Help wanted please.
I have a 120 litre community tank established in October last year, running with no problems or deaths since November. I woke up this morning to find 2 male guppies dead. I did a water change 8 days ago (readings all OK) and a thorough gravel clean (but not a water change) last night and they were OK then.
I did an immediate water test and the ammonia and nitrIte were both zero but the nitrAte was off the scale!
I did a 30% water change, waited an hour and did another water test with exactly the same results! In between I did a water test on the fresh water I used for the water change just to prove my method and the test kit, the nitrAte was 5.0 ppm
Panic had really set in by now, so another 30% water change was completed with the same nitrAte reading, 160+ ppm
I can't understand why the nitrAte is so high and why 2x30% changes don't seem to have reduced it.
If there was anything dead or rotting in there I would have spotted it when I cleaned the gravel. Surely the bacteria must be OK otherwise the ammonia/ nitrIte levels would be up as well.
The filter is the standard Jewel internal that came with the tank, I wash the filter medium in the water change water, to preserve the bacteria and I dont think the tank is over stocked.........
1x male beta, 1x unknown catfish, about 12 neon tetras, 4 x black widow tetras, 2 golden loaches, 4x mollies and 7 guppies.
All comment or suggestion would be most welcome.
Many thanks
Jim
I have a 120 litre community tank established in October last year, running with no problems or deaths since November. I woke up this morning to find 2 male guppies dead. I did a water change 8 days ago (readings all OK) and a thorough gravel clean (but not a water change) last night and they were OK then.
I did an immediate water test and the ammonia and nitrIte were both zero but the nitrAte was off the scale!
I did a 30% water change, waited an hour and did another water test with exactly the same results! In between I did a water test on the fresh water I used for the water change just to prove my method and the test kit, the nitrAte was 5.0 ppm
Panic had really set in by now, so another 30% water change was completed with the same nitrAte reading, 160+ ppm
I can't understand why the nitrAte is so high and why 2x30% changes don't seem to have reduced it.
If there was anything dead or rotting in there I would have spotted it when I cleaned the gravel. Surely the bacteria must be OK otherwise the ammonia/ nitrIte levels would be up as well.
The filter is the standard Jewel internal that came with the tank, I wash the filter medium in the water change water, to preserve the bacteria and I dont think the tank is over stocked.........
1x male beta, 1x unknown catfish, about 12 neon tetras, 4 x black widow tetras, 2 golden loaches, 4x mollies and 7 guppies.
All comment or suggestion would be most welcome.
Many thanks
Jim
