Angel almost dead!

[Pointy_kitty]

there's alway something going on with my tanks!
either sickness, death by old age, new babies, new ornaments/fish
i'm always working on/improving/adding or fixing something

THIS time however its negative!
you see i always had good water but there was a nitrate spike for some reason!
i beleive it was a combination of:
-stress (i had a shark out of nowhere start chasing down fish and giving them heart attacks),
- decaying fish over night (my shark scared to death)
-moving (i drained 50% of my tank so we could lift it onto a new stand, then replaced it with the same old water once it was in place)

because my tank had high nitrate (about 40) my baby angel developed internal parasites and stopped eating
i then did a water change and succesfully treated them
BUT, because she was in a weakened state the nitrate killed her!
(i say killed her cause you can tell she's a gonner!)

my other fish are fine but the nitrate isn't dropping!
i went to the store for help and a woman suggested to STOP using cycle (scarey but i tried it), do a weekly 10% change and use a detoxifier for nitrate/nitrite
i did use it but since then it went up to 50!
i fear for my fish and although they look ok i don't want to lose anymore!

WHAT SHOULD I DO

 

[Pointy_kitty]

will noone save me from this hell?

 

[Pointy_kitty]

WHY WON"T YOU HELP ME

 

[wuvmybetta]

My nitrates come out of the tap @ 40 ppm and my fish are ok I never test my tank nitrates because I know no matter what...they're going to be high so I'm just diligent with water changes.

You can buy a product called Prime, it's wonderful stuff, it's a dechlorinator but it also helps break down ammonia/nitrites and it makes nitrate less harmful to your fish I've used it for awhile now and I like it. It's the only brand my lfs uses for water changes

 

[Pointy_kitty]

prime eh?
i have it
i bought it 2 days ago...
how long does it take to work?
it said up to 5 times regular dose in am emergency so i used 3 times the original dose not yesterday but the day before
but yesterday my water was at 50
if i do a 10-15% change and add a another dose (regular this time)
will it begin to go down?
i had like no sleep last night
since i lost my baby angel (my weakest fish) i was worried about the rest
to make matters worse they were settled down for the night (as always) so i couldn't tell if they were acting strange

they all made it till morning but i was tempted to overcrowd my other tank (with perfect water) and put the high nitrate tank fish in with my 3 baby gourami
i though this would be my emergency move and any of my tiny community fish i would place in a breeders net for the night to protect them from the gourami

) i'm a little embarassed how much thought and precation i put into my fish when my nitrates are a bit high
i know people who NEVER check their water and their fish live fine

 

[Angel Lady]

wuvmybetta is exctly right on that one prime is the best stuff that money can buy and it will do what it says it will do on the bottle. My nitrates shoot up to 200 and that is the only thing that saved my fish. It is a long story as to why my nitrates shot up that high I hope you can get your tanks lined out pretty soon and I hope your fish gets ok to.

 

[wuvmybetta]

It should start working immediately Pointy, I'm glad you got it because it's great stuff

 

[Pointy_kitty]

Thanks for the advise!
HOPEFULLY it will kick in cause it didn't yesterday

oh yeah and when you called me "pointy"
i broke out into histerical laughter!

i'm sorry, call me PK or Pointy Kitty, or even Kitty
but Pointy?
makes me sound like a cone head!
are you saying my head looks like a pencil??

 

[Baby Girl]

ok my advice for you is if you got a hospital tank put the sick fish in it. it might be ok if it goes into some nice clean water for a while to regain straigth. you shouldn't put a shark with angels, they are both very teratorial, but only the shark has teeth. and nigtrate level, try giving whatevers at the bottom of your tank a good clean, nitrate and nitrite has been known to atatch to sand or gravil. and if the fish stop eating again, try a different food. i find a change can sometimes get them eating again and flushes out their systems. and try and do a 10% water change every night at least 3 hours after a feed. that should help, but if id doesn't, you have some picky fish. but don't panic. angels can be strong little things when they want to be.

 

[wuvmybetta]

oh yeah and when you called me "pointy"
i broke out into histerical laughter!

I must admit...it was difficult to write it with a straight face , I ALMOST called you PK but Pointy just...happened