Extremely high nitrates (80 ppm or more)...

[Fish24907]

So I hadn't been keeping up to speed with my water changes lately, and one of my Zebra Danios developed a curved spine. I have tested the water and nitrates are at least 80 ppm upon testing with my API test kit.

1. I am wondering if there is such a thing as too much water changing? I already did a 50% water change. Will too much of it get rid of some of my beneficial bacteria in the tank?

2. Where did the high nitrate level come from? I only have 5 Zebra Danios in my 20 gallon tank. So I don't think they could have been the only source...I also had a ramshorn snail outbreak, but i left them in because I heard they are harmless. But upon thinking about it now, they could have also contributed nitrates, so I guess they aren't completely harmless correct?

 

[paytertot]

No you can definitely do more water changes, I've done them to where there was just enough water for the fish to swim about. Most of your BB is in your filter and decor and such, not much is in the water. Also, snails will have an effect on ammonia output, therefore contributing to nitrates, but I'm not sure how much.

 

[Rivercats]

If you had an outbreak of ramshorn babies it is because you are overfeeding. 5 little danios need very little food. Depending on how much you were overfeeding and how little WC's you did the nitrates crept up. It's not due to the snails, but you don't really need that many so maybe you could sell some to a local fish store or give them away to other tank owners. You don't lose BB during WC's, it's not in the water so there is nothing to worry about. But something else, if your filters haven't been serviced in a while they too will add to your nitrate load. If you don't have live plants your gravel might be due for a vacuuming. Just don't do all this at once! Clean your filter then the next week clean 1/2 your gravel and then the next week vacuum the other half. But in the mean time you need to keep doing WC's until you nitrates are under 20. It's an easy problem to fix.

 

[paytertot]

You can vac all your gravel at once, it isn't going to do any harm. I do it with every water change.
A good way to get some of the snails out is to clip a piece of lettuce in there at night, and in the morning it will be covered in snails.

 

[ibn219]

Clean your gravel thoroughly gravel can hold nitrates you can test this by taking some of your gravel and putting it in a fresh glass of water wait a day or so then test it. You fell behind on wc now your playing catch up the only danger to frequent wc is stressing your fish clean gravel real well stir it with siphon pump and dont change your filters to keep your bacteria stable alot of it lives in your gravel

 

[ibn219]

Live rocks and some plants will help to youll have to look up wich ones eat nitrate but there are some i think lily pad might be one

 

[Rivercats]

The reason I suggested halving the gravel cleaning this go is due to the fact that cleaning the filter, not the bio media of course, and doing the gravel all at once really could mess with the BB. Once the tank gets stablized with good nitrate levels then I absolutely agree with doing the entire gravel everytime a WC is done.