Water Chem has changed ????

[Guyb93]

Yesterday night I did a water test .. just out of curiosity my really were shocking
My Gh was 120
KH 40
PH 7
NO2 1
NO3 160 ppm
I panic and do a 30-40 water change , I re test this morning the results were
GH 120
KH >40
PH7
NO2 0.5
NO3 80
The filter is new definitely doesn’t need changing , I can’t see a dead fish but mr pleco would surly clean up , I am clearly over feeding ? Correct ? , I have recently removed an air stone if that makes a difference which I’m going to put back in as I’m going to try and bump my temp for a week as I’m sure I have ich in my tank , how I don’t know , I have saw a few glitter like spots on the tail fin of one fish and my partner said to me whist I was at work that it’s rubbing round in the sand I assumed looked for food until now , it’s not bad and don’t think it’s velvet so gonna treat now
... but my water parameters are still not great
Why is my water harder than my tap ?
How to reduce nitrate
Will replacing my sand to gravel help

 

[Oscar 907]

How long has the tank been up and running? Have you added any new decorations/fish? Pics? To show size and stocking also may be helpful.

 

[Guyb93]

My tank has been established over 12 weeks and was a straight swap from a tank that was running for over a year I stock 4 electric blue acara 2 convicts and a leopard pleco in a 4ft 70g tank and yes I added another bit of bog wood a few days ago which shouldn’t change things

 

[Oscar 907]

My tank has been established over 12 weeks and was a straight swap from a tank that was running for over a year I stock 4 electric blue acara 2 convicts and a leopard pleco in a 4ft 70g tank and yes I added another bit of bog wood a few days ago which shouldn’t change things

I asked about decorations because I have heard of wood being contaminated. It can in some cases change your gh/kh. You indicated some change in kh which is normally not associated with a bacterial crash or something biological. Possibly something has ridden in on or inside of the new wood and leaching out. If that's is the case it will be impossible to nail down another reason biologically that will help.

 

[Guyb93]

My KH isn’t concerning me as such it’s my Gh as it’s reading harder than my tap water I avoid crush coral and stuff like that but my main concern is my NO3 why so high I have minimal live plants non are dead my pleco eats all that is left I don’t get why it’s so high other than I must over feed all fish are accounted for so there’s no dead flesh in there it’s just frying my brain

 

[Oscar 907]

What did you mean by your filter is new? New 12 weeks ago? Or new you changed something since then? And yes over feeding could be the issue. Really most fish would do fine with every other day feeding. Nature doesn't always afford luxury like regular scheduled meals lol. But it's one of the few ways we interact with them. So did you just add these fish or have they been in there the entire 12 weeks it's been up? Sorry for so many questions but it helps narrow it down. 3 months should be time enough to cycle. But how did you cycle it?

 

[seangee]

The fact that your nitrate drops after a substantial water change suggests you aren't changing enough water often enough. The end result of the filtration process is nitrate and removing it is the fishkeeper's job (by dilution). If you remove less than is being created it will go up forever and you end up with old tank syndrome.

You mention minimal live plants. Live plants consume ammonia without producing nitrate. That is one of the reasons I use the smallest possible filter with lots of plants

 

[Guyb93]

All my fish have been together for a while now and no my filter is less than a week old I did a massive upgrade from a 406 to a fx4 used as much old material I could I’m expecting a mini cycle and when I swapped tanks about 12 weeks ago again I used old filter old gravel and old plants and wood and most of the old water tbh to try and keep bb

 

[Guyb93]

The fact that your nitrate drops after a substantial water change suggests you aren't changing enough water often enough. The end result of the filtration process is nitrate and removing it is the fishkeeper's job (by dilution). If you remove less than is being created it will go up forever and you end up with old tank syndrome.

You mention minimal live plants. Live plants consume ammonia without producing nitrate. That is one of the reasons I use the smallest possible filter with lots of plants

See I’m using a large filter with few live plants have 3 Marino moss balls and 5 Amazon swords I am looking at getting more li be plants , shall I just continue with 30-40 water change for the next week

 

[AilyNC]

Can you do a 75% water change? It makes sense what @seangee says - your 30-40% change isn't enough to get your levels to 0. If I test Ammonia/Nitrite advice 0 or Nitrate above 20 I do 75% water change. That always gets my levels down to zero.

Edit typo​

 

[Oscar 907]

Sounds like all you can do is monitor water and mainten levels with water changes for now. I would assume your cycling again. But that shouldn't change gh/kh so I do wonder about that a little. Not that it's a huge issue but curious what's causing it all the same. I would definitely feed minimal and water change up to 80% if able. Until levels stabilize. I do 80% weekly on my tanks just as regular maintenance. I'm lucky enough to have well water I can add straight from the tap.

 

[Oscar 907]

Forgot you also think you have ich. Which there are all kinds of theories from doing a water change and the temperature being too different to stress causing ich to break out. Don't know there is a definitive answer that's agreed upon. But dosing with meds and doing regular water changes can be difficult. Doable but can just make it a bigger more costly excercise.

 

[Guyb93]

Sounds like all you can do is monitor water and mainten levels with water changes for now. I would assume your cycling again. But that shouldn't change gh/kh so I do wonder about that a little. Not that it's a huge issue but curious what's causing it all the same. I would definitely feed minimal and water change up to 80% if able. Until levels stabilize. I do 80% weekly on my tanks just as regular maintenance. I'm lucky enough to have well water I can add straight from the tap.

A my Gh ok for South American cichlids tho I’ fear it’s a little to hard think it’s working out at 9 German as my tap water is 7.5 really bugging me lol

 

[Guyb93]

Forgot you also think you have ich. Which there are all kinds of theories from doing a water change and the temperature being too different to stress causing ich to break out. Don't know there is a definitive answer that's agreed upon. But dosing with meds and doing regular water changes can be difficult. Doable but can just make it a bigger more costly excercise.

Iv had ich before when me heater died and didn’t realise , if I have ich now it’s not bad hardly noticeable and only on one fish , my understanding of ich correct me if I’m wrong is that it’s fairly common in tanks just fish are normality healthy enough to fight it off so I’m guessing high nitrate and nitrite are weakening my fish

 

[Oscar 907]

A my Gh ok for South American cichlids tho I’ fear it’s a little to hard think it’s working out at 9 German as my tap water is 7.5 really bugging me lol

My experience, fish tend to adjust to a pre6wide range. Yes some less adaptable then others. But when I started fish keeping. We didn't test ppm and really pay too close attention to kh or gh. Again for certain fish. I wanted to raise my kh and gh. So I actually went around testing lake water near me. Found some with higher levels then my tap. Added wood that I took out of the lake and it leached gh and kh into my tank water. There are definitely ways to adjust it naturally.