Please Help - High Nitrate Problems

[dsage]

Hi Everyone,

i have been having problems with my Nitrate in my tank. it suddenly shot up and i'm not really sure why but i am doing water changes to lower it and i have less the amount of food i am giving the fish. the question i would like to ask is, when i am doing the water change daily to reduce the nitrate, should i put the water conditionors in every time i change the water? if you have any other suggestion what i should do that would be great.

thanks in advance.

 

[the_lock_man]

You are doing the right thing in water changes to keep nitrates down, but what is your actual level? If it's anything less than 150ppm, then you're fine - you may well find that you have some nitrates in your tap water anyway.

Yes, you do need to use water conditioner every time.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

You are doing the right thing in water changes to keep nitrates down, but what is your actual level? If it's anything less than 150ppm, then you're fine - you may well find that you have some nitrates in your tap water anyway.

Yes, you do need to use water conditioner every time.

Not entirely accurate, While high levels nitrate are not as toxic as nitrite or ammonia levels of over 50-80ppm claims to open up ill health. Just because a fish can live at 100ppm + does not mean you should be leaving your W/C untill that much IMO. Some other fish will not tolerate levels of over 10 or 20ppm

 

[the_lock_man]

Just because a fish can live at 100ppm + does not mean you should be leaving your W/C untill that much IMO.

Thank you, Al, that wasn't a particularly well written answer that I gave - I certainly did not mean to imply that water changes should be left until nitrates reached that level. Sorry.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Just because a fish can live at 100ppm + does not mean you should be leaving your W/C untill that much IMO.

Thank you, Al, that wasn't a particularly well written answer that I gave - I certainly did not mean to imply that water changes should be left until nitrates reached that level. Sorry.

Early morn mate yawn

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I would suggest doing several smaller water changes in a row, rather than one large one. You want to gradually lower the nitrates rather than give your fish a drastic change, IMHO.


What was your regular maintenance schedule previously? How big is the tank? What types of fish and how many? It is possible the reason your nitrates are so high (how high, exactly) is that you are overstocked?

I would suggest doing 10% water changes daily until the nitrates come back down to under 40ppm. Then you might need to increase your water changes (either size, frequency or both) for your regular maintenance.

 

[MBOU]

Test your tapwater as well mate, if that is high, and it does vary a lot, that might change things...

 

[Proxo]

Overstocked tank and overfeeding can also cause high nitrAte.

 

[dsage]

hi everyone,

thanks for all your help. to answer some of your questions, the nitrate was 110ppm but i have manage to get in down to 50ppm now. my tank is 140Litres. i also read about the tap water having nitrate in it too but the test came out as 0ppm so its not that, that is the problem. i do a 40% water change every friday. i think my tank maybe overstocked or i have been feeding them to much. but in my tank right now i have 6 guppies, 5 platies, three mollies, 3 clown loach, 1 bottom feeder and 2 shrimp.

i will keep doing water changes until the nitrate falls to below 20ppm.

thanks again for all your help.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

3 clown loach are unsuitable mate for 140L please have a look at their care sheet for their sake

 

[Proxo]

50ppm nitrate apperantly isnt too bad, my 240L sits at around 30-40 with my tap water been 10.
what exactly is the bottom feeder too?

3 clown loach are unsuitable mate for 140L please have a look at their care sheet for their sake

+1