I have a problem with my nitrites & nitrates levels in my tank. I tested the water last week and all levels were normal, I tested again yesterday and the nitrites & nitrates are sky high. We did an immediate 20% water change and added nutrafin aqua+ and nutrafin cycle (double dose). We tested the levels again today and it hasnt made any difference........can anyone help.
Help
- Thread starter hantsrose
- Start date
Your water stats are terrible.
When did you last maintain the filter.
Do you hoover the sand or gravel with a gravel vac.
How often do you maintain the tank.
How many gallons is the tank
When did you last maintain the filter.
Do you hoover the sand or gravel with a gravel vac.
How often do you maintain the tank.
How many gallons is the tank
The filter is maintained every time a water change is done.....which is weekly.
We do a 10% water change every week AND we use a gravel vac. The stats have always been ok until this week. Not sure on size of tank.........my other half isnt here to tell me what it is. It has a fluval 105 filter.
We do a 10% water change every week AND we use a gravel vac. The stats have always been ok until this week. Not sure on size of tank.........my other half isnt here to tell me what it is. It has a fluval 105 filter.
I would squeeze one of your filter sponges in old tank water, only one.
Your stats are not making sense, as a high nitrate reading means you are not doing enough maintance on the tank.
Need to know what size tank to see if its overstocked and the filters not coping.
I would remove your ornaments and give the gravel a good vac.
Whats your tap nitrate reading.
Only need to use the nutrafin cycle when you have used meds, so I wouldn't use it now.
Plus it a waste of money as most members don't rate it much.
Your stats are not making sense, as a high nitrate reading means you are not doing enough maintance on the tank.
Need to know what size tank to see if its overstocked and the filters not coping.
I would remove your ornaments and give the gravel a good vac.
Whats your tap nitrate reading.
Only need to use the nutrafin cycle when you have used meds, so I wouldn't use it now.
Plus it a waste of money as most members don't rate it much.
We always remove the ornaments from the tank when we do a water change. I will test the tank and tap water and get back to you with the size of the tank.
The testing kit suggested adding aquarium salt for high nitrate levels.....do you think this would help?
The testing kit suggested adding aquarium salt for high nitrate levels.....do you think this would help?
Nitrites and nitrates still sky high.....despite a water 3 water changes since the weekend. The tap water has a a small amount of nitrates but nitrites is ok. We always put the water conditioner in the replacement water.
I have been informed by my other half that the tank is a 100litre tank which is about 22gallons.
I have been informed by my other half that the tank is a 100litre tank which is about 22gallons.
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
the nitrite will be a killer, while the nitrate is sky high most fish can cope with levels around that.
i think there's two possibilities for what has happened here
first possibility is that the tank is part way through cycling, you may have over cleaned the filter killed off the filter bacteria and started a cycle, you may have missed the ammonia spike but are now experiencing the nitrite spike, this would account for the high nitrates.
second possibility is that the nitrite is being created because of dying plant, fish or decaying food in the tank, this would create high nitrates but i'm not sure if they would get that high.
few questions to help decipher what's happened, please try and give as much information as possible, even small details that you may not think are important may be critical.
what sort of test kit are you using, what make and model, is it a liquid test? How old is the test kit?
please describe exactly what you do to maintain the filter each week?
what is the filter, make and model?
what species of plec is it (please get a photo if you don't know) and how big is he currently?
how much food to you give the fish and what sort?
i think there's two possibilities for what has happened here
first possibility is that the tank is part way through cycling, you may have over cleaned the filter killed off the filter bacteria and started a cycle, you may have missed the ammonia spike but are now experiencing the nitrite spike, this would account for the high nitrates.
second possibility is that the nitrite is being created because of dying plant, fish or decaying food in the tank, this would create high nitrates but i'm not sure if they would get that high.
few questions to help decipher what's happened, please try and give as much information as possible, even small details that you may not think are important may be critical.
what sort of test kit are you using, what make and model, is it a liquid test? How old is the test kit?
please describe exactly what you do to maintain the filter each week?
what is the filter, make and model?
what species of plec is it (please get a photo if you don't know) and how big is he currently?
how much food to you give the fish and what sort?
The test kit is a liquid kit, Nutrafin test kit.....bought only a month ago.
The sponges are rinsed in the water that is taken out of the tank when we do a water change and the carbon bags are replaced when required
The filter is a fluval 105.
Havent managed to get a photo of the plec.....he's camera shy and hides in the wood. He's only a few months old and is about 4inches long (I will get a photo asap)
We have no live plants in the tank, only plastic ones.
The fish are fed flake food and sometimes live food. We have started feeding only once a day, a few flakes per fish and all uneaten food is removed. Plec is given algae wafers.
The sponges are rinsed in the water that is taken out of the tank when we do a water change and the carbon bags are replaced when required
The filter is a fluval 105.
Havent managed to get a photo of the plec.....he's camera shy and hides in the wood. He's only a few months old and is about 4inches long (I will get a photo asap)
We have no live plants in the tank, only plastic ones.
The fish are fed flake food and sometimes live food. We have started feeding only once a day, a few flakes per fish and all uneaten food is removed. Plec is given algae wafers.
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
it's strange, you seem to be doing everything right.
my suspicion is that you've overcleaned the filter and caused a mini cycle, external filter's don't need weekly cleaning, they just need to be cleaned out gently when the flow rate starts to drop off. what i'd recommend you do for the future is when you do your water change hold your hand infront of the output of the filter, you'll get used to how strong the flow is, when you start to see a drop off then it's time to clean the filter. this can be every couple of months but it'll depend on how much work the filter is having to do.
for now i'd say don't touch the filter for a good few weeks, just leave it alone so the bacteria have time to recolonise. do daily 20% water changes until the nitrite and nitrate start to drop down, this may take a good few days before you see any difference.
however firstly i'd take sample of water to the lfs to confirm the test results in case you've got a duff test kit or something like that.
my suspicion is that you've overcleaned the filter and caused a mini cycle, external filter's don't need weekly cleaning, they just need to be cleaned out gently when the flow rate starts to drop off. what i'd recommend you do for the future is when you do your water change hold your hand infront of the output of the filter, you'll get used to how strong the flow is, when you start to see a drop off then it's time to clean the filter. this can be every couple of months but it'll depend on how much work the filter is having to do.
for now i'd say don't touch the filter for a good few weeks, just leave it alone so the bacteria have time to recolonise. do daily 20% water changes until the nitrite and nitrate start to drop down, this may take a good few days before you see any difference.
however firstly i'd take sample of water to the lfs to confirm the test results in case you've got a duff test kit or something like that.
Thanks for all the advice. I've done another change today, so I'll keep doing that and get to the lfs this afternoon and get them to test the water. Is there anything else I can add to the replacement water apart from the Nutrafin aqua plus water conditioner that I'm already using?
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
no, just need to dechlorinate the water which you are doing.
there's two types of bacteria you need to grow in the filter, ones for processing ammonia and one's for processing nitrite (ABacs and NBacs for short). You can get supplements to encourage the development of ABacs but not to encourage NBacs to grow. You already have plenty of ABacs (you'd have ammonia if you didn't) but not enough NBacs. For that there's nothing you can do, just keep up water changes to keep the water as clean as possible and give it time to develop.
there's two types of bacteria you need to grow in the filter, ones for processing ammonia and one's for processing nitrite (ABacs and NBacs for short). You can get supplements to encourage the development of ABacs but not to encourage NBacs to grow. You already have plenty of ABacs (you'd have ammonia if you didn't) but not enough NBacs. For that there's nothing you can do, just keep up water changes to keep the water as clean as possible and give it time to develop.
Similar threads
Most reactions
-
303 -
170 -
164 -
159 -
145 -
120 -
105 -
100 -
97 -
82 -
72 -
55 -
54 -
51 -
51