Help Nitrate Rise, Corys Seem Destressed

[AndreaC]

Arghhhh Help. I did a 25% water change yesturday as it was just over a week since last one.

I noticed that last night the fish were hypa, I posted about them partying lol thinking it was nothing. Anyway they settled but snce then my corys arent settled and seem stressed, they keep going to surface to grab some air and zoom back down. I read a while back this can be cause of bad water qaulity.

Just tetsed my water and the nitrates are at 10ppm!! Thing is my Nitrates are normaly 0ppm and the same reading from water straight from the tap. When I cycled the tank several months ago it peaked to 5ppm.


Readings just now are

amonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm !!
PH 7.8 (also risen, normaly 7.6?)

Are these levels of nitrite going to kill the fish??
Have noen tetras, cory pandas, blue rams, penguin tetras and mollie

 

[sketchy]

are you talking about nitrites or nitrates...you seem to be switching between the two a little!

nitrites t 10 ppm is pretty high, your fish wont like that too much, but 10ppm nitrates is pretty low. there seem to be varying opinions about this, but many say that anything under 100ppm is acceptable. many people arent blessed with tapwater with 0 nitrates, so think yourself lucky there!!

 

[bare bottom]

I think your getting confused between nitrItes and nitrAtes.
If you have 10ppm of nitrItes this is bad for the fish as this should be 0. Have you done any filter maintenance or added any more fish? overfeeding perhaps?
A high nitrIte reading would come after an ammonia spike or if you've killed some of the friendly bacteria in the filter they can't cope with the bioload.
If it's 10ppm nitrAtes then don't worry as it's not high at all and is diluted with the weekly water change. It should be as low as possible but people do keep fish at 20 to 30ppm planted tanks for instance.
My cory's dart up to the surface and take gulps of air, AFAIK this is normal.

I'm sure someone else will have some more advise and correct any errors i might have made

HTH

 

[AndreaC]

Hi sorry I meant Nitrates. Rushing to type lol.

Ahh right, so Im not to worry then??

Probably panicking as normaly its at 0ppm like from Tap. I test the tap water weekly also to make sure there is no changes as I heard they can change from tap.

So i wont lose no fish? Why are some of the corys dashing up to gulp air alot more then??

Sorry, I tend to panick like mad when something isnt right, cant bare to see fish or any living thing poorly or suffer.

I think your getting confused between nitrItes and nitrAtes.
If you have 10ppm of nitrItes this is bad for the fish as this should be 0. Have you done any filter maintenance or added any more fish? overfeeding perhaps?
A high nitrIte reading would come after an ammonia spike or if you've killed some of the friendly bacteria in the filter they can't cope with the bioload.
If it's 10ppm nitrAtes then don't worry as it's not high at all and is diluted with the weekly water change. It should be as low as possible but people do keep fish at 20 to 30ppm planted tanks for instance.
My cory's dart up to the surface and take gulps of air, AFAIK this is normal.

I'm sure someone else will have some more advise and correct any errors i might have made

HTH

Meant NITRATES soz typing faster than I can see the keys as usual

I do see them dart up to gulp air but this is every 3 seconds

So NITRATE at 10ppm is ok, pheww thats cool lol.

 

[sketchy]

i wouldnt worry too much. if theyre sitting at the top for long periods of time gasping for air, i would be concernd.

you could always adjust the filter to cause as much surface agitation as possible to help airate the tank or add an air pump with an air stone or something if your worried. air pumpas arent dear and will come in handy in the long run if ever you need to medicte any of your fish

 

[AndreaC]

i wouldnt worry too much. if theyre sitting at the top for long periods of time gasping for air, i would be concernd.

you could always adjust the filter to cause as much surface agitation as possible to help airate the tank or add an air pump with an air stone or something if your worried. air pumpas arent dear and will come in handy in the long run if ever you need to medicte any of your fish

Ok thanks.

Filter is on max and has a spray coming out so surface airiation is pretty good. I have an air pump and airstone but I removed it a few weeks ago, for life nor money could I get the piping to stay attached to the pump, it drove me mad coming off every 30 mins Its also a quite poewerful pump, bubles come out really fast and increase the current, the fish were being zoomed all over the tank lol. Was going to look into getting a adjustable one.

 

[tmack]

i wouldnt worry too much. if theyre sitting at the top for long periods of time gasping for air, i would be concernd.

you could always adjust the filter to cause as much surface agitation as possible to help airate the tank or add an air pump with an air stone or something if your worried. air pumpas arent dear and will come in handy in the long run if ever you need to medicte any of your fish

Ok thanks.

Filter is on max and has a spray coming out so surface airiation is pretty good. I have an air pump and airstone but I removed it a few weeks ago, for life nor money could I get the piping to stay attached to the pump, it drove me mad coming off every 30 mins Its also a quite poewerful pump, bubles come out really fast and increase the current, the fish were being zoomed all over the tank lol. Was going to look into getting a adjustable one.

You can buy a little low cost valve to control the air pump flow if it's too much - a lot cheaper than buying a smaller air pump.

 

[-Nemo-]

My baby cory pandas always tend to zoom up and down and all around the tank up against the glass They just always have, unlike my older panda who is lazy

 

[tmack]

Yep - my older cories are lazy too

 

[AndreaC]

Lol yeh they all do the zooming up and down anyway.

Will see what happens.

 

[Arimus]

Mine seem to have mad moments when after lying peacefully they'll have a rush around the tank in a train of cory's (2 pepper, 2 bronze) then go back to what ever they where upto before they had their moment of madness. Don't seem to be distressed or anything so just putting it down to enjoying themselves... (or showing the others they are actually capable of moving when they fancy, the danio's seem to find them a bit slow and plodding for their liking...)