Wooooooohhhh..MAJOR Nitrate

[MamaPish]

My 55 gal is a planted tank, and I have been having lots of problems with algae......I finally tested my water after being gone a while and here are the readings

Ammonia--0
Nitrite---0
PH----7.2
Nitrate---160

My corys have what looks like decaying mouths, but they are still eating and it hasn't seemed to affect them in any other way....angels seem fine...I am about to change the water, about 50%....and I am going to take some decaying plants out.....any other suggestions??

 

[Wasserpest]

Wow... that is like someone replaces the O2 in your air with CO...

- Water changes
- Less feeding (nothing should be left over...)
- Less bioload (fishies)
- Lot's o' healthy growing (stem) plants

That's about all I can think of right now...

 

[MamaPish]

I guess I should add....my tank is understocked..

4 half dollar sized angels (was about to move 2 adults in)
4 cory cats
1 rubber lipped pleco

also I was gone to Mexico for a week, and the fish were overfed by hubby
he tried!!

but they are back on a "normal" feeding routine now.

Not sure what you mean by stem plants...

I have several plants that were grown from bulbs, and I have some sort of plant that kinda looks like a lilipad, and it has roots hanging from it everywhere, but it is rooted in the substrate.

and a few other rooted plants.
Thanks

 

[dolphin]

Hi Mama

Thats a high reading. Did it just jump up, or is this the first time you have tested the tank, after your Mexico trip. The corry problem could be related to the high reading.

Did huby over feed them whilst you were away?

A 50% water change sounds like a good idea.

How are the babies comming on?

 

[CFC]

With a nitrate level that high a 50% water change will hardly dent it,i would suggest adding a nitrate removing media such as nitrazorb to your filtration system to help bring the levels down as well as doing 20% water changes daily.Once the levels are back to normal you can remove the extra media if you wish.

 

[Wasserpest]

Have you tested the NO3 in your tap water? It should be between 0 and 15 ppm... just making sure your test kit actually works Having determined that, a few water changes and reduced feeding should bring things back to normal pretty soon.

With stem plants I meant plants like Anacharis, Cabomba, Ambulia, Ludwigia etc which are fast growers (if light is provided ) and take their nutrients from the water column, while most rosette plants like swords, crypts and "Lilies" take their nutrients through their roots from the substrate.

Examples: http/aquariumplant.com/cgi-bin/cart/scan...tml?id=tyAMY9jU

Sufficient plants will reduce your NO3 down to nothing (doesn't mean you can discontinue water changes )

 

[impur]

Ouch, I agree the nitrazorb should be used with daily WC. Hope they all pull through it. Keep us informed.

 

[MamaPish]

did about a 50% water change........several hours ago, just tested again......and wierd...but it is between 0-5.0 now.

Hubby did overfeed, and there was a lot of plant waste, and plants that wern't thriving and I did away with all that......I will keep a close eye on it.
Thanks everyone.

Dolphin...about my babies.........all gone again.


I think I am going to separate them from the parents when they start to swim and see if that works......what do you think?

I think I just have to many things going on to raise angels right now.......all the "big" things are over for now.....but I have 3 weddings to do in the next month......after these......no more weddings for me...I am going strictly ministry....doing balloon decor for weddings is to STRESSFUL!!!!

 

[dolphin]

Hi Mama

Taking the parents out when the fry are free swimming, works. I have a pair that spawn every two weeks, even though they have babies swimming all around them, they still spawn. So now I keep moving them when the fry have started to swim, as they try to put the swimming fry back onto the spawning site with the new eggs.

How old is the test kit you are using? In a recent study in a UK fish keeping mag, they found that all the nitrate test kits gave different readings, and did not match the exact reading of the water samples, with a inaccuracy of up to 50 ppm. The lower the level of Nitrate, the less accurate the test kit.

I would do a few small water changes, just to make sure that the water levels are ok, and teach Hubby the correct ammout of fish food to feed the fish.