Nitrates Suddenly Up......any Reason Why This Would Happen?

[elisew]

I tested my water last night and the readings are:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20
PH - 7.6

This is after a water change the day before (Monday). I found my Apisto male dead a little while ago and am wondering if the rise in Nitrates is responsible?
I`m gutted, he was a lovely, confident little fella

 

[ian]

Nitrates of 20 is quite normal, i'd confidently say its not the nitrates that caused the death.

 

[Curiosity101]

Was the 'spike' before or after the death?

More nitrates can be caused by a few things....
Rotting fish
Rotting food
Rotting plants
More fish than usual...ie. guppy giving birth etc
Water board doing work on the line/increasing nitrates manually for some reason

Obviously normally you'll see an ammonia spike before you see the increased nitrates so it could well be that an ammonia spike wiped the fish out and resulted in higher nitrates.

Or perhaps ammonia was in the tap water cause they did some work on the line... this wiped him out and was then converted.

There really are a few possibilities.

 

[elisew]

Thanks for the replies.

Well I did a water change on Monday (approx 40%) and when I tested the water last night the reading was up a bit on what it normally has been, strange that it`s after the water change surely? The Apisto died today so after the 'spike' but also after a water change.

I haven`t had any dead fish for quite some time, I do have a bit of browning on my Dwarf Sag so will get that sorted asap, no rotting food, (it never lasts long enough with the pigs in my tank). Don`t know about the water board situ, no babies in tank although molly and swordtail females will drop soon by the looks of it.

I`m just puzzled, this tank was setup a couple of weeks ago but everything inc water and filter media was transferred over from my smaller tank and I don`t understand why the Apisto has just up and died. I`ve not had him much longer than a couple of months

 

[Curiosity101]

Like I said... there are quite a few things that could have caused nitrates to be higher than usual. I agree with ianho that it's unlikely to be the reason for the death... but it could be an indicator that there was an ammonia spike at some point.

 

[elisew]

Thank you.

I guess I`ll drive myself nuts if I keep wondering why so I`ll just put it down to being 'one of those things'.