At Breaking Point Help Please

[jetnett]

so bought a old 4 ft tank of Gumtree a month ago. And all my spare time seems to be taken up with water changes and gravel cleaning as my nitrite and nitrarte levels are to high
today after another water change which takes me forever as it's such a large tank my filter didn't work so I just brokedown and started crying. Hello its a tank why is it stressing me out to a point that I break down and cry ? anyway  after reading up on the internet I learned about the impeller so took the filter apart and cleaned it out and yes it worked. But now I have just found a snail in my tank another sign of a dirty tank. I don't over feed my tank is not over stocked well just right I think. my plants are going brown. can it be the light ? or can it be the that the wood is old and causing problems ? shall I remove the under water filter tray as maybe that is trapping all the dirt ? Help pls as close to selling it on as can't cope much longer I work fulltime and Have two young kids I don't have the  time for all the water changes
 
Thank you jeanette

 

[KittyKat]

Snails are not a sign of a dirty tank, they are only a sign of snails.
 
Can you post a photo of your plants? They could be dying off or they could be covered in diatoms. Are your lights on a timer? How long are they on for? What species are the plants?
 
The wood is unlikely to be causing any problems.
 
How high are your nitrites and nitrates? What is your pH? How much are you feeding? How are you cleaning the filter?

 

[Zante]

I'd add to KittyKat's questions also
- what filter do you have
- what is the tank's population
- what is the size of the tank (the capacity, no the length)
 
Also, you say you got it a month ago, was the filter already cycled when you got it?

 

[jetnett]

I will try to upload but keep saying the files are to large not sure how to do it will ask husband to help me tonight. My pH is at 7.0-7.2 my nitrites are at 0.5 mg using liquid test and with tetra test 6 in 1 strip it is in between 0- 1 and nitrates at 10 with liquid test( I'm using maidenhead master test kit ) and with Tetra it says 100.
I feed morning and night two pellets per fish a very  small sprinkle of flakes twice a week I give frozen blood worms instead of a morning feed. I drop 3 wafers down for my cat fish and loach. I bought some large pellets from Ebay for the bottom feeders and they don't seem keen so gets left so will stop with them. I read that you should only feed bottom feeders  at night  is that true  ?The light is on from 7.30 in the morning till about one o'clock in the morning.
Thank you jeanette

The tank has been run with the same filter for 4 years. I soaked the sponges in tank water and last week I put one new catridge in the filter and today I had to clean the impeller out as the filter stopped working. it is a fluval u3 4 years old. the tank is 172 litres and I have 14 tetras 2 large mollies 2 small mollies 3 platties  1 betta 1 german ram  1 loach 2 dwarf catfish 1 pleco  also I have a little birth tank floating around with 4 babies

 

[KittyKat]

Given what you say above, the most important bit of advice that I can give you is calm down! Things are not anywhere near as bad as you made them sound
 
Your nitrates are not a problem if they're only 10 ppm. Take a water sample into one of your LFS for them to verify the reading. Anywhere up to 25 ppm is completely fine.
 
Nitrite is not high enough to be an immediate serious problem. It is problematic, but not panic-inducing.
 
Have you tested your tap water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? If not, do so.
 
You can safely cut down your feeding to once per day until the nitrite problem is resolved, which will help you with water changes.
 
Your stocking is fine in terms of numbers.
 
Loaches and Corydoras normally eat during day time, plecos prefer at night, but will also eat during the day.
 
It sounds like your light is on for much too long (17.5 hours). Cut it down to 6-10 hours and that should help with the plant browning.
 
For the rest, looking forward to photos of the plants that you have!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

What type are the Tetras, Loaches, Pleco and Dwarf Catfish?

Have you added anything new recently?

For the pictures, you can upload them to a photo hosting site (such as Photobucket) and then post the IMG code here

 

[jetnett]

Thank you will try that as can't upload any photos x