Nitrate rise, everything else if fine???

[femmeartist51]

Finally our tank has been cycled, for about 8 months now. Haven't had to change the water for awhile now. Last change was a 50% change with salt addition. Everything has been fine PH is 7.2, ammonia is 0 Nitrites 0 hardness is 120 Alkalinity is low, 0 to 80 kind of inbetween these two numbers.
Our problem is the nitrates have risen to very high numbers of 200. The fish look great. They are not appearing stressed at all. I have been using cycle, which is great, until now.

55 gallon tank
fish in the tank are:
2 blood parrots (I know they are not natural to the fish world, but cute fish and spoiled. One won't eat unless you hand feed her)
1 oscar, a very small one (I know he will grow)
1 gourami (was one original guy in the tank)
1 angel (also one of the original ones in the tank)
2 tiny jack dempsey (new to this tank)
1 pleco
1 channel cat (who needs to go to the lake, he hates everyone and tries to eat them)

I recently put in another small oscar, who was eaten within 1 day.

So, is this too many fish for a 55 gallon. We plan on getting a larger tank.
So I guess the best way to lower nitrates is to change the water. I just don't want to change the cycling too much. I have completed numerous water changes, then found out not to clean the filter material out or I can ruin the cycling. I gather that is correct. Thanks for any input.
Lynda

 

[rdd1952]

Haven't had to change the water for awhile now. Last change was a 50% change with salt addition. Everything has been fine PH is 7.2, ammonia is 0 Nitrites 0 hardness is 120 Alkalinity is low, 0 to 80 kind of inbetween these two numbers.
Our problem is the nitrates have risen to very high numbers of 200. The fish look great. They are not appearing stressed at all. I have been using cycle, which is great, until now.

So, is this too many fish for a 55 gallon. We plan on getting a larger tank.
So I guess the best way to lower nitrates is to change the water. I just don't want to change the cycling too much. I have completed numerous water changes, then found out not to clean the filter material out or I can ruin the cycling. I gather that is correct. Thanks for any input.
Lynda

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You say you haven't done a water change ina while and I guess you are concened about starting a mini cycle. You must do weekly water chages, especially with fish like plecos, ocsars and channel cats. They are huge waste producers and waste eventually becomes nitrate. Only 2 things can mess up a cycled tank during water changes: 1) not using dechlorinator or 2) rinsing the filter in tap water (with chlroine that kills the bacteris or rinsing it too vigorously in the old tank water.

As for too many fish, you are probably ok for now since you say they are small but you are definitely overstocked based on adult size. Just the pleco and channel cat are enough to fill the tank when grown. I would look to rehome some of them soon, especially the channel cat as the world record on one of those is 58 lb.

 

[femmeartist51]

Thanks so much for the reply. I plan on taking the channel cat to the lake. I had hoped to let him grow a little bigger. The pleco, he is getting a little bigger, but I think still ok. I had always known we had to give him away soon.

I just did a water change, sorry to say the other change was last month. The water change only took the nitrate down to 80, but as always the change of water caused the ph to go down from 7.2 to 6.6. We have had alot of problems with a drop in ph when the water is changed. That is because our well water is very very soft, low ph. I didn't do a thing to the filters figured they are still pumping water so they must not be clogged. I don't want to have to start that mini cycle again. Oh, I did a 45 percent change. Added cycle, but not enough for the amount of water I changed also added Prime for the ammonia. Oh Ammonia stayed at zero, even when the nitrate went up. The KH test I did was only 35.8. Wonder if that is okay. Well thanks for the response, Lynda

 

[pnyklr3]

Water changes are really the only way to go to lower nitrates. 25% every other day will lower it fairly quickly.

Where did you get the channel catfish?

 

[femmeartist51]

Hi,
We purchased it at the pet store. It is really a funny fish. He just goes crazy sometimes. I was told, he was the one that killed off some other fish in the tank. He actually killed a baby oscar. He leaves the blood parrots alone though. The parrots are cross bred fish, and are in the cichlid family, so I have been told. They bully the small oscar that is in the tank. Well that change I did, was drastic I guess. I hope I didn't mess up the cycle. But in a few days I will do a 25% change. In june we had consistantly a 30 in the nitrate dept. Added live plants, that the fish ate, and that did lower the nitrates a little. Well thanks, if you think of anything else let me know, Lynda

 

[pnyklr3]

I woulnd't recommend releasing the cat into the pond. Not sure how he'll handle winters. Not to mention the environmental impact if the pond you are releasing it into is not a pond in your own backyard (for personal use).

I know that PetCo will take fish to "adopt" out.

 

[paulthegreat]

Do not add any more ammonia! It will just become more nitrate and you are back to square one. Just do a 30-40% water change weekly (with conditioned water)and you will get the nitrate down. I try to keep mine below 50mg/l. Nitrate can become a problem for the fish if they are in high levels for extended periods and 200 is very high! good luck with finding a new home for the channel cat.

 

[femmeartist51]

Hi again,
Our ammonia is zero. So if ammonia causes nitrate, then my tester could be wrong? Or something else caused the nitrate rise.
About the channel cat. We have a huge lake in town. They have cat fish in the lake. I have asked two stores if they want a channel cat. I think I may just go back to the store I purchased him at and try to trade him out. Pet store obviously didn't know about channel cats. He seems to kill off any new fish we put in the tank. Oh, the water tested this morning are
Nitrates 80 (down from 200)
Nitrites 0
Hardness 120 moderate
Alk 80 (I should buffer it up)
PH 6.4 (on the strips) 7.2 (w/liguid tester)
Ammonia 0

Thanks, Lynda

 

[rdd1952]

just did a water change, sorry to say the other change was last month. The water change only took the nitrate down to 80, but as always the change of water caused the ph to go down from 7.2 to 6.6. We have had alot of problems with a drop in ph when the water is changed. That is because our well water is very very soft, low ph.

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That is the reason you need to do smaller, more frequent water changes. A change of .6 in pH is extremely difficult on fish since the change is exponential. A change of .6 is actually a change of 6. What do you have in your tank that is causing your pH to go up so much? Do you use crushed coral or some other type substrate to raise the pH?

I woulnd't recommend releasing the cat into the pond.

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If it is a true channel catfish, they are native fish anyway so it shouldn't be an environmental issue but not sure about the cold. They can handle a lot though. It may be wise to get an expert opinion to make sure he is indeed a true channel cat and won't be a problem. As stated though, releasing a non-native fish (or even npn-native plants) into the wild can be a major disaster.

Edited for spelling.

 

[pnyklr3]

Nitrates are going to be the by product of ammonia. The bacteria in your tank is doing a good job of keeping up the nitrogen cycle. Liken it to your kitchen. You have take-out food every night, so you eat, and put the containers in the garbage. After a week, you have no food, put all of this garbage. If you don't take it out, it will just stay there, piling up, and polluting your kitchen. The nitrates are the "Garbage;" someone needs to take it out.

EDIT: Sorry if I sound harsh, but channel catfish are native to where? We have no idea femmeartist's location.

 

[rdd1952]

EDIT: Sorry if I sound harsh, but channel catfish are native to where? We have no idea femmeartist's location.

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The are native to the US but you are correct that we don't know if that is where he/she is.

 

[pnyklr3]

OK. I have no idea where they are from! lol

 

[playfulalliecat]

Please don't put the channel cat in a lake. People fish in there and from reading the different chemical bottles they are not for fish you are going to eat. People fish in lakes and take the fish home to eat. They could possibly get sick or worse.

You need to keep up on water changes. That's really the only way to keep your nitrates down.

 

[pnyklr3]

Good point. I forgot about that.

 

[femmeartist51]

Hi Everyone,
We are from Georgia, north Ga. mountains, near NC. The lake we have here have lots of cat fish. Not sure if they are channel cat. This is where this catfish may of come from and the store sold it to us. I plan on asking them to take it back in exchange for something. If not I do have an outside pond with koi and we are making another mud pond for our koi. So we could put the channel cat out in the pond, if need be. We are also looking at getting a bigger tank, so we may just have one set aside for the pleco and catfish anyway. I knew about the nitrates, and the water changes, I just wanted to flow it by other people. I was afraid that I was changing the tanks water too much in the past and causing more cycling than necessary, so we stopped the water changes. Now, thanks to everyone, I know to do at least a 25% change once a week. That should help the nitrate. We never never had a nitrate problem before. I also wonder about these test kits. We purchased the strips because the local store, that is all they had. Before we had those liquid tests. When I use the strip for PH it says one thing and the liguid test says the ph is 7.2. the strip says it is 6.4. I have heard the liquid is a better test for accuracy. thanks so much for the input. I have tried to post a question about plants in the tanks, but can't seem to post. I will try that again. thanks so much for the help. Lynda