Nitrates At 200

[adpgt]

Already started this in the other section and should of posted this here;

HELP ME! thanks!

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!

 

[Dieses Madchen]

You need to do quite a few consecutive 90% water changes. Drain the water until there is just enough for the fish to swim upright. Refill and dechlorinate, test the nitrates. If it is still >20, do another 90% change, and keep doing this until the nitrates are at a reasonable level. Make sure you are temperature matching the water as well. The only problem is, with nitrates that high, your pH in the tank is probably significantly different from your tap. If its a huge difference, remove all the fish from the tank, do a 100% change, and drip acclimatize your fish to the new tank water. With nitrates that high, you are probably better off doing option two. Just make sure you compare the pH of the tank water and tap water first so that you know how to properly reacclimatize them to the new water.

 

[DrRob]

To be honest, although I can see DM's point, I'd avoid the 90% changes. Either clear out and drip acclimatise (which is probably what I'd do) or do lots and lots of small water changes (one or two 10% changes a day for a while). Your fish are used to the conditions that they're in and they'll need a slow bring back to good water quality conditions and it's going to be more than just the nitrates and hardness that are different.

As for the gravel, it needs cleaning, but either clean it all at once and do the drip thing or be gentle about how much you disrupt it as it'll be full of organic mess.

As for what gives, the nitrates are probably way over 200, but the test kit can't test that high, and there are plenty of nitrate donor sources in your tank that'll top things back up until they reach equilibrium.

I'd recommend getting your own test kit at some point as well, as bringing things back under control can occasionally destabilise things and it gives you the reassurance of being able to check that the filter is happy.

Overall it'll be some work, either a big job or a long run of small to medium jobs, but it's all well worth it as this tank would have crashed at some point if you hadn't acted.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

To be honest, although I can see DM's point, I'd avoid the 90% changes. Either clear out and drip acclimatise (which is probably what I'd do) or do lots and lots of small water changes (one or two 10% changes a day for a while).

Yeah that was my option 2 lol. I just had to do that in my GT tank.