0 nitrate readings everything else in norm

[George David]

I have my system running for about a month. Using crappie I caught from the pond in my back yard. My tank is 75 gal and bed is 50 gal. I know it's not 1:1 but I am one who builds first then reads later. Any way I have quite a bit of vegatation in the bed. My last readings where ph 6.4 amm 2.0 nitrite 0 and nitrate 0. I am confused with my nitrate. Should I be getting a reading or my plants sucking them up. They are growing good but not as fast as I thought they would. So my question is are my nitrate levels norm.

Thanks
George

[Keith Rowan]

your system is cycling.. you'll get a jump in nitrite soon.. then you'll see the nitrates..

you might want to salt to 3ppt when the nitrites go up to help the fish (it mitigates the effects of brown blood disease to some extent)

you'll hear lots about ph, personally, i like to keep my system buffered up to 7.2 to 7.4

 

[George David]

Thanks I will be waiting and testing!

Keith Rowan said:

your system is cycling.. you'll get a jump in nitrite soon.. then you'll see the nitrates..

you might want to salt to 3ppt when the nitrites go up to help the fish (it mitigates the effects of brown blood disease to some extent)

you'll hear lots about ph, personally, i like to keep my system buffered up to 7.2 to 7.4

 

[Alex Veidel]

Yep, your system isn't cycled yet. You should eventually get some nitrite and nitrates in there.

[Jeffrey Ihara]

I would be ready to do water changes if ammonia and nitrites spike up too high, but using water from your pond. That's a nice luxury that most of us don't have. It will also speed your cycling.