Help Identifying this illness please

[Essjay]

Nitrates are good for my plants so i dont take them away too often

But high nitrate is bad for fish. We should try to keep nitrate below 20 ppm, though this is tricky when there's more than that in tap water.
A lot of plants prefer ammonia as their source of nitrogen, in preference to nitrate.

 

[Sgooosh]

But high nitrate is bad for fish. We should try to keep nitrate below 20 ppm, though this is tricky when there's more than that in tap water.
A lot of plants prefer ammonia as their source of nitrogen, in preference to nitrate.

hmm i have like no ammonia. but nitrate is like lower than 10, meaning like i dont get rid of it +

 

[jonny-5]

I had a higher Nitrate reading than normal a few weeks ago, I have no idea why? Nothing has changed, feeding is the same. Water changes are the same.
Anyway i was going to say i added 15 Water Lettuce on Saturday & almost all Nitrates have gone now, The only downside is this weeks tank maintenance involves clipping Lettuces back, They have grown huge in only a few days

 

[Sgooosh]

I had a higher Nitrate reading than normal a few weeks ago, I have no idea why? Nothing has changed, feeding is the same. Water changes are the same.
Anyway i was going to say i added 15 Water Lettuce on Saturday & almost all Nitrates have gone now, The only downside is this weeks tank maintenance involves clipping Lettuces back, They have grown huge in only a few days

youre lucky, my lettuces just straight up melted

 

[jonny-5]

These have a few melted leaves but otherwise growing well, Some have the shoots on the side of them with a new lettuce growing.

 

[Essjay]

I have to do that with frogbit as well. The roots would trail on the floor of the tank if i| didn't prune them and I regularly have to throw away handfuls of it.

hmm i have like no ammonia. but nitrate is like lower than 10, meaning like i dont get rid of it +

In a tank with no live plants, ammonia from the fish is converted to nitrite to nitrate which then builds up in the water. When there are live plants in the tank, they take up the ammonia made by the fish and they turn it into protein instead of nitrite and nitrate. They only take up nitrate when they take up ammonia faster than the fish can make it.
But just because nitrate is low doesn't mean we don't need to do water changes. Fish excrete a lot more than just ammonia and these things also build up in the water and need to be removed.

 

[jonny-5]

Im still doing my water weekly changes, Im just glad ive managed to bring the Nitrates down. I was a bit concerned about the higher readings in the last few tests, but since adding the lettuce the readings have improved massively

 

[Essjay]

I'm lucky that my tap water has very low nitrate (the tester shows slightly under 5 ppm and my water quality report gives it as 4 ppm) I recently tested my main tank just before a water change and also tested tap water so I could see them side by side. The tank water had less nitrate than my tap water - it was virtually zero. The majority of my plants are slow growers, but the surface is covered with frogbit, which I presume is the reason for my low tank nitrate.
Based on my readings, I would say yes, your water lettuce is helping reduce the nitrate.

 

[jonny-5]

My water company stats off the website Nitrate works out around 4ppm but the tests ive done have always been 0ppm. No colour change at all on 3 different kits & 1 test strip tester.
But just for that weekend my Nitrate hit almost 80ppm for no reason. They only thing i can think of is.....i dumped my juvenile Guppy males x 6 in the tank the weekend before for a male only display tank. But they are still small so cant see that was the cause but you never know

 

[jonny-5]

Update to this thread.....
So i dosed with Salt as @Colin_T advised, Which has made a difference in the flicking & twisting has almost gone & no red blotches, The flicking happends now & again but no where near as bad.
I have done a few big water changes when i can & added salt loss, So things are looking good up to now. The Corys are still active as before so i dont think the salt has bothered them. Although 1 of my newly aquired Albinos seems to be sat on the bottom a lot of the time & wont join the others, Hes been sat on his own since i got him a few weeks ago
Going to try another week with the salt then maybe up the dosing to 2 Tablespoons per 20L .
If that fails then im going to use the Protozin, But the med is a last resort so will keep you updated

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Update to this thread.....
So i dosed with Salt as @Colin_T advised, Which has made a difference in the flicking & twisting has almost gone & no red blotches, The flicking happends now & again but no where near as bad.
I have done a few big water changes when i can & added salt loss, So things are looking good up to now. The Corys are still active as before so i dont think the salt has bothered them. Although 1 of my newly aquired Albinos seems to be sat on the bottom a lot of the time & wont join the others, Hes been sat on his own since i got him a few weeks ago
Going to try another week with the salt then maybe up the dosing to 2 Tablespoons per 20L .
If that fails then im going to use the Protozin, But the med is a last resort so will keep you updated

Will keep fingers crossed for you! Good to know that there are signs of improvement. It's always nice to get a positive update!

 

[jonny-5]

I like to provide updates cos hopefully it gives people information that they could use without waiting for replies & a lot of the forums around only seem to be people asking for help, then advice is given & thats where it seems to end. You never really hear of results after the advice.

Although i can appreciate that what works for 1 persons setup may not work for the next persons