Last weekend I finally took the plunge and switched from all gravel with fake plants to a dirted/ planted set up! I'm super happy with the look (except for the tanins from the driftwood used... despite having soaked it for a month ahead of time--- but that's another issue )
I have been testing for an ammonia spike constantly and so far (thankfully) nothing. But today I did another test on the other levels and the Nitrates were really high (around 80). To remedy that I did a large water change (40%) and checked again. The Nitrates went down to around 40 (I only have the test strips not the drops so there's a little more guess work involved) but the Nitrites were the same (right about 10), if not slightly higher (they might have been 0.8 the first test)! So then tested my tap water (with declorinater in it) and it tested @ 1.
So obviously my tap water has nitrites in it. I wondered if it's the home filtration system we use but I still don't know what to do about it. Help Please!!!
I have been testing for an ammonia spike constantly and so far (thankfully) nothing. But today I did another test on the other levels and the Nitrates were really high (around 80). To remedy that I did a large water change (40%) and checked again. The Nitrates went down to around 40 (I only have the test strips not the drops so there's a little more guess work involved) but the Nitrites were the same (right about 10), if not slightly higher (they might have been 0.8 the first test)! So then tested my tap water (with declorinater in it) and it tested @ 1.
So obviously my tap water has nitrites in it. I wondered if it's the home filtration system we use but I still don't know what to do about it. Help Please!!!