Nitrate Question

[jonny-5]

Am i changing water enough or not changing enough of it?

I have a 30G tank thats been up & running for 6 months
P.H 7
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80ppm
4 Bronze Corys, 5 Guppy male Juveniles(3 months old)
All seem healthy, All active & eating normally

Today i tested and had almost 80ppm Nitrate.
I do a weekly water change of 25L, I have no live plants....i threw them all away as i was convinced they were carrying Ich

So im unsure if im changing water enough or not changing enough??

I did a 50% change yesterday & a 25% this morning & Nitrate stats dropped to 20ppm

 

[jonny-5]

Was just looking for any thoughts really, Yes i am semi experienced in fishkeeping but sometimes the obvious is overlooked

 

[Circus]

I'm not sure if it is possible to do too many water changes. Without live plants, there isn't anywhere for extra nitrates to go. I would do frequent water changes without any live plants.

 

[Slaphppy7]

What test kit are you using?

 

[jonny-5]

I have the API liquid water test kit, But i have some API test strips 5 in 1 & a seperate API Amonnia test strip, Both kits are the same readings/colours

 

[jonny-5]

Maybe i should consider some new live plants then?
The extra water changes dont bother me to be honest without live plants but was just wondering how the Nitrates had got so high in 8 days without a water change. I have other tanks but they are fine, Even the breeding tank 10Gallon is stable & ive just got rid of 30 juveniles out of there last weekend & not water changed since

 

[Colin_T]

If you have 80ppm nitrates in the aquarium, then you are not doing enough water changes. You want ammonia and nitrite at 0ppm at all times, and nitrates need to be as close to 0ppm and below 20ppm at all times.

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week, and then do it once a week after that. It should keep your nitrates at a low level.

--------------------
Plants don't get white spot, however the parasites can be transmitted in water or on the wet leaves. If you wash any new plants under tap water, or quarantine them for a month before adding them to the tank, they won't have anything bad on them.

Put some live plants back in the tank. Floating plants like Water Sprite will help keep nitrates down and make the fish happier.

 

[jonny-5]

Thanks @Colin_T, i will change more water & monitor what happends.
The ich outbreak i had .....nothing had been added to the tank for a long while at the time except some live plants. I bought off amazon....Big mistake.
I thought it may of been introduced by a Cory i bought from LFS but who knows

Just checked the stats with the liquid kit again & it still shows 20ppm, So obviously i need to look at the water changing volume or frequency.
Thanks for the info

 

[jonny-5]

Just checked it again today & its still Nitrate 20ppm so im going to do a 50% water change, It must be doing some good as the Guppies are displaying brighter colours & the Corys have started to go into spawning behaviour
Thanks for the help

 

[Colin_T]

check your tap water for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

 

[jonny-5]

Ive checked the tap water & all my tank stats match perfectly with the tap water....well apart from the high Nitrate readings of course.
Another thing ive found out today too, Is that my kids are also feeding the fish which i was totally unaware of, So this may explain the high readings also

 

[jonny-5]

Water parameters off Water Company

 

[jonny-5]

Yes i have Guppy fish too & my water is soft straight out of the tap. (Before somebody points this out?) I use no buffers or any other stabilizers.
I have always had Guppys at different times during my life of fish keeping & they live at least 2-3 years with no health problems, Which is typical Guppy lifespan i guess
I am not saying soft water is good for Guppys i am simply making my point
As all my guppy fry were born in soft water i guess they will know no different?
The water in the LFS is soft too ive checked multiple times, The store owner tells me they are shipped to him in Soft water P.H

 

[Utar]

Since I don't keep livebearers I don't know about guppies. Wondering how long guppies live, I found this website. It is saying that guppies that come from a good genetic strain, orders from a reputable source, can live up to five years. Here is a link to the website...Dr Guppy

 

[itiwhetu]

Load the tank with live plants that will sort it out. 30-50% of the volume of the tank in plants