JBL test shows false high nitrite level

Posted by on October 17, 2010 1 comment

What would you do if you get a nitrite test result showing your nitrite levels are at 0.8-1.0 ppm? At least I would panic at first. Just take a look at the picture below and you see what I mean.JBL Nitrite test shows false positive

The result to the left is the one I got from my first sample and it got me panicking for a brief moment. It shows a nitrite test result as high as 1.0 ppm which basically means that my fish are about to die. At this point I was still wondering how this could have happened since only a while ago the results were fine. What could have happened?

Then I thought I better take another test just to verify the reading. That result is in the middle in the picture above. As you can see it looks normal. I confirmed this by measuring the nitrit level a third time and you can see the result of that one on the right. This also showed normal. What had happened? All of the tests above were taken withing 5 minutes of each other.

Well, when I took the first test for nitrite I also took a test for nitrate. I had the both test bottles in the same hand shaking them violently to have them mixed well. This is what the instructions for the JBL nitrate test says I should do – but the nitrite test does not say I should do this. Apparently if you shake the test bottle of JBL nitrite test too much, you will get a false positive reading as a result. I never thought that shaking the test bottle would cause any harm – I mean it was not explicitly forbidden or anything. But apparently you shouldn’t do that. Only gently see that the two different liquids you dropped into the water are mixed and leave it alone for three minutes.

Joined Aquarium Advice community

Posted by on October 16, 2010 No comments

I’ve been looking for sites on the Internet that would gather freshwater aquarium hobbyists together and also give advice to beginners. This hobby is so changing that you just can’t do it by only reading a book (but it of course helps a lot). Just as I have been writing about on this blog, there are many people giving different kinds of advice and in the end it all depends on your tank and what you have in it. So it is good to have someone to ask or share and exchange your own thoughts to others.

So today I today joined the Aquarium Advice community at http://www.aquariumadvice.com. I been a member for only a few hours, but already my initial post got many replies from people who really seem to understand this and know what they are saying. It feels nice to have a place to ask questions from and also share good moments. Already from this first day in the community I have to say that I changed again my opinion about water change frequency. It really makes sense to change the water quite often since in the nature the water is flowing and changing naturally, while in an aquarium it’s you who have to do the changes – so why not change it as it would in the nature. It really seems there is no harm in changing the water too often (that is, if you are not doing it daily – that would cause unnecessary stress to the fish :)) if you are careful with vacuuming the gravel too intensively. So I will probably follow the following pattern in water changes from now on: change 10-20% of the water weekly with light gravel vacuuming and once a month 30-40% water change with intense gravel vacuuming.

My freshwater aquarium pH value jumped in a week

Posted by on October 15, 2010 No comments

I am confused. Again. But I guess this is the fun in having a freshwater aquarium 🙂

Last weekend, six days ago, before a water change, I checked my water’s pH value: ~6.6. Today after changing the water, it has jumped to 7.4. This cannot be good. I did a 30% water change. Should a 30% water change (on a 180 liters tank) impact the water pH this much? I am also not sure why the pH would go up – I have understood that overfeeding will lower the pH. So I guess this is good news in a way. But 7.4 is still too much.

Any ideas?

Vacuum the gravel or not when changing water

Posted by on October 9, 2010 No comments

I stumbled upon a great article on aquarium water change by americanaquariumproducts.com (Yes, they want to sell you stuff, but they also have some lengthy and detailed articles): http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_cleaning.html. The article goes into great detail on how you should clean the aquarium and change the water. One thing that caught by eye was the bit about vacuuming the gravel and the bacteria living in it:

Contrary to some information thrown around without much research, vacuuming the layers of gravel that contain aerobic (nitrifying) bacteria will NOT destroy the bacterial colonies as research (that really is not that new) has shown these bacteria to secrete a glue like substance to the media they cling to and a gravel vacuum will NOT dislodge these bacteria.

I too had heard about this, from my local aquarium dealer I guess. Also the book by Mr. Markku Varjo talks about the good bacteria living the gravel and that you should be careful not to vacuum too much and too often. I guess this again shows the point that there are as many advice on aquarium maintenance as there are people giving them 😉 In any case, last week when I did change the water, I followed the old advice and didn’t vacuum the gravel too much. So today I measured the nitrite levels and they were up, although I’ve done all I can to avoid nitrite (not feed fish too much, take care of the plants…).I think the elevated nitrate levels are related to my too careful vacuuming of the gravel because there was really a lot of feces in the bottom of the tank.

So I think what American Aquarium Products talks about makes sense and vacuuming the gravel from all loose material is important. You will not loose the good bacteria when vacuuming and by vacuuming the gravel the excess dirt is removed and you will have lower nitrite levels. I cannot imagine leaving the feces there can be good for anything. And as long as you don’t clean your water pump at the same time, there will be enough good bacteria in the tank anyway.

Our freshwater aquarium – 3.10.2010

Posted by on October 3, 2010 No comments

Juwel RIO 180 Freshwater Aquarium

This is our a bit over a month old aquarium, Juwel RIO 180. As you can see from the picture, I would like to get some more plant growth, although I am more than confident that the plants are well in the ecosystem. As we migrated from a 100 liters thank to this 180 liters tank, we are still a bit short on plants. But I think I will wait for the current plants to grow a bit more to see how many still are needed.

The main fish in the tank are guppy, with some platy and tetra fish. Their is also a single female Dwarf Gourami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_gourami) so we would need to get her some company and get a male one. Unfortunately already two of the male Dwarf Gouramis deceased in this new tank… But I think the water conditions are now stable and without nitrites, so we’ll probably get a new one pretty soon.