Help!

[cmock]

We "inherited" a 29 gal. fish tank. It came with a 9" fantail goldfish and an 8" pleco. PetSmart told us we should put another goldfish in there. We bought a small capped oranda. MISTAKE! We couldn't get the nitrites and ammonia under control. The fantail died. We did a 30% water change. In a couple of days, nitrites were down to 0. Now, a couple of months later, we can't get the nitrates under control. I do a 25-30% water change once a week. Here are the readings as of today. I did just do a 25% water change after I took the readings.

Nitrates 160
Nitrites 0
Total Hardness 100
Total Alkalinity 80
ph 7.2

Oranda is usually very, very active. Not so much now. What can I do? The LFS has me putting all kinds of chemicals in, but I'm not going to do it until I see what you all have to say.
Thanks so much!
(don't think I could handle another death!)

 

[Torrean]

what are the nitrates out of your tap? Also have you considered live plants. with enough lighting nutrients and co2 live plants consume nitrate.

 

[Trance2006]

If petsmart told you to eat crickets would you? That is way too much of a load for a tank that size. Large goldfish need a minumum of 15 gallons each. And Ple*o are huge wastemasters

 

[cmock]

Thank you, Torrean. I will get some plants tomorrow. The readings out of the tap are:
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Hardness 75
Alkalinity 130
ph 8.0

Trance, We have never had a tank before so we trusted what the "professional" told us.

 

[Torrean]

with enough lighting nutrients and co2 live plants consume nitrate.

This is very important. If you only have basic lighting then you should go for lowlight plants such as java moss, or java fern. You may be able to get away with amazon sword. I've personally had good luck with elodea densa. I think the best plant for what you want to do may be duckweed, it grows on top of the water so it gets maximum light and it grows fast which means it consumes a lot of nutrients. Plants can be very simple or very very complicated depending on which plants you buy. If in doubt only buy low light plants. Plants that require high light and don't get it either don't grow or simply die. Don't feel too bad about getting duped by the fishstore...I think it's happened to the majority of us even if we don't readily admit it. just make sure you do research next time.

 

[cmock]

Thank you! I have a silly question......what do you mean by CO2?

the bulb in my light says it's for plant growth.

 

[jpedersen024]

co2 = carbon dioxide. it's a by product of breathing. we breathe in oxygen, breathe out co2. plants do the opposite. They'll either get it from the fish, or you can add it to your tank mechanically.

as for the bulb... you need to have so many watts/ gallon for adequate plant growth. I'm still learning all about this part myseld, but you should check out the planted forum to read up... there's a ton of info.

 

[cmock]

Thank you!

 

[Shelly_Otterkin]

A peace lilly,they use them for betta vases. As a betta vase bad idea but clean all the soil off the roots and plant it in your tank and you have a great plant that is low light. You can do this under water or as a friend did, she placed them in the space next to the filters and they sit with just there roots in the water.
You might think about finding a new home for the pleco before it gets bigger.