Water Chem has changed ????

[Oscar 907]

Iv had ich before when me heater died and didn’t realise , if I have ich now it’s not bad hardly noticeable and only on one fish , my understanding of ich correct me if I’m wrong is that it’s fairly common in tanks just fish are normality healthy enough to fight it off so I’m guessing high nitrate and nitrite are weakening my fish

From my understanding of ich. It's a parasite that naturally lives on the fish itself. And can bloom under the conditions. Again it all seems to still be pretty debated last I knew. But I have heard people say it lives in a tank forever once it's been introduced. And the only way to absolutely rid a tank is to clear it out and let it sit dormant for a while. Again not exactly my opinion just what I have heard.

 

[Essjay]

Back to the water for a moment -
what are the GH and nitrate in your tap water?
do you ever top up the water without doing a water change?

While live plants do take up ammonia so it isn't converted to nitrate, you said you had minimal live plants so they won't have much influence.
The main causes of high nitrate are:
too many fish
water changes not often enough
water changes not big enough
overfeeding
not cleaning the filter often enough (the goo that builds up is broken down to ammonia which is turned into nitrate)
not cleaning the substrate (the debris which collects there is broken down to ammonia then turned into nitrate)

 

[Guyb93]

Back to the water for a moment -
what are the GH and nitrate in your tap water?
do you ever top up the water without doing a water change?

While live plants do take up ammonia so it isn't converted to nitrate, you said you had minimal live plants so they won't have much influence.
The main causes of high nitrate are:
too many fish
water changes not often enough
water changes not big enough
overfeeding
not cleaning the filter often enough (the goo that builds up is broken down to ammonia which is turned into nitrate)
not cleaning the substrate (the debris which collects there is broken down to ammonia then turned into nitrate)

Couldn’t say the numbers off the top of my head I will get exact readings once home from work and I don’t feel I’m over stocked I know I over feed I really can’t help it they are greedy and I enjoy that they always want food I take it a sign of health and maybe a culprit of not doing large enough water changes I do 20% weekly and I have topped up without changing every water change I will leave around 10-20 litres out about an inch from the top but will leave it a day or two before adding I mainly started doing it because I’d always mess the temp up in my tank in water changes so always try to leave space to add cold or warm water in case I have completely misjudged my temps in the buckets

 

[Essjay]

That doesn't sound like topping up in the usual sense. That's when water evaporates so much between water changes that extra water has to be added. This makes the hardness minerals more concentrated so GH increases. But it doesn't sound like this is what is happening with your tank. You only add the extra water because you didn't add it when you did the water change so it's not really extra water. But we needed to rule out topping up as a cause of the higher GH.

 

[Guyb93]

That doesn't sound like topping up in the usual sense. That's when water evaporates so much between water changes that extra water has to be added. This makes the hardness minerals more concentrated so GH increases. But it doesn't sound like this is what is happening with your tank. You only add the extra water because you didn't add it when you did the water change so it's not really extra water. But we needed to rule out topping up as a cause of the higher GH.

Oh yeah sorry no evaporation , I’m just baffled at water atm tbh lol what does 170-180 ppm mean for water hardness Iv always worked in German degrees I keep South American’s so is this too hard for them ?

 

[Essjay]

179 ppm is 10 German degrees (or dH). It's OK for a lot of south American fish and the ones you have can live in water harder than your is now.

What substrate and decor do you have in the tank? I know you have sand, but what type of sand?

 

[Guyb93]

Oh phew I was worrying about my hardness but good to know that it’s not harming my fish and I’m not sure on the sand it’s fairly course I’m 100% sure it’s not crushed coral as I avoided that before I bought I’m sure I researched the Gravel and sand before I bought it as I really didn’t wanna make my water hard , just did another 30% water change and nitrates are between 20-40 and nitrites are between 00 -0.5
Nitrates seem high still

 

[seangee]

just did another 30% water change and nitrates are between 20-40 and nitrites are between 00 -0.5

When you change 30% of the water you are leaving 70% of the nitrates (and other stuff) in the tank. I change 70-80% per week in my tanks, this means what is in the tank is always similar to my source water.

 

[Guyb93]

When you change 30% of the water you are leaving 70% of the nitrates (and other stuff) in the tank. I change 70-80% per week in my tanks, this means what is in the tank is always similar to my source water.

I did a 30-40% yesterday and will do another 20-30 tomorrow means I have replaced more than my tank volume in 3 days I hope that’s enough I really do I will start changing 50% weekly just with work and kids I sometimes do slack I’m also going to reduce feeding my fish are fat anyway they eat better than me so see if that helps to