Nitrate In Tank

[Seal36]

As some of you know i have changed my substrate today which has caused high nitrate to accumulate in my tank and other than doing a 50% water change for the next few days is there anything else i can do to bring the level down. I was thinking i could move my live plant from my upstairs tank to my downstairs tank would that work? Also for how long do i need to do the 50% water changes for from Tom

 

[l_l_l]

I think you would have to do them until you are under 40ppm then let the plants do their jobs and do weekly changes!
The more stem plants you have, the better.
As for removing plants from the other tank and putting them in there, I'm not sure if it would create another problem in your other tank :\

 

[Seal36]

Thats the thing that puzzles me the nitrate only rose to 20ppm at their highest yet it still killed 11 of my fish. so you would not suggest moving my live plant from upstairs downstairs as i have no live plants downstairs and the plants upstairs are really stemmy (not sure if thats a word but im going with it). At the minute it looks like the nitrate is at about 15ppm as its not as dark as 20ppm but darker than 10ppm so how long should i do the water changes for this situation thanks from tom

 

[Ch4rlie]

What are your Nitrate readings at the moment?
 
If its under or around 40ppm then that should not present a problem. 
 
Really, only 2 main things control  or lowers Nitrate levels, water changes and live plants.
 
Transferring plants from one tank to another should not present any problems, you could give plants a quick rinse under tepid tap water if you are worried about that before adding to the other tank.
 
By the way, very doubtful nitrates would have killed your fish, especially at 20ppm, thats pretty low to be honest.
Am pretty sure there must have been some other factors that came to play in the losses of your fish.

 

[Seal36]

When they first died i did the tests and the ammonia and nitrite was at zero and the nitrate was at 20ppm. i will go and do all the tests now and post the results and i will transfer one plant over just to see if it helps and thanks for your help from Tom

 

[Ch4rlie]

Still very doubtful 20ppm nitrate actually did anything towards the losses on its own. 
 
Better to transfer or buy more than one plant, as it won't make much difference just on one stem plant, I would say Elodea plants are pretty good for nitrates, takes a few weeks before your will see any real differences in nitrate levels.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I doubt it was nitrates that killed your fish, if it was deep gravel, you could have had pockets of nasty compounds that were suddenly exposing themselves to the fish eg. hydrogen sulfide.

 

[KirkyArcher]

20ppm of nitrate in your water won't be the cause of your fish deaths, probably a combination of stress and oxygen starvation from the gravel to sand exchange done with the fish in the tank

 

[Seal36]

I have done the tests again and here are the results
 
general hardness 8D
carbonate 6d
chlorine 0
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 20
p.h 7.4 
 
I use the api master test kit and for nitrite, nitrate and ph i also use some test stripes.
 
Also if it was hydrogen sulfide or any other nasty chemicals how can i remove that from the water and also I only cleaned the tank on monday so there should not have been that many chemicals under the gravel and also i only had my gravel 1 level thick. Also if it is hydrogen sulfide or something like that when would i be able to add new fish to the tank and when would these chemicals typically leave the water. How would i tell if its stress and if it is how long should i wait before adding new fish to the tank from tom

 

[l_l_l]

How did you clean the tank?

 

[Seal36]

This is what I did

1. Removed all the gravel from bottom of tank
2. Use the syphon to pick up and waste that was caught under the gravel
3. Wash sand and put it onto the floor of the tank.
4. Top up water and add stress coat +

 

[l_l_l]

What did you wash the sand with?

 

[Seal36]

Hot water in a bucket and I rinsed each 1/4 of a bucket about 8 times before I put it in the tank. I also made sure that I moved the sand around in the bucket so if that there were any chemicals I disturbed them and washed them down the sink when I poured the water away.

 

[l_l_l]

Ok I was worried you actually "washed" them with harmfull stuff!
Where did you get the sand?

 

[Seal36]

From Argos it is there play sand which they claim is non toxic and safe and I know other people use this sand too from Tom