Hello i am Iris and thankyou so much for haveing me here, i have been ill and my aquarium hasn't been cleaned for about a year, i bought a ppm reader which gave a reading of 289 and so i did a 50% water change and a 25% next day and for the last week i've been doing 10% changes every day but it keeps going down to 230 and back up to 250, can anybody give me some advice on what to do please? Thankyou
Emergency high ppm
- Thread starter Iris
- Start date
Hi and Welcome 
What is the reading for? is it for ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate?
What is the reading for? is it for ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate?
Ohhh water hardness. What type of fish do your have? The water hardness is likely coming from your water source and not your tank. You need to test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate though. Lots of people here use the API Master test kit
No problem!
Because the water hasn't been changed for so long the water in the tank will be quite different from your tap water so slowly is the way to go.
You need to do 10% water changes every day for a week, then increase to 20% every day for another week. The water changes will reduce everything slowly, and sudden changes in hardness should be avoided.
What reading do you get in your tap water - similar or a lot different?
If you buy a liquid reagent test kit as connorlindenman suggested, you'll know if the ammonia and nitrite are both zero. In a neglected tank, nitrate will probably be extremely high so testing this as well will tell you how the level of that is dropping. When tank nitrate is the same as your tap water level, you'll be able to do weekly 50% water changes.
You need to do 10% water changes every day for a week, then increase to 20% every day for another week. The water changes will reduce everything slowly, and sudden changes in hardness should be avoided.
What reading do you get in your tap water - similar or a lot different?
If you buy a liquid reagent test kit as connorlindenman suggested, you'll know if the ammonia and nitrite are both zero. In a neglected tank, nitrate will probably be extremely high so testing this as well will tell you how the level of that is dropping. When tank nitrate is the same as your tap water level, you'll be able to do weekly 50% water changes.
I have Black Mollys that have really bugged me with with hundreds of babies but for some reason now all i have are males, 5 silver hatchets and one that i don't know the name of but they all seem okay.
I will check my tap water now
I'm pretty sure your hardness is fine for black mollies and the hatchets
Oh wow tap water 223
I went out and bought Zeolite and Active carbon to put in straight away because after a year the ammonia must be bad
Ammonia should be OK if there was a filter running all the time. But nitrate could be very high. Zeolite will starve the bacteria, so unless you are sure ammonia is high, as measured with a test kit not a guess, I would remove it. If there are fish alive in the tank, both ammonia and nitrite must be low enough not to kill fill.
Carbon will remove the organic matter from the water but it won't lower nitrate or hardness - or ammonia and nitrite - as they are all inorganic.
Carbon will remove the organic matter from the water but it won't lower nitrate or hardness - or ammonia and nitrite - as they are all inorganic.
Duh forgot to say i have a Bristlenose pleco and snails and 5 kuhli loaches but the kuhli loaches have only just poked their heads from the gravel, they used to get all around alot before.
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