nitrate or nitrite

[Darth_discus]

can someone tell me the difference between the two and which one is more important to test for

[Blue]

Nitrite will have an immediate effect on your fishes health. It has an effect on the fishes ability to process oxygen and plays havoc with the immune system. You need to keep this at zero. If your filter is working efficiently then nitrite will not be a problem.
Nitrate may cause problems such as bad colour and causing fish to be sterile later in life. Anything lower than 40 on your test kit should be fine but it is possible to keep it much lower using absorbsion medias in a filter.
Aqua-Medic do a filter that will keep it around 5.

What are your water parameters like? Tank water and what you use for water changes.

Barry

Anybody please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[ctvu]

Nitrate may cause problems such as bad colour and causing fish to be sterile later in life. Anything lower than 40 on your test kit should be fine but it is possible to keep it much lower using absorbsion medias in a filter.
Aqua-Medic do a filter that will keep it around 5.

Barry

.

I totally agree with Barry, I'd like to add that you can remove Nitrate by doing WC regularly

ctvu

[Blue]

Sorry,
regular water changes are a must to replenish any natural elements back into the tank that may have been used by plants (unfortunately I have pretty high nitrates out of the tap.
Using RO water is definitely a good idea as you can really dilute your nitrates down. This will have to be re-nourished though as quite often it is to pure.
This all depends on the quality of water you get out of the tap though.

Barry

[Fishpimpin73]

Nitrate is also the tertiary by-product of the bio filter.

Plants and algeas LOVE nitrate and eat it up.

[Blue]

Your thread on cycling the tank should have helped you out a little with this.
http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2882
Stuquariums link pretty much says it all, but I did only glance at it. The graph alone should really help.
http://www.fishprofiles.net/faq/begin-cycling.asp

Barry

[Darth_discus]

my parameters are 3x2x2 and i do water changes every second day and i use a gravel vac to do that

[ctvu]

my parameters are 3x2x2 and i do water changes every second day and i use a gravel vac to do that

No this is not your water parameter
It should be PH, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ammonia, etc ...

HTH

ctvu

[Merrilyn]

Hi darth. The guys have already given you some pretty sound advice. Now, let's see if we can simplify things a bit for you.

Your tank is a really god size for discus, and by doing waterchanges every second day, with gravel vacuuming, you will be keeping problems to a minimum. You do need to go to your local aquarium shop and buy some water test kits.

You really need to have pH,
ammonia,
nitrite,
nitrate,
and hardness.

Those five test kits will set you back around $60 for the lot, but you really need them all to check on the condition of your water.

Have you already purchased your fish, and if so, how many do you have in your tank.

I don't think your tank was cycled before you added your fish, is that right? If so, that's cool, we can work with it. It's not the ideal situation, but it can be done. Just let me know, and I can walk you through it.

We don't want anything happening to those lovely fish.