Cant Get My Water To Normal Levels!

[bigsmoker205]

hi,i'm in northern ireland.i have around 20 fish in my tank,some discus,angel fish,mollies,large pleco,loaches and a stingray..2 died today.when i came home two where floating.one was a stick insect looking sucker,the other a shark looking silver fish with a red stripe fading to yellow round it.dont know names sorry.tested water and it was way toxic!
nitrate 40
nitrite 1.0
ammonia 8.0
ph is ok at 7.2 - 7.6

i changed the water,nearly 80% and it barely changed this,so i changed it again,nearly 80%,still not going down much.cleaned filters,added a small secondary fluval in tank filter there to help the fluval 205 i have running it.

recently i added a stingray to my tank.never had any bother before.change water once every month 50%.clean filter every 1-2 months as it needs it.i'm always testing my water and have only ever seen nitrate go anywhere near this level.reat are normally fine.
filter hoses seemed to be quite blocked and water flow had decreased around 50% today.running fine now.just cant get levels to go down no matter how much water i seem to change.
heres pics of water levels
1st test before water change.scary...

2nd test after 1st change

3rd test after 2nd water change

my normal tap water tested just in case.seems normal i think??

should i keep changing the water till these levels come right down?they dont seem to have changed very much for 2 70-80%% water changes.the discus and the pleco seem to be losing colour fast and the stingray has completely buried itself in the gravel.am very concerned for them as i'm sure you all understand.

please help me help my fish.thanks,
michael

 

[WILDER]

How long has the tank been set up.
How many gallons or litres is the tank.
The silver shark sounds like a bala shark.

 

[bigsmoker205]

them pics are wrong.1st one and last one are ok.2 and 3 same as 1st lol.water not that bad after change.i'll try again here lol

pic no 2 hopefully

pic 3 hopefully lol

 

[WILDER]

This is a bala shark.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=123786

 

[bigsmoker205]

How long has the tank been set up.
How many gallons or litres is the tank.
The silver shark sounds like a bala shark.

around a year m8. its 3.5 ft * 1.5 ft * 1.5 ft roughly m8.150 liters or so i think not too sure.

 

[Tolak]

What are you usint for a water treatment? Many times water companies will add extra chlorine & chloramine due to seasonal or weather changes. I have a pretty good idea as to why & when my water company does this, I double dose with Prime during the winter or after foul weather, and can get by with nothing but sodium thiosulfate during most of the summer.

Your water companies main concern is healthy humans, not healthy fish.

 

[bigsmoker205]

This is a bala shark.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=123786

nah m8,probably confused it saying it looks kike a shark.it aint to my knowledge(limited lol)

 

[WILDER]

Going by your filter size i would say the tanks 50gals and its overstocked.
205 Suitable for tanks up to 200L flow rate is 680 LPH

 

[bigsmoker205]

What are you usint for a water treatment? Many times water companies will add extra chlorine & chloramine due to seasonal or weather changes. I have a pretty good idea as to why & when my water company does this, I double dose with Prime during the winter or after foul weather, and can get by with nothing but sodium thiosulfate during most of the summer.

Your water companies main concern is healthy humans, not healthy fish.

hi m8,using api stress coat -fish and tap water conditioner.had no probs last yr with water
.thought it may be that myself so thats why i did test on tap water too.maybe not show up some stuff in test though?

 

[WILDER]

Need to look at the tank size as it looking like it's overstocked and the filters are not coping.
You will never get water quality good in a overstocked tank.

 

[bigsmoker205]

Going by your filter size i would say the tanks 50gals and its overstocked.
205 Suitable for tanks up to 200L flow rate is 680 LPH

think so m8?how many fish should there be?i'll do a head count here see how many i've got in it.looks empty the tank though.not overcrowded to the eye.maybe different statistically though as you say.

 

[WILDER]

What type of loaches are they.

 

[bigsmoker205]

What type of loaches are they.

2 clowns and 2 spotted white with greeny/grey circles

 

[WILDER]

The tank way overstocked and that why your water quality is bad.
Research the fish before you buy them.
So what fish are now left in the tank.

 

[bigsmoker205]

just took this.excuse crap homebase pipe,cat keeps biting through fluval hoses(b****rd).and also dodgy background.was lovely and clear blue till it started to come unstuck lol.didnt look as good with it taped on so i put it on with soapy water like a car sunstrip.lasts a month or two and starts to bubble off (nightmare)

big tank,thought there was loads of room still in it lol