New tropical fish tank set up?

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Graeme K

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I have just bought a elite 60 aquarium. I have tested ph and that read 6.4. I have also tested nitite and nitrate and both have levels of 0. I am a novice when it come to tropical tanks and im not sure if the nitrate level is ok. I know that you want a reading of 0 for nitrite. Can anyone help me. When is appropriate to add a few fish?
i forgot to say the tank has been set up for 4 days and i have used Nutrafin cycle and nutrafin aqua plus in the water
 
Welcome to the hobby, sounds like you have some things to learn.

First off, whatever Cycle you have used has been wasted if you have no fish yet. That stuff is meant to be added with the fish. It's a very unreliable product anyway and if there's any advice I can give you, it's don't over-complicate things. The fish store sells a lot of stuff, but the only thing most people really need is the water conditioner.

When you add the fish they will start to produce ammonia, so this is the first thing you should be testing for. The less fish you add at once, the less ammonia build up there will be, so stock the tank with patience.

As long as the tank has been set up and running for at least 24 hours, then you are ready to add some fish. The water is already treated and has aerated, and that's all it needs.

Don't worry about the PH - to mess with it is a mistake. Fish are very tolerant of it, and the key to a stable PH is regular maintenance of the aquarium. What a PH of 6.4 means, other than being slightly acid, is that you can keep almost any tropical fish, and just need to avoid those which prefer more alkaline water.

Now, hopefully you won't make the mistake of randomly choosing fish without research. Stock the tank with a plan of what you want. Add the fish any time, but keep the load light - say about 1 inch of fish per 10 gallons of water, small fish only.

Now you keep it this way for about a month. In a carefully cycled tank the ammonia readings will be very low - in some cases even too low to detect with those tests. If you aren't measuring any with your tests, don't worry - wait the 4 weeks and then start testing for nitrates. If the nitrates are no longer 0, your tank is cycled (woo hoo!)

If you do measure any presence of ammonia, do a water change of about 1/3. Don't worry, there will still be plenty of ammonia left to cycle the tank. Do these water changes as often as it takes to keep the ammonia under a reading of .5. Once the ammonia begins to fall off, it's time to start testing for the nitrites, not allowing them to reach higher than a reading of 1. As the nitrites fall off, the nitrates will begin to show up positive.

Now you can add more fish, but do it gradually, allowing several days between additions for the bacteria to catch up.

Keep the nitrates down by doing water changes. Nitrates of 20 or less is perfectly acceptable, nitrates of 40 is tolerable, and nitrates of 60 is time to consider bringing it down soon, but lower is always better.
 
Most tropical setups are kept at a pH of 7.0, depending on what you wanted to keep. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are all desired at 0, but the nitrate will normally be a little higher, you need to keep in under 50 ppm. Your water parameters are registering as zero because you don't have a bioload for the bacteria to eat. The chemical cycles don't work nearly as good as fish do. So go ahead and do a water change, try to get your pH up, and add a hardy fish until your nitrogen cycle is complete, then add some more fish SLOWLY.
 
you will most likely want to raise the ph to a minimum of 7.0 which is neutral. for tropical fish, a nitrate of below 40 is safe. nitrite should always be 0. i would also test the ammonia regularly to ensure it is 0 as well.
 
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