Help for a Friend

[Kerrinne]

One of my co-workers has a 29 [acronym:5e715d5b63="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:5e715d5b63] [acronym:5e715d5b63="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:5e715d5b63] tank. He has managed to overfeed, I am guessing because his nitrate levels are consistently high and when he goes to gravel vac - there is a flood of debris up from the gravel into the water.

What is the best way for him to clean all this out and get it back to normal? I told him to cut down on the amount he was feeding the fish first, and maybe do water changes every day or every other day until the nitrate levels go down. But I was thinking, the nitrate levels might not ever go down if he doesn't get all that stuff up from the gravel.

What is your advice for this situation that would be the healthiest for the tank and the fish?

Thanks!

[smooth_rivers]

hmmm...well..he can acutally feed every other day for a while. Water changes are good, 10-15%, not overly huge ones unless the nitrate levels are REALLY high. I'd vacuum 1/2 the tank really well, wait a couple of days and then do the other side. Might want to do that a second time a few days apart.

What is his nitrate level at? Any amonia or nitrites? Teach him the critters tummys are only as big as it's eye. That's how I taught my daughter how much food to feed.

[Kerrinne]

I had to use my water test kit, because amazingly he didn't have one. I couldn't imagine having a tank that size and not having one...but *shrug*

Anyway, my test kit gave the following results:

Ammonia - .25 [acronym:88d233f59e="Parts per Million"]ppm[/acronym:88d233f59e]
Nitrite - 0 [acronym:88d233f59e="Parts per Million"]ppm[/acronym:88d233f59e]
Nitrate - 80 [acronym:88d233f59e="Parts per Million"]ppm[/acronym:88d233f59e]
pH - 7.4

[Bluefrog]

How is the stocking level of the tank? I have a large goldfish who is really too big to be in a 10 gallon tank anymore. Lucky for him I've got a 29 gallon waiting for a new filter to be delivered this week. Anyway, I had the same problem, and I did vacuum the tank really well once, and then the day after that. I also did a large water change (about 50%) the first day, then waited a day, then did small water changes every other day for about a week. I also replaced the filter media in one of my filters (this is why it's better to have two filters). This all seemed to help very much. I have cut down on feeding and everything seems okay since then.

Also- since your test showed a level of ammonia and a high level of nitrates, I would have him do a larger water change...say about 30% and thoroughly vacuum the gravel all at once. Test the water daily and he'll probably need to continue with small water changes every other day for a week or so.

[TankGirl]

I am with everyone on this. Water changes are the only way to go, and after that get the debris off the bottom more often than he was doing before, as well as cutting back on feeding. If there is that much that the fish are not eating cutting back should help things a great deal. Killin' 'em with kindness, I say!

[BrianNY]

Another possibility is he may have recently added fish. That would account for an ammonia spike, high nitrates, and no nitites. In other words, he just started recycling.

[TankGirl]

Right-on BrianNY. You don't list what fish he has in there, so definitely if he recently got too many new fish it would do it. Water changes for that, too, or a dose of BioSpira.