ammonia and nitrite levels

SiennaSkye

Hello all. I'm new to the forum and to owning an aquarium. I currently only have a little 6 gallon that has been set up since July 1.

Last week my ammonia and nitrite's were testing at 0 so I thought I was good to go. I did a 25% pwc last night and now the ammonia is testing at .25 and the nitrites are at .50. Is this normal after a pwc? If it isn't normal, any suggestions?

As I said I'm new to this and have been bitten by the bug and already know that I want to upgrade to a larger aquarium very soon. I just want to get everything figured out first.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Angela

Little-Fizz

Is there fish in this tank? How did you cycle the tank? Did you vacuum the gravel? My only guess is when you did your water change you disturbed some nastiness in there and now it's polluting the water. BTW if there is fish in this tank I would do an emergency water change and continue to do so until you get those nitrites under control. That's a deadly amount.

SiennaSkye

There are 3 Zebra Danio's in the tank. Those were suggested as fish to use while doing the cycle with fish.

Yes, I vacuumed the gravel.

How much water does an emergency water change consist of?

When doing a pwc should the levels stay the same?

Little-Fizz

I would say 25 - 30% water changes until you see an improvement. So you just cycled the tank with fish? How often were you doing water changes before that? and were you vacuuming the gravel every time? It's weird you would have a random spike like that.

I assume pwc means partial water change? Hah, sorry I haven't been on the forum in a long time and my computer lingo is a little rusty. It all depends on how much water you are changing. But you don't want to do too much as your tank is still young and you don't want to lose to much progress. You should notice a little change if you do a 30% water change. Do a 30% today Then follow up with maybe 15-20% daily ones and obviously testing the water daily as well. You should notice a difference quickly. Keep us updated! The ammonia levels in your tank are ok for a short period of time but those nitrites are really bad.