High Nitrate Levels - How To Reduce These?

[Moochela]

Tank is about 4 weeks old and now all the fish have started dying, one by one! Nitrate levels are high, what is the best way to reduce these?
Someone said to do 20% water changes every other day, then someone else said to do 20% water changes twice a week as otherwise I would loose the good bacteria - help please!
Thanks

 

[Davo86]

Tank is about 4 weeks old and now all the fish have started dying, one by one! Nitrate levels are high, what is the best way to reduce these?
Someone said to do 20% water changes every other day, then someone else said to do 20% water changes twice a week as otherwise I would loose the good bacteria - help please!
Thanks

You need to be doing water changes, and by the sounds lots of them,
There isn't a lot of bacteria in the water so doing water changes won't effect this

What are the exact water stats?
Did you cycle the tank beforehand?

 

[Moochela]

Tank is about 4 weeks old and now all the fish have started dying, one by one! Nitrate levels are high, what is the best way to reduce these?
Someone said to do 20% water changes every other day, then someone else said to do 20% water changes twice a week as otherwise I would loose the good bacteria - help please!
Thanks

You need to be doing water changes, and by the sounds lots of them,
There isn't a lot of bacteria in the water so doing water changes won't effect this

What are the exact water stats?
Did you cycle the tank beforehand?

All is well apart from the nitrite which is looking pretty high! I did cycle the tank but I do not think I did it for long enough, 2 weeks! And then I put too many fish in! New to this fish business and messed up! I have done a 50% water change today, should I do this everyday? Thank is 145lts.

 

[shelaghfishface]

theres no such thing as too many water changes.. so knock yourself out, do a couple/3 a day .. match the temp as close as you can and leave an hour in between them to test and then continue if needs be
do about 30% at a time

i assume it is NitrIte you are having a problem with and not NitrAte? ( title says nitrate)

 

[Moochela]

theres no such thing as too many water changes.. so knock yourself out, do a couple/3 a day .. match the temp as close as you can and leave an hour in between them to test and then continue if needs be
do about 30% at a time

i assume it is NitrIte you are having a problem with and not NitrAte? ( title says nitrate)

Yes thanks it is Nitrite, the pink coloured stuff! Well, I am going to knock myself out, literally, with the water changes, I changed about 80 litres tonight. No mean feat, any suggestions on how to do this quickly would also be welcomed!

 

[Schmill]

SOunds like you didn't cycle your filter properly, and then overloaded your tank, so you have done well to survive the ammonia spike, (presuming you are now measuring zero ammonia?)
You say 'the pink one' when you talk about NitrIte, what test kit are you using?
For now, (until we get more information), keep doing water changes, as high ammonia or nitrIte is deadly.

I am a bit confused though as if you are using the API liquid test kit then it is the NitrAte test kit that is the reddy coloured one....

 

[ZoddyZod]

If you are seeing nitrIte then the filter is not cycled or you have such a high fish stock that the filter is not able to handle the level of nitrIte that is being produced.

If it's nitrAte, could you please state exactly how many fish you have in the tank and how often you do water changes? Also, have you checked the nitrAte level of your tap water (presuming you add tap water to the tank and not RO water) and compared that to the tank reading?