Hi I'm new to the group and have come here for some help please
My partner and myself have set up a 64 litre tank that has been running for about 8 week's now. Gradually we have been adding various fish, we have
4 Minnows
4 Guppies
4 Neon Tetra's
2 Dwarf Gourami's
and finally
Mr Bristle nose pleco
Oh and 2 assasin snail's (one of which has recently disappeared)
Our tank is well planted has driftwood in it and an air pump.
Over the last 3 week's after adding Mr Pleco and the Gourami's our Nitrite and Nitrate levels have gone crazy.
It started with an ammonia spike of 0.2 that dropped to 0 after a water change, all other test were at 0. We left it for abit came to do another test and was shocked to see a sudden rise in the Nitrite and Nitrate.
Cut a long story short we now have Nitrite at 0.5 and Nitrate at 20 after 3 water changes. We left the water changes for afew days to let it settle down to see if it would lower at all, it hasn't.
So my question is do we do more water changes until it's at 0, do we swill the filter's in the dirty water or change them completely and would cleaning the plants, ornaments and driftwood help at all?
We have cut the feeding down to one small portion a day with no live food (because we thought that may not have helped the problem with all the pooing)
We don't want to add any chemicals or salt.
Please help thank you
My partner and myself have set up a 64 litre tank that has been running for about 8 week's now. Gradually we have been adding various fish, we have
4 Minnows
4 Guppies
4 Neon Tetra's
2 Dwarf Gourami's
and finally
Mr Bristle nose pleco
Oh and 2 assasin snail's (one of which has recently disappeared)
Our tank is well planted has driftwood in it and an air pump.
Over the last 3 week's after adding Mr Pleco and the Gourami's our Nitrite and Nitrate levels have gone crazy.
It started with an ammonia spike of 0.2 that dropped to 0 after a water change, all other test were at 0. We left it for abit came to do another test and was shocked to see a sudden rise in the Nitrite and Nitrate.
Cut a long story short we now have Nitrite at 0.5 and Nitrate at 20 after 3 water changes. We left the water changes for afew days to let it settle down to see if it would lower at all, it hasn't.
So my question is do we do more water changes until it's at 0, do we swill the filter's in the dirty water or change them completely and would cleaning the plants, ornaments and driftwood help at all?
We have cut the feeding down to one small portion a day with no live food (because we thought that may not have helped the problem with all the pooing)
We don't want to add any chemicals or salt.
Please help thank you
