Nitrate Levels In A 4 Month Old Set Up

[antb1983]

Hi guys. My tank has been set up for around 4 months and has a variety of community fish in it. over the past 6 weeks the ornaments in my tank have been turning brown with an algea film all over them. i have been doing a 30% water change once a week but all this seems to do is kill one or more of my fish every week. i had my water tested and they said my nitrate levels are through the roof. I only feed my fish every other day so i dont think over feeding is the problem.

1. What would have caused this?

2. What can i do to solve the problem and get my levels back to normal for a nice clean healthy tank
Thank You

Antony

 

[Truck]

what are your actual nitrate levels?

water changes should get rid.

anything under 400ppm is considered safe...with 100 or lower preferable

 

[antb1983]

what are your actual nitrate levels?

water changes should get rid.

anything under 400ppm is considered safe...with 100 or lower preferable

not sure what the levels are. the guy at the aquarium said they was very high. he was useless. didn't give a solution other than things that would line his pocket.

 

[Truck]

i would do a 50% water change and buy yourself some testing kits...some saliferts will fit the bill perfectly...theyre accurate unlike another brand i could mention, and easy to use IMO

 

[antb1983]

thanks im gonna have a ride to a place reccomended by a friend tomo to do further tests and see what their solutions are. spent alot of money on fish and ornaments for the set up. dont want to lose anymore fish as i have lost 6 in 2 weeks. when i do a water change should i rinse the sponges out in the filter aswell or just leave them

 

[Truck]

thanks im gonna have a ride to a place reccomended by a friend tomo to do further tests and see what their solutions are. spent alot of money on fish and ornaments for the set up. dont want to lose anymore fish as i have lost 6 in 2 weeks. when i do a water change should i rinse the sponges out in the filter aswell or just leave them

yeah rinse them in old tank water (just give them a squeeze)

 

[antb1983]

thanks, i not rinsed then out for 2 weeks. will do that today. see if that inproves anythin slightly. will consisstant water changes of 30% bring the levels down without adding any chemicals

 

[bob9009]

This is probably a stupid question, but are you dechlorinating your water when you do a water change?

 

[antb1983]

yeah

 

[Truck]

thanks, i not rinsed then out for 2 weeks. will do that today. see if that inproves anythin slightly. will consisstant water changes of 30% bring the levels down without adding any chemicals

yes it will

 

[antb1983]

will get the exact levels off everythin tomo and will post the results to try and find out a possible solution. they only tested for nitrate today because thats what they think the problem is.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with all of trucks advice up there. I think you may basically have a very simple problem. You've not yet got the right feel for the *amounts* to do of the various maintenance activities in a tropical tank. The most important things are the weekly gravel-clean-water-changes. You need to be getting the gravel-cleaning end down deep in the gravel and getting the debris stirred up, so that more of it can go out with the water change. If that means the water change goes larger than 30% then so-be-it! I do 50 to 60% changes weekly with mine. You also don't need to be hesitant about taking your decorations out and cleaning them under tap water if needed, with a brush if needed. Tanks need a little more weekly fuss than you sound like you're giving. I don't do it all every time, I just do the main gravel clean but then focus on one or two other "special" cleans, like the decorations or the glass top or such on a rotating basis.

Once you've got a good liquid nitrate(NO3) kit, you can chat here about how to use that as a good guage of how your gravel-clean-water-changes are doing! Its a good tool for that.

~~waterdrop~~