner plants" and a couple of swords and sagataria along the back in a substrate of swimming pool sand.
The tag on the plants said "medium light".
I gave them fertilizer yesterday.
I just tested the water and the results are as follows:
Ph: 7.4
Nitrate 15
Nitrite 5
Ammonia 0
GH 100 ppm
KH 80 ppm
The light, a 32 watt T-8 8,000 K "aquarium lamp" is on for 12 hours a day.

My questions are:
Is the water chemistry ok? If not, what do I need to do?
The "aquarium lamp" seems to be a "one size fits all" type light....Is there a better one I should use?
I have a piece of African driftwood....I was told to soak it for a day before putitng it in the tank. Will any tannin leach out and discolor the water? If so, what can I do to prevent it?
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again
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1077

Everything sounds fine to me with exception of nitrite reading which must be zero to prevent harm to fishes.
I might perform 30 to 50 percent water change and see if nitrite reading does not improve.
Might consider root tabs under the sword plant's once a month, and weekly dose of liquid fertz.

never quit

Thanks. I didn't know if the nitrites were too high. I'll do a partial water change today. I tried to find table fertilizer but no one had any. Not that they were sold out, they just don't carry it! Is there a point of too much fertilizer? Are the root tabs designed to be used with the liquid?

Thanks
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sik80

Your plants will grow better and use more of the fishes ammonia with a light rated around 6500k as this is around the optimum for most plants

There's not much you can do to prevent tannins leaching. Some woods have more than others - best way to find out is put in a bucket and see if the water become discoloured. If it does, you might want to leave it soaking in a bucket and change the water a few times to get rid of the worst of it before putting it in the tank. Tannins shouldn't harm the fish

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Thanks for the input. I've had the driftwood soaking, and hardly any water discoloration, so that's good. And, I need to see about a light with that temperature..

Had a misspelling: "I tried to find table fertilizer but no one had any." Should have read: "I tried to find TABLET fertilizer but no one had any." Not that it wasn't obvious, just wanted to be correct.



Thank you
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Strand

Tannins do NOT harm fish.


Like they said soak it and keep changing the water until it doesn't leak any color anymore.


I ran my driftwood through the dishwasher 6 times. More for disinfecting than anything since I use a blackwater additive with tannins in it.

If you have a pot big enough you can boil it.

Byron

From your info the fluorescent tube would appear to be a 48-inch so you can buy a good tube and be good with light. As was mentioned, a "daylight" type with around 6500K will work fine. Phillips and Sylvania make these and you can buy them for a few dollars (i.e., cheap) in a hardware store. Just make sure it is 6500K, Phillips calls theirs "Daylight Deluxe".

The nitrite [with the "i"] can't possibly be 5ppm or all the fish would be dead. If you meant 0.5 that is still bad and a 50% water change as 1077 suggested is essential.

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I just finished ~ 50% water change and the nitrite reading now is 1 ppm. Yeah, I must have goofed in that reading yesterday. While 1 ppm is still high, I'll do another 50% water change tomorrow. My reasoning for waiting a day is would all that water changing in one day would be a stress on the fish. Or, is the nitrite level a bigger stress and should I do the change today?

Thanks for the bulb data, I'll see if Lowe's has one.

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Byron

Nitrite at 1 ppm is usually fatal. At .25 it is affecting the fish internally. Water changes will not cause any harm.

What water conditioner are you using? One that detoxifies nitrite (and ammonia) such as Prime or Ultimate would be very advisable, as at least they would detoxify the nitrite for 24 hours so daily 50% partial water changes would be manageable.

After just an hour with high nitrite the fish are going to lose. Assuming your tests are accurate.

never quit

OK, thanks, I'll do another water change.....The only water conditioner I'm using is a dechlorinator. Now, if I add something that detoxifies the ammonia and/or nitrite am I stopping the cycling process?
I think your last sentence is the crux of the matter.....The accuracy of the test. I try and be as careful and as accurate as possible..However, the 0 ppm card color is significantly different from all the other colors (API test kit). Even the .25 to the .50 is different. Don't know what I'm doing wrong....Okay, what I'll do is take a sample of the water to the pet store and see what they get.

Thanks again
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