# Day 3 test results. What do you think?



## BillyVille (Feb 15, 2008)

Nitrate 0
Nitrite .5
Hardeness 75
Alkalin 40
pH 7.2

This test was done with the strips.

So what do I need to do?


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

You need a liquid kit. You should know your Ammonia as well.

Right now, you wait untill you have 0 Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates under 10ppm. You probably still have a lot of ammonia.


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## BillyVille (Feb 15, 2008)

walmart didnt have the liquid kit and I was curious so I bought the strips. I have some mollies, platies, and danios in it. The water is a little cloudy. I did my first water change tonight.


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

The cloudiness is from the bacteria build-up, since your tank is new. I personally wouldn't have added any fish in the tank untill you have a stable tank.


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## BillyVille (Feb 15, 2008)

But since I did what should I do? or what would you do with removing the fish?


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## Flashygrrl (Jan 18, 2008)

You don't have a Petco or Petsmart around? Even then, see if you can't order one off Dr Foster and Smith. You have way too many fish in there for cycling. If you don't have another tank (away from any other fish you have) to put them in and you can't take them back to where you got them then expect a couple to die. I guess you could try doing small water changes every day, I don't know if that will be enough to keep the ammonia down while letting the other bacteria start up with that many fish though.

I think the worst thing is herefishy gave you the advice to put danios in (and not more than 4), you said you would and now here you are with mollies, platies, and danios and unless I'm misunderstanding, you only have 1 danio and 3 platies and I'm assuming since you used mollies in the plural sense then well, that brings you up to at least 6 fish which will lead to New Tank Syndrome and something probably dying off but I hope not and maybe this will be a lesson to you to actually listen to what advice you are given.


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## BillyVille (Feb 15, 2008)

Flashygrrl said:


> You don't have a Petco or Petsmart around? Even then, see if you can't order one off Dr Foster and Smith. You have way too many fish in there for cycling. If you don't have another tank (away from any other fish you have) to put them in and you can't take them back to where you got them then expect a couple to die. I guess you could try doing small water changes every day, I don't know if that will be enough to keep the ammonia down while letting the other bacteria start up with that many fish though.
> 
> I think the worst thing is herefishy gave you the advice to put danios in (and not more than 4), you said you would and now here you are with mollies, platies, and danios and unless I'm misunderstanding, you only have 1 danio and 3 platies and I'm assuming since you used mollies in the plural sense then well, that brings you up to at least 6 fish which will lead to New Tank Syndrome and something probably dying off but I hope not and maybe this will be a lesson to you to actually listen to what advice you are given.


That was a typo I have 3 danios and then my gf comes home with 2 plays and a molly, so I had no choice.


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## Flashygrrl (Jan 18, 2008)

I'm just going to say that you did actually have a choice (put the fish in the tank and make gf happy or send them back and make her mad?). So, I hope you'll learn from this that sometimes you just have to say no (I've gotten good practice at this every time hubby wants to buy some crazy fish for my tank).

In the meantime, you will need to track down a liquid test kit, test the water on a daily basis and start praying because odds are your ammonia is about to go through the roof.


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## jeaninel (Aug 24, 2007)

As was stated get a liquid test kit and test daily for ammonia and nitrites. You will need to do frequent water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrites at a bearable level for the fish but this may lengthen the time it takes to cycle your tank.


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## Oldman47 (Sep 7, 2007)

At this point, even without a test kit, I would start doing at least a 25% water change every day. When, if, you get a proper test kit, you *may* be able to back off a little. With that many fish I would have to expect the test kit to indicate at least that much change and maybe more to get the water quality good. All water added as partial water changes needs to be treated with dechlorinator and needs to be the same temperature as the water in the tank in order to minimize the stress of the water change itself.


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## BillyVille (Feb 15, 2008)

day 4 its...

nitrate 0
nitrite 0
Hardeness 75
Alkalin 40
pH 6.0 

last night it was...

nitrate 0
nitrite .5
Hardeness 75
Alkalin 40
pH 7.2

The fish are super happy today. Ive never seen them act this crazy! Its fun to watch.


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

We need to know ammonia. Test strips usually carry false information. Have you read Fish_4_All's thread on that?


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## BillyVille (Feb 15, 2008)

no


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

I suggest doing it. It is in the "Starting and Maintaing a FW Aquarium" section.


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## BillyVille (Feb 15, 2008)

I will ckeck it out BUT the strips was all i could afford right now.


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

How much did you pay for the strips? $15? That is how much a good liquid test should be.


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## Flashygrrl (Jan 18, 2008)

I'm going to suggest that next time you find out what you need, actually listen to the advice given, and get it BEFORE you get the fish. You wouldn't move into a home or an apartment without having say, utilities turned on in there first would you?


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## BillyVille (Feb 15, 2008)

Flashygrrl said:


> I'm going to suggest that next time you find out what you need, actually listen to the advice given, and get it BEFORE you get the fish. You wouldn't move into a home or an apartment without having say, utilities turned on in there first would you?


Ok listen *flashygrrl* I got referred to this forum by a friend. If I knew that I would be talked to or treated the way I have been treated by YOU and a few others, I would have never joined. I know Ive screwed up some. And I know when you first started you was perfect at it. Im soooo sorry. I get what your saying BUT there is better ways of putting it with LESS ATTITUDE! Ive over looked it for awhile now, so If you cant respond in a nice way then DONT RESPOND at all. And if it keeps up I will just leave this forum simple as that.


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## Little-Fizz (Aug 19, 2007)

Everybody needs to chill. The guy made a BEGINNERS mistake. People do that, in fact I find it's what people do best. And I've always loved this forum because the people on it were very nice and helpful for my stupid BEGINNERS mistake. 

So please lets cut back on the rudeness going on here. 

As for the comment that was made about test strips costing the same amount as a 'good' liquid test. I cannot stress how inaccurate that is. 

A) Depends where you live
B) I paid 50$ for my API liquid tester. So yeah... Thats like 5 times more then test strips

But they are right, test strips are not reliable, you do need a liquid test kit but if funds won't allow that, then you'll have to make do with what you have. Theres nothing else to do. 

I did the same thing when I started too, only I had WAY more fish, don't stress about it. Your going to have a few die on you. But just do daily 15-20% water changes. It's your only hope.

I'm telling you now that your test strips are not helping whatsoever, on day 4 of a cycle you wouldn't even being showing Nitrites. You'll have ammonia right now. And in say... A week (maybe two it really depends)nitrites will show up.

I hope this helps. I'm sorry you've had a bad experience on this forum. It doesn't happen often. Don't be afraid to come back, we are here to help :wink: Best of luck with your fishies


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## Flashygrrl (Jan 18, 2008)

Small FYI: You got hosed on the test kit  Dr Foster & Smith has it for $15. Add in the shipping and that's only $24. And that's all I'm going to say because why bother?


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

I'd feel happier if we get along well, fellows. Everyone is given equal opportunity to share his opinions regardless of the circumstances and I would prefer that we cut back the negative tone and be a little more positive when helping others.

Good day to everyone.:wave:


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## Little-Fizz (Aug 19, 2007)

I agree Lupin. We are all fish people here. We should get along :wink: 

And Flashygrrl like I already said it depends on where you live. I'm assuming dr. smith or whatever is American? Now I haven't checked in a while but I'm sure the American dollar is slightly higher then the Canadian. Then getting it over the border blahblahblah it's going to be expensive either way. Thanks though maybe I'll check them out. :thumbsup:


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## Flashygrrl (Jan 18, 2008)

Bummer...well, there's gotta be some company that sells stuff cheaper than what you got it for...geez.


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