Tank size: 30"x15"x12" (aprox 11 gallon / 65 litre)
Undergravel filter
pH: 6.8
ammonia: 0 mg/l
nitrite: 0 mg/l
nitrate: very high (see text)
kH:0 dH
gH:16 dH
tank temp:25-26 C
Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behaviour):OK,a bit sluggish
Volume and Frequency of water changes: usually 6 gallons /
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Only a chlorine remover / tap water additive until last week (see text)
Tank inhabitants: Community inc. 1xPlec, 2x clown loach, 1x Ghost Knife, barbs, neons, tetras
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): None
-----------------------------
Hi, sorry for the really long first post but may I describe the symptoms first and then ask questions at the end?
1. This is a long-standing tank set-up (nearly 20 years!) with lots of living plants that grow really well and I have never had any problems with excess algae growth.
When I first started, I used to monitor the water conditions quite closely with test kits, but eventually I stopped as things were usually so stable.
2. About 6 weeks ago I discovered the heater had broken and the fish had been at ambient temperature (around 24 C during the day) for an unknown period (typically, my tank thermometer batteries had died at around the same time and I was having trouble finding replacements!)
3. I bought a new heater straight away and set it up to 26 deg C on it's own scale
4. About a week later, I fixed the thermometer and discovered that the temp was actually now rather too high (about 27-28 C), so I reset the heater to a lower setting to get back to 25-26 C
5. Soon after that I started to get bad algae growth on the plants and rocks, which I put down to the high temperature. Maybe I was wrong! Since then I've been physically wiping and scraping it off the bigger leaves but it keeps coming back. By doing so I also ended up stirring a lot of it into the water, so I did a couple more water changes than usual to improve the look.
6. Eventually I bought some Algae killer, but the dose depended on the hardness of the water and it also warned about reducing the dose if there were loaches etc in the tank.
I remembered from the early days that my tap water was "slightly hard" but to be safe I used the minimum dose and repeated it two weeks later. However, it made no difference, the algae kept returning and getting worse
7. So in order to calculate the proper dose of algae killer correctly, yesterday I bought a combined test kit primarily to check the hardness.
As well as the water being much harder than I expected, to my horror I discovered the Nitrate level was through the roof! (around 250mg/l NO3)
Nitrites were OK at 0-1mg/l NO2.
8. I did an immediate water change (50%) and the Nitrate level has reduced a bit but is still very high today (100mg/l NO3)
-----------------
So here are my questions and theories...
1. Did the nitrate level shoot up because of the amount of decaying algae that I had left in the water?
2. In which case, what caused the sudden algae growth originally?
3. Or is the algae growth due to the high nitrate levels? (as I read yesterday)in which case, what caused the Nitrate level rise?.
If it's #3, nothing has changed AFAIK, so my only thought is that maybe the undergravel filter has crashed,maybe due to a blocked filterplate or a leak in the connection to the up-tube and pump, so the water is pumping, but not being pulled through the gravel properly?
I have only completely stripped down the tank twice before, there never seemed a need to! I'm not looking forward to it, but will do it if I need to.
4. Until I get this sorted properly, what is the absolute maximum amount of water changes I can do to keep the Nitrates down temporarily? Is 50% every day too much?
5. Should I try to reduce the hardness somehow?
Sorry for such a long first post, but I wanted to get all the facts written down to give you the background and what's happened since I first noticed a problem.
Many many thanks for any advice.
Undergravel filter
pH: 6.8
ammonia: 0 mg/l
nitrite: 0 mg/l
nitrate: very high (see text)
kH:0 dH
gH:16 dH
tank temp:25-26 C
Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behaviour):OK,a bit sluggish
Volume and Frequency of water changes: usually 6 gallons /
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Only a chlorine remover / tap water additive until last week (see text)
Tank inhabitants: Community inc. 1xPlec, 2x clown loach, 1x Ghost Knife, barbs, neons, tetras
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): None
-----------------------------
Hi, sorry for the really long first post but may I describe the symptoms first and then ask questions at the end?
1. This is a long-standing tank set-up (nearly 20 years!) with lots of living plants that grow really well and I have never had any problems with excess algae growth.
When I first started, I used to monitor the water conditions quite closely with test kits, but eventually I stopped as things were usually so stable.
2. About 6 weeks ago I discovered the heater had broken and the fish had been at ambient temperature (around 24 C during the day) for an unknown period (typically, my tank thermometer batteries had died at around the same time and I was having trouble finding replacements!)
3. I bought a new heater straight away and set it up to 26 deg C on it's own scale
4. About a week later, I fixed the thermometer and discovered that the temp was actually now rather too high (about 27-28 C), so I reset the heater to a lower setting to get back to 25-26 C
5. Soon after that I started to get bad algae growth on the plants and rocks, which I put down to the high temperature. Maybe I was wrong! Since then I've been physically wiping and scraping it off the bigger leaves but it keeps coming back. By doing so I also ended up stirring a lot of it into the water, so I did a couple more water changes than usual to improve the look.
6. Eventually I bought some Algae killer, but the dose depended on the hardness of the water and it also warned about reducing the dose if there were loaches etc in the tank.
I remembered from the early days that my tap water was "slightly hard" but to be safe I used the minimum dose and repeated it two weeks later. However, it made no difference, the algae kept returning and getting worse
7. So in order to calculate the proper dose of algae killer correctly, yesterday I bought a combined test kit primarily to check the hardness.
As well as the water being much harder than I expected, to my horror I discovered the Nitrate level was through the roof! (around 250mg/l NO3)
Nitrites were OK at 0-1mg/l NO2.
8. I did an immediate water change (50%) and the Nitrate level has reduced a bit but is still very high today (100mg/l NO3)
-----------------
So here are my questions and theories...
1. Did the nitrate level shoot up because of the amount of decaying algae that I had left in the water?
2. In which case, what caused the sudden algae growth originally?
3. Or is the algae growth due to the high nitrate levels? (as I read yesterday)in which case, what caused the Nitrate level rise?.
If it's #3, nothing has changed AFAIK, so my only thought is that maybe the undergravel filter has crashed,maybe due to a blocked filterplate or a leak in the connection to the up-tube and pump, so the water is pumping, but not being pulled through the gravel properly?
I have only completely stripped down the tank twice before, there never seemed a need to! I'm not looking forward to it, but will do it if I need to.
4. Until I get this sorted properly, what is the absolute maximum amount of water changes I can do to keep the Nitrates down temporarily? Is 50% every day too much?
5. Should I try to reduce the hardness somehow?
Sorry for such a long first post, but I wanted to get all the facts written down to give you the background and what's happened since I first noticed a problem.
Many many thanks for any advice.
