nitrates are still around 60-80 ppm ?

[westy101]

I have had water straight from the store today and had nitrate remover pouches in the aquarium and nitrate minus and vacuumed the sand but the nitrates are still around 60-80 ppm ?

 

[David S]

what have you got,whats in it,feeding schedule,light schedule,pwc schedule,filters,sump?

 

[rush]

He just started the tank right? it is cycling or?

 

[westy101]

No, the tank has a fair few fish but the nitrate just stays high :/

 

[David S]

can you answer my first post to us an idea

 

[Purevil21]

What size tank, what livestock? How often are you doing water changes, and when you do how much? How often and what are you feeding, what kind of filtration are you using? All of these things can effect nitrate. Nitrates can kill many inverts, it isn't healthy for fish either.

 

[westy101]

65-70 gallon all the fish I list below are very small babies by the way
4 common clown
2 emperor cardinals
1 powder blue tang
1 regal tang
1 bicolour angel
1 flame angel
1 lemon peel
1 thread fin butterfly
1 cream angel.

Fluval 405 external, mini internal filter, internal protein skimmer.

2 10k White bulbs and 2 blue actinic

Feeding 2-3 times a day twice flake and once mix of 5 different frozen food

I thinks that's all thats needed to know

 

[PrettyFishies]

Your canister is one source. Need to make sure it stays clean or it becomes a 'nitrate factory" . You many want to consider a sump with a HOB overflow....

2nd - You're over feeding. Fish don't need to eat 2-3 times a day. You could get away with every other day. At least once a day. All that excess food is turning into waste and becoming nitrate,

Try cleaning the cansister, feeding less and do weekly PWC. See if your nitrates aren't down in a couple of weeks.

 

[Purevil21]

Your tank has way too much bioload, even if they are small. You shouldn't keep any tangs in a tank that small, I have been lectured already about it. You are also over feeding, my fish get 2-3 times per week. Once daily would easily be enough, your nitrate are going to stay high because there is too much waste for your system to handle. You also need to do water changes, how often are you changing the water? How much are you changing when you do?

 

[westy101]

Cheers

 

[westy101]

20-30% every 1-3 days water change

 

[pat8you]

I would cut feeding back to every other day. About as much as the fish can finish in 2 min or so. You are going to have a lot of trouble keeping your nitrates down until you upgrade your tank size and your filtration. That is a lot of fish for that sized tank.

 

[Purevil21]

You need to get rid of some fish and upgrade to a sump if you want to keep that tank. If your system is balanced then you wouldn't need to change so much water. Of course you could search Craigslist for a good deal on a bigger tank. Let us know what you decide to do, good luck.

 

[Purevil21]

If you decide to upsize tanks, I would post under the barter section in Craigslist, there are sometimes people looking to downsize and trade their larger tank. For that many fish you would need a monster, the tangs alone would need a 125 minimum.

 

[westy101]

Oh well don't worry the Tangshan will be going in my 6 footer when it is all sorted

 

[westy101]

I ment Tangshan will be going in my 6 footer soon lol and if I feed them once and day what should it be ?

 

[westy101]

Tang not Tangshan it's on predictive :S

 

[David S]

change the food type each time you feed,pellets one day,mysis another day flake the next,keep the cannister cleaned each week and pwc of 20%/week should be enough,i would still do a 50% pwc first,how long until the 6footer is up and running,any pics?

 

[AaronH]

water changes will get them down def plus 1 on the over feeding cut the feeding down only feed what can be eaten within a few mins

 

[melosu58]

65-70 gallon all the fish I list below are very small babies by the way
4 common clown
2 emperor cardinals
1 powder blue tang
1 regal tang
1 bicolour angel
1 flame angel
1 lemon peel
1 thread fin butterfly
1 cream angel.

Fluval 405 external, mini internal filter, internal protein skimmer.

2 10k White bulbs and 2 blue actinic

Feeding 2-3 times a day twice flake and once mix of 5 different frozen food

I thinks that's all thats needed to know

Your tank is way over stocked. With a bioload like that you will never get rid of your nitrates. Half of those have to go esp. the tangs.