Nitrates skyrocketed

[SRC]

My nitrites I've not been able to get down past .25 since I started my tank. It's now 2 months old and night before last it spiked to 5.0!

I did a 50% water change and re-tested it it...it's still 5.0!!!

What can I do to get it to drop? It's alredy killed 2 of my ghost shrimp. The amonia is at 0 though..could a dying plant cause this? Becasue I have one that's not looking so great all of a sudden..or are the high nitrites killing the plants too?

Heeeeeeelp

One of those shrimps was my favorite too

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Have you been overfeeding or overstocking your tanks? Do you happen to have the tank size and inhabitants?

I wouldn't think that one dead plant would cause that much pollution. It might be dead fish, but it doesn't seem as though any of yours have died.

 

[SRC]

it's a 10 gallon tank. Kept at 80*

There are 8 neons

2 cory's

was 3 ghost shrimp (now there is one )

and a upside down catfish.

All the fish are very small, with the biggest being the upside down catfihs..he's prolly 2".

They eat about ever other day..sunken wafers for the cory's, catfish, and shrimp..and I feed the neons flake food..as long as they are eating it before it hits bottom.

The shrimp died after I took them out. They were looking rather sickly. i took them out then tested the water and found it high like that.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Oh. Well, the way I see it, the upside down catfish isn't enjoying the small tank.

As for the problem, first off, what exactly do those readings stand for? 5 ppm? If so, people have over 100 ppm and still have healthy stock.

 

[SRC]

Well on the kit I have...5ppm is the worst on the scale it came with. Something is all of a sudden killing my shrimp so I know something is wrong, and they aren't eaten on..so I know the other fish aren't doing it.

The catfish isn't supposed to get over 3"..and he seems perfectly content in the tank. I put a cave for him to hide in..and he stays there alot or under the java fern, except at night or when it's feeding time.