Help Nitrate Levels

[elaineandsparky]

i can't get my nitrate levels down and have lost half my fish.

i have tried everything i can think of, water changes, treatment, and have just inhereted a r/o unit.

i have just changed about 3/4 of my tank water to water treated from the ro and still my nirtates are 100mg/litre!!!

when i test the water before putting it in the tank the levels are fine which is making me think something in my tank is producing it.

do rocks or sand produce nitrates?

my nitrite, ammonia and ph are near perfect.

 

[Rummynose]

Hi there! When you state your levels are near perfect that means different thing to different people. It is best to give us those readings. Is it a cycled tank? How long has it been set up? Are you using test strips or a liquid test kit? Have you checked the Nitrate level in your tap water? It is also possible that you have a faulty Nitrate test kit, bring a sample of your tank water to your LFS and have them check it for you, some LFSs do it for free!

 

[elaineandsparky]

i am using the interpet easy test kit

ph is 7.0
ammonia 0.1
nitrite 0

because the water was treated through the ro unit the water i put in had only 10mg/l

 

[Rummynose]

How high were the nitrates before the 3/4 w/c? I don't know what the maximum reading for Nitrate is on your test kit, on mine it is 110. Quite possibly your nitrates were a lot higher, so even with the w/c you still get a high reading.

That's why it is important to know how long your tank has been set up for, to see how long the nitrates had to get to this level. Are you doing gravel vacs when you do your w/cs, and do you change the water weekly, how much do you change each time?

 

[elaineandsparky]

i've just been to lfs and they said the same thing about the levels could have been higher cuz my test kit only goes to 100mg/l so the water change could have brought it down a lot for all i know.

my water changes weren't what they should have been untill this problem started as i was told the filter i had in it meant i only had to change the water about every six months! what lies people tell. i was going about a month.

i guess i have to be patient and resign myself to loosing more fish till i get it sorted out

 

[Rummynose]

i've just been to lfs and they said the same thing about the levels could have been higher cuz my test kit only goes to 100mg/l so the water change could have brought it down a lot for all i know.

my water changes weren't what they should have been untill this problem started as i was told the filter i had in it meant i only had to change the water about every six months! what lies people tell. i was going about a month.

i guess i have to be patient and resign myself to loosing more fish till i get it sorted out

Oh dear! Well, all you can do now is try to make things better. How are your fish doing at them moment? You could do another 50% w/c now and another later on. I think it is best to rather get those levels down slowly but not to let the poor fish stay in this toxic environment too long either. It is possible that your fish have suffered damage, but you may still be able to save them.

The best thing to do as ongoing maintenance is to do weekly 50% w/c with thorough gravel vacs. The w/c replenishes the minerals in the water that get used up and keeps everything stable (really important in terms of ph, and the buffering capability, which keeps your ph stable) and the gravel vac removes organic waste, it will help keep your water pristine, it ensures that your Nitrates don't climb quickly. Do weekly checks of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, at least for the next little while, you want to see zero for the first two and not more than 15-20 for nitrAtes (some people keep it higher, which is OK if you have lots of plants, they use it as food). There was something else I wanted to mention but it escapes me now, lol! I'll post it later if I remember it then! Or maybe someone else will have the info and post it!

Oh, and one other thing, what kind of fish do you have in your tank (15 gallon). For a successful tank it is important to be properly stocked! That means the right kind of fish for your size tank and the right combination and number of fish!

 

[Hermithall]

Have you checked the water nitrate levels straight from the tap? - just in case there's a prob there.

Edit: just noticed you've already done that in your op, doh!! Tons of water changes like Rummy says and the nitrates will surely come down!!

 

[Rummynose]

I remembered now what has poked me in the back of my mind: You wrote about reading the info about your filter, that you wouldn't have to do any water changes for 6 months. I'm suspecting that you may have misunderstood something there. Usually it states with the filter to change the media every 6 months. Depending on your filter it may be cartridges, foam, ceramic beads, it's where the bacteria is located.

Please don't listen to that, if you change the whole thing you will lose your cycle and you have to cycle your tank all over again. You can add media to the existing media to start seeding it, before you remove it.

I have a Marina slim on my 10 gallon tank, it has three cartridges. The tank has been running for a year. So far I've only changed one cartridge at a time, to use the one in my quarantine tank, and placed a new cartridge in the Marina Slim.
I have an Aquaclear 50 on my 30 gallon tank, it comes with a foam filter, a bag of carbon, and a bag of ceramic beads. Instead of the carbon I have a small amount of crushed coral (for my ph) and I haven't yet changed any ceramic beads. When I feel the time is right I will add new ones and remove just a few of the older ones to prevent losing the cycle!

 

[deftuch]

Syphoon your substrate if you havent already done so! Because most of the crap is in the gravel ect. When did you last clean out your filters. Yiu should give them a really good clean. There may be some thick layers of muck in there. Remember to use water out of the tank to clean the filter. As tap water kills all the beneficial bacteria. Also have you tried amquel. Amquel really does remove all nitrates. Use amquel and then test to see the results. Im sure the results will be clear. Test daily after that. And if the nitrite and nitrate levels rise again you know the problem is defo in the tank somewhere. You may have to set up a hospital tank and empty your tank out to clean it. But i really doubt that.

 

[elaineandsparky]

thanks for all your replies

my tank is 5x2x2 foot, not sure what capacity that works out to be.

i certain i overstocked my tank before they all died and i was nieve to the size of the fish some of them would eat!

about 35 harliquins have been eaten along with 4-5 tetras by small black ghost knife fish (now dead), fire eel (now dead), rope fish, birchers and snake heads.
i also had 3 small silver sharks, now dead.

i now have left 2 cat fish, about 8 corys, 3 rope fish, 1 plec about 20cms long and another small one, 3 weather loaches, and 3 gourami. the senegal and snake heads i gave away.

i didn't realise i needed to clean the filter media in tank water, i've been doing it from the tap. i've only had the filter 1 month (old one packed up) and cleaned it out once maybe twice. worried i've cleaned it out too much.

and i have sand, not gravel as i have a lot of bottom fish who like to burry themselves and roll on it.

the tap water i was putting in was 50mg/l which i didn't realise so i got an r/0 unit from my mum (she just closed down her marine tank) and the levels after going through that was very low.

took me about 20 hrs to fill my tank 3/4 from the r/o unit!

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Hi, i would look into the possibly of trying to find a good soul to donate some mature media to you, you say your mum has just shut down her marine tank, does she or anyone she knows of have a mature tank and filter they could help you out with?

Terry.

 

[Rummynose]

You mean to say you have a reading of 50 nitrate in your tap water?

Do you have Ammonia in your tap water also?

As to R/O water, it is not all that great to use since it removes a lot of other things that are beneficial to your tank! It may be safer to go the chemical route with Amquel plus! Treating the water with it before adding it to your tank!

Here's a chart for tank sizes:
http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_sizes.php

Are you sure it's a 5 ft long tank? I couldn't find your dimensions in the chart. There is a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft one, it has 120 gallons. That's a pretty big tank!
I will let others with more experience comment on your stocking!

I'm sorry that my questions are kind of disjointed, lol!

 

[elaineandsparky]

yes my tap water has 50mg/l nitrate in it! but no ammonia

and my tank is defenatly 5 foot long

i treat the r/o water with stuff that puts all the good stuff back in.

oh why cant things be easy add water and go!

 

[Rummynose]

Your Harlequins must absolutely love your tank! That's super!

So, it looks like you will have to do a lot of r/o-ing to get the nitrates down. Doing all these w/cs would be taxing on anyone but you having to do it this way is especially.....time consuming!

Maybe you want to start a new thread regarding your stocking, see what the more experienced members here would suggest to you for your tank. Then you could return, sell or give away the ones that are not suited for your tank and get your tank on the right track!

 

[deftuch]

if you didnt know you were supposed to clean the filters out with tank water? does this mean you dont add tapsafe when you do water changes. so many people think its a good idea to clean out your filters weekly and do 50 percent water changes weekly. simply just have to clean your filters every 2 weeks to a month! but there are many people who would disagree with that. and only need to do a 10 percent watwer change every week. this keeps the fresh water coming in on a regular basis. instead of once a mon th. but again there will be many people who disagree with that. sounds like your tank never fully cycled before you added fish. and seems as you werte cleaning out your filter with tap water. its possible your tank has never matured properly?