Nitrate Way Too High And Fish Dying

[fishy16]

Help, i just did a tank clean up followed by my usual.(The only new different thing i did was change my charcol bags) filter clean. Now my Nitrate readings have gone through the roof and all my tetras have died. The rest of the fish dont look happy and im worried!!! Yes i used the right amount of water safe treatments. The water was the right temp and all the other readings are fine. Whats the quickest way of getting rid of the nitrates. The shops are shut so it got to be something i can do from here hopefully. Ive already started on water changes i just did about a quater of the tank (160 litres)

 

[the_lock_man]

A couple of questions for you, if I may.

When you say "through the roof", what is the actual level?
When you say the other readings are "fine", what are the actual levels?

In general, the way to reduce nitrate, or ammonia and nitrite for that matter, is large water changes.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

If your tap water is anything like that in Southampton, it will naturally come with ~40ppm nitrate, but if you are convinced your tank currently contains a lot more than that then do almost a complete tank water change, literally leaving just enough water in there to cover the fish ASAP.

Maybe you have other issues, but if other fish are looking bad right now besides your dead tetras, do the massive water change (keeping a small amount of the water to one side to test later) now to give them a chance of surviving, seeing later if perhaps you had an ammonia and/or nitrite spike too,

 

[This Old Spouse]

What exactly do you mean when you say you "(The only new different thing i did was change my charcol bags) filter clean."


If you tossed your old filter media (bags/floss inside the filter) then you just put yourself into a fish-in cycle.


If you still have those bags, rinse them out in tank water that you've siphoned out and put them back in the filter!

 

[fishy16]

A couple of questions for you, if I may.

When you say "through the roof", what is the actual level?
When you say the other readings are "fine", what are the actual levels?

In general, the way to reduce nitrate, or ammonia and nitrite for that matter, is large water changes.

The Nitrate level was 80 to 100ppm the nitrite and ammonia-0 and 0, ph 7.2-6.
Starting on emptying my tank now i'll leave the minimum amount in and post later. Im going to test the tap water too out of interest, as ive never had this before.

What exactly do you mean when you say you "(The only new different thing i did was change my charcol bags) filter clean."


If you tossed your old filter media (bags/floss inside the filter) then you just put yourself into a fish-in cycle.


If you still have those bags, rinse them out in tank water that you've siphoned out and put them back in the filter!

No these are new ones to replace the ones i took out months ago when i was treating for a fin fungus outbreak. I thouroughly washed them out first as instuctions said to.

 

[fishy16]

ok just did a test on the water in my watering can (thats how i fill my tank) AFTER adding tetra aquasafe, and its coming back as 20ppm surely it should be way lower than that??!

 

[fishy16]

If your tap water is anything like that in Southampton, it will naturally come with ~40ppm nitrate, but if you are convinced your tank currently contains a lot more than that then do almost a complete tank water change, literally leaving just enough water in there to cover the fish ASAP.

Maybe you have other issues, but if other fish are looking bad right now besides your dead tetras, do the massive water change (keeping a small amount of the water to one side to test later) now to give them a chance of surviving, seeing later if perhaps you had an ammonia and/or nitrite spike too,

How do you cope with that?(40ppm)
Bristol water had the following info but im not sure what it means.
Nitrate samples-8 min-4.2 mean-8.7 max-16.2 standard value-50 units-mg/l NO3

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

40ppm nitrate is not be believed to be that dangerous at all to most hobby fish species, it only becomes a problem at levels reaching >150ppm and is lethal ~300ppm. While nitrate is regarded as one of the hardest chemicals to get accurate test results for, I rely on 30-50% water changes each week and conservative feeding on my tanks to prevent levels getting too high.


Are your fish looking better than they were after the massive water change?

 

[Jooniefish]

well as i understand it nitrate is created is created by bacteria destroying ammonia and nitrite. if your media is new, which from what im reading it is... or im reading incorrectly or, your explaining poorly, ..

"No these are new ones to replace the ones i took out"

then im not really sure as this new media should have close to no bacteria colonies. my guess is a.) your tap water has an abundance to begin with, or B.) since the only thing different is the new media, then its fair to say theres something wrong with that.

 

[fishy16]

well as i understand it nitrate is created is created by bacteria destroying ammonia and nitrite. if your media is new, which from what im reading it is... or im reading incorrectly or, your explaining poorly, ..

"No these are new ones to replace the ones i took out"

then im not really sure as this new media should have close to no bacteria colonies. my guess is a.) your tap water has an abundance to begin with, or B.) since the only thing different is the new media, then its fair to say theres something wrong with that.

Just the bags of charcoal were new the rest of the media isnt, sponges, balls, ect.

 

[fishy16]

40ppm nitrate is not be believed to be that dangerous at all to most hobby fish species, it only becomes a problem at levels reaching >150ppm and is lethal ~300ppm. While nitrate is regarded as one of the hardest chemicals to get accurate test results for, I rely on 30-50% water changes each week and conservative feeding on my tanks to prevent levels getting too high.


Are your fish looking better than they were after the massive water change?

Thanks for asking. I turned the light out to calm them (or was it so i couldnt see?) At the moment all are fine Shrimp (havent seen them all) ottos, guppies, but i havent seen all my celestial pearl danios and my SAE's are stressed and have lost their stripes.All the tetras died

Im keeping my fingers crossed that they will all be there in the morning.

 

[This Old Spouse]

So it still appears you have your filter media intact. Why are you using charcoal bags? Are you trying to remove medication? If not, you really don't need charcoal.

What kind of tetras were they? Neon tetras are a bit notorious for being rather delicate to changes in their environment. But it also appears the rest of the fish suffered somewhat as well.

So what could it be? How often do you do water changes and how much at a time? Do you temperature match the new water? What kind of dechlorinator do you use? What are your readings for pH?

Did you add/subtract anything to/from the tank? How big is your tank? What/how many fish?

Just trying to get to the bottom of this for you.

 

[the_lock_man]

The Nitrate level was 80 to 100ppm the nitrite and ammonia-0 and 0, ph 7.2-6.

That's not really "through the roof", yeah it's on the high side, but like Goat said, you only need to worry when you get over 150ppm

ok just did a test on the water in my watering can (thats how i fill my tank) AFTER adding tetra aquasafe, and its coming back as 20ppm surely it should be way lower than that??!

20ppm is just fine.

Nitrate samples-8 min-4.2 mean-8.7 max-16.2 standard value-50 units-mg/l NO3

All water companies regularly sample and report on the chemicals in their tapwater. For nitrate, they have to take a minimum of 8 samples per year. In this instance, they have taken 8 samples in the reporting period. Of those samples, the lowest value was 4.2ppm, the highest 16.2ppm, and the mean average value was 8.7ppm. Standard Value is actually the maximum permitted concentration, again in ppm.

I have just checked the latest stats from Portsmouth Water Ltd, in my supply area. Their mean average nitrate, through 2010 was 28.1ppm, so your average of 8.7 is pretty good.

 

[the_lock_man]

If your tap water is anything like that in Southampton, it will naturally come with ~40ppm nitrate,

Just for interest, I looked up Southern Water's results for 2010 - obviously I don't know what part of Southampton you live in, so I picked a postcode at random in St Denys, and there, the average was 31.83ppm.

So another reason why Portsmouth is better than Southampton.....

 

[fishy16]

Update for this morning.2 Guppies dead but one of these did get sucked up accidently, raced through the hosepipe and ended up in the garden! He was quickly scooped up by my son and put back in the tank and looked ok, so no shock really that he died. My SAE's have their stripe back and all the rest are feeding and swimming around fine.One of my shrimp even shed its skin so i take that as a good sign?
This morning the levels are ph-7.4 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10
So better than it was. Im off to the fish shop this morning to get some nitra zorb or something to keep in the house incase it happens again.
It was 8 neon green tetras that i lost
I dont temperature check the water but "feel" it, the temerature didnt change, it doesnt normally when i do it. I did check.
160 ltr tank 2 SAE, 3 Ottos, 6 amano shrimp, 2 crystal red shrimp, 1 fire red shrimp, 4 peppered corys, 8 celestial pearl danio, 8 male endler guppies.
The charcoal comes with the filter -All Pond Solutions 1400ef external filter.
The reason for the water change and filter clean was that i was moving plants and i try not to clean parts of the glass to allow algea to build up for the shrimp ect to feed on. So this was a major clean of practically all the glass and muck floating around from the gravel/plant move. I wonder if that was the cause?