Nitrates At 200

[adpgt]

I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank. It's been set up for one year now. I cleaned half the gravel for the first time last week. Earlier today, I cleaned the other half the gravel.

So after I put new water in today after the gravel change, within 2 hours, I go to the fish store to get my water tested. Well, the ammonia, nitrite, p.h level, and chlorine were all fine. But, the nitrate level was at 200 and the water was pretty hard as well.

I have never really changed the water before as I use to top it off wen it evaporated. I was not even aware about the fact that I should be doing water changes till last week. I feel like an idiot now.


So, so far, I have changed 25% of the water out on the first gravel clean and then another 30% today. The nitrates are still at 200! Also, there is a lot of waste still gathered up in the gravel but I was too afraid to clean it all as it would suck too much water out.

What gives?

Thanks for the help!

 

[phantomlink]

do 50% waterchanges every day while cleaning out the gravel until your levels go to around the same as your tap water

 

[adpgt]

What should my tap water be at?

I'm just wondering how my fish are alive with this high of a level. I feel so bad.

 

[phantomlink]

Oh I didnt know there was still fish in the tank. Some fish can adapt to water conditions getting worse over time. Since there are fish in the tank, do not do large water changes or else you will be hit with OTS/Old Tank Syndrome. When you add too much fresh water with nutrients it stresses the fish out and they could end up dying pretty quickly. I'd suggest picking up a testing kit from your LFS the liquid ones are best most people here use the API Master Kit. Use it or bring your own tap water to the LFS and have them test it to see what your levels are at. Usually you can go around 50-60ppm without much problems in a tank and depending where you live, your tap water could be as high as 20ppm give or take. Once you know your tap water levels you know you cant go any lower then it

 

[adpgt]

All the fish in my tank have been in there ever since I set the tank up , besides the pleco.

What's the water test kit? I went to Petco and the person there used a strip with like 4 or 5 different colors on it and dipped it in my water.

 

[phantomlink]

It looks like this
http/www.amazon.com/API-Freshwater-Master-Test-Kit/dp/B000255NCI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352519617&sr=8-1&keywords=api+freshwater+master+test+kit

I dont know if your from Europe or NA so I cant tell ya where to find them but the liquid test kits are far better then the paper strip ones. In order to get your tank healthy again I would suggest doing maybe 10% WC daily maybe even twice a day but hours apart. My last tank before I learned about fishless cycles and whatnot I just re-added the water that evaporates and never changed the filter catridge but now everything is completely different in my care

 

[DreamertK]

If the person used a tetra strip (typically found at petco), everything between 80-200 looks the exact shade of pink.

Its possible it was actually 80 or that it was expired/incorrect.

 

[MBOU]

So long as your ammonia and nitrites are 0, dont worry about hardness too much and with daily 20-25% water changes for 4-5 days... your levels will be much further down

I would advise using the gravel cleaner each time as all the dirt in the tank sinks and it means you'll be taking out more of the nitrate causing dirt each time!

 

[sadguppy]

Change a bucket full of water every few hours, monitoring the fish closely. At any sign of stress don't do another change for 24 hours. You don't want to do it too quickly and shock them. Make sure you dechlorinate the water before you add it back in. The get used to doing weekly or so changes of around a quarter of the tank volume.

Don't be too hard on yourself, many people take on fish not knowing how they need to be looked after. The important thing is that now you know what you have done wrong, you are trying to fix it

 

[adpgt]

I have people telling me to do 90% water changes and then I have people telling me to do 10% water changes every couple hours. I have no idea what to do.

Also, I noticed that all my fish have their mouths open and close all the time. Is this normal, or could this be related to the high nitrate conditions?

 

[fluttermoth]

The people telling you to 90%, in this case, are wrong.

With old, neglected tanks (I'm not blaming you, btw!) the fish get used to the poor water quality, and you can shock them by changing too much at once, because the tank water will be so different that the tap water.

Do about a third or quarter every day until you get on top of things.

 

[Essjay]

When you've had fish in a tank for a long time without water changes, they have been making ammonia which the filter turns into nitrate, so the nitrate builds up as you have found. But they have been secreting other things as well and they've been building up too. These things have built up slowly over the months, so slowly the fish have had time to get used to the water. Your tank water will now be very different from your tap water so if you do a big water change, you'll change the water conditions a lot. Fish can cope with slow gradual changes but not sudden big ones, and if you change 90% you'll change the water conditions so much it is possible you'll kill the fish. You need to change the water conditions slowly so the fish can get used to the new water. Once you've done a few small water changes and got the tank water to almost the same as your tapwater, then you'd be able to do bigger changes without harming the fish.
Once you've got the tank sorted, weekly water changes will stop anything building up and altering the water chemistry.

 

[phantomlink]

I have people telling me to do 90% water changes and then I have people telling me to do 10% water changes every couple hours. I have no idea what to do.

Also, I noticed that all my fish have their mouths open and close all the time. Is this normal, or could this be related to the high nitrate conditions?

I would agree with Fluttermoth, I originally told you to do a larger WC but once I learned there were still fish in the tank, I advised you to lower that amount

 

[adpgt]

Ok cool. So I guess i'll do a 15% water change today after cleaning out even more gravel.

Also, any ideas on why my fish keep opening and closing their mouths?

Also, any ideas on when I should change my filter? It has 3 cartridges in it. One is a big sponge and the other two are bags. One bag has rocks and the other bag has carbon, i'm guessing. All three of these medias are a good 2 years old. But my water is still crystal clear so, should I still change it?

Filter is a aquclear 110

 

[phantomlink]

You can remove the carbon ( if your SURE its carbon ) it only lasts 2 weeks or so and its best used for clearing water or removing medicine from the water, it has no other effect on your tank. If your able to take pictures of the bags or if you know the name of the filter we could go from there. If it doesn't have separate media ( foam/biomax( little round tubes )/floss etc ) you should look into a new filter that has them. The filter pads are only good for so long and most people get rid of them if they buy a full setup kit from a store that comes with the pads instead of "proper" media