Nitrates

[Gordon88]

Hi there the nitrates in my tank are currently quite high, i have performed two 25% water changes in a week to try and keep them down but they keep rising.
I am trying to find reasons for this ergently because of my rams and i know they are very sensitive to nitrates.
The nitrates were all fine untill it seems i started adding the nutrafin plant gro fertiliser!!!
Is this the reason for my nitrate rise and is it harmfull to my fish???
Thanks
Anyhelp will be appreciated

 

[WILDER]

No the fertliser shouldn't harm the fish or increase nitrates i think.
Need to look at size of tank in gallons or litres, plus full stock list of fish.

 

[jarmado]

No the fertliser shouldn't harm the fish or increase nitrates i think.
Need to look at size of tank in gallons or litres, plus full stock list of fish.

according to his profile:
have a juwel trigon 190 aquarium, with these fish at the mo:
4 Honey sunset gouramis
2 Keyhole cichlids
2 African filter shrimps
2 Blue Rams
6 Cardinal tetras

 

[WILDER]

Thanks, how long has the tank been set up, might need a good gravel vac and a look at the filter sponges, if they are really gunky one of the sponges will need a swirl in some tank water in a bucket.

 

[The-Wolf]

have you tested the NO3 comming out of the tap?
often NO3 is just as bad or worse than the NO3 in the tank, especially if thwe water board have flushed out their systems recently.

NO3 is safe upto around 100ppm for planted tanks and half that for unplanted tanks. try a partial water change with RO water to dilute the NO3 down if you tap water is high in NO3.