How Long

[smokeyjo]

I tested my water on friday and the nitrates where off the scale so was told on here it could be I'm over feeding so I did a large water change and haven't fed the fish over the weekend I'm going to test the water again when I finish work but was wondering how long should I wait till I start feeding them again

 

[HayzH]

what did they measure? what do they measure now?

 

[BettaAds]

The chances are that the nitrate will still be above average even after the change, given a while, a few regular water changes and assuming you don't over feed it will go back down again.

 

[ZoddyZod]

what's your current water change regime? Percentage and frequency.

What is the nitrate reading of your tap water?

What is the actual tank reading that is so 'high'?

Size of tank and current stock? (if it's in your sig, I can't see it as I have them turned off).

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I am beginning to wonder what the big deal about nitrates is lately. Surely water changes are all you can do. Water changes done weekly should keep them at a reasonable level.

 

[Mowbz]

And adding plants also keeps them at a minimal level.

While not a "fish killer", some fish dont tolerate high levels of Nitrate, and if i remember correctly, Shirmp arent too toleran of high nitrate either (over 100ppm, again "i think" lol)

 

[smokeyjo]

My water changes are 25 percent weekly I've never tested my tap water so that is something ill do. Not sure of the current level I'm going to test it when I finish work. Its 130 litre.

6 green barbs
4 black ruby barbs
2 cummins barbs
10 neons
1 candy pleco
2 african dwarf frogs
And 6 red eye tetras

I think I may be over stocked too so that provbally aint helping

The levels when I last tested it were

Ph 6.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
And nitrate was 160ppm

 

[ZoddyZod]

stocking looks alright to me, I had similar in my old 125L.

Nitrate reading is fairly high. Checking the tap water will be the first step. If that's coming out high then there's little you can do unless you moved to sourcing RO water (your own kit of via a LFS).

DM is right in saying it's not deadly (differs from fish to fish), but I'd still want them to be less than 160ppm. Some fish would not tolerate that level at all.

 

[smokeyjo]

Ok thanks I forgot to put on the I've got 6 corys too and I lost 2 last week would they have died because of the nitrate or another reason I can't work out?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

You may try and do almost a complete drain of the tank (about 90%). Leave only enough for the fish to swim upright. That will eliminate a lot of the nitrate, assuming your tap water nitrates aren't too high. If there are no nitrates in the tap water, a 90% change should drop your nitrates to <20ppm.

This is also assuming that your tap water pH is close to the tank as well. If there is a much higher pH then you may want to remove the fish and drip acclimatize them to a pH change.

This is what I would do in an extreme circumstance, but someone else may have an easier idea.