[alihyde75]

hi,
got a tank which has been set up for a year now, just one melanchromis auratus in it. changing to tangs soon.

i do regular water changes, and buffer using the buffer recipe on this site. just done a load of tests, and nitrite and ammonia are showing. also phosphate is high which is causing brown algae growth on my tank.

levels are : kh - 21.28
gh - 21.28
ph - 8.2
nitrate - 5-10
phosphate - 5 nitrite - 0.5
ammonia - 1.0

any comments appreciated. not sure why nitrites would still be present. could it be my testing kit? (three years old).

cheers ali

 

[triscuit]

That does seem a bit suspicious. When and how much was you last water change prior to the tests? Have you tested your tap water for nitrites and ammonia? What size tank, and what type of filters are you using?

I haven't seen an aged test kit give false positives, but it could happen I suppose. Bring a tank sample to your LFS and ask them to test it if your tap water comes back clean.

 

[DirtyBlackSocks]

Old ammonia test kits will give false positives.

 

[alihyde75]

i did a 25% water change last week. its a 55 gallon tank. running a tetratec ex700 filter. will check my tap water later.

water seems clean, and fish is happy.

 

[alihyde75]

tap water is fine. retested my tank and now it is reading 0 for nitrite. i think the test tube must have been contaminated.

ammonia is showing 0.5 still. would water changes help this?

 

[triscuit]

Please bring a water sample to be tested elsewhere... it sounds like your test kit for ammonia isn't working. With just 1 fish in 55 gallons, there shouldn't be any measurable ammonia.