high nitrate

[sfuller1963]

can anyone help me i have a tropical fresh water tank wich has been running for a wile now with no problems at all and over night the nitrates just seem to go through the roof for no aparant reason and there has been no change to tank wat so ever so i just cant understand how this has happened and my filter is fine with no dead fish lying in tank at all and tank is always clean

 

[Bearchumjs]

To bring them down you need to do water changes. What size tank do you have? What and how many fish? Substrate? Plants? I'm sure the other people on here who can help would like as much information about your set up as possible. I'm new at the aquarium gig, but I know there are alot of people on here who can help you.

My tap water is high in nitrates, so I have live plants to help remedy the problem.

 

[sfuller1963]

thanks

there is about 25 fish in my tank its fresh water and 2 and half foot two small plants, i have tiger barbs a betta fish a shark and two angel fish a couple of guppys and a platty a loach and tank has been really good and had no problems at all until this high nitrate i just cant figure it out im looking for a reason for this tank is cleaned once a week water has been fine gravel cleaned once a week with gravel cleaner and i rince filter in tank water i take out once in a wile but not all the time i just cant think of any reason why this has happened

 

[Hobgob]

What are you using to test and how many gallons is the tank?

 

[sfuller1963]

i used two test kits case one was wrong one was an api kit and the other a nurafin kit its about a sixty gallon tank its a juwel 125 tank

 

[Bearchumjs]

i used two test kits case one was wrong one was an api kit and the other a nurafin kit its about a sixty gallon tank its a juwel 125 tank

Could you please use punctuation so that your posts are a little easier to read?

API is a good kit to have. I use it and love it and it is recommended by many on these boards.

 

[Bearchumjs]

Also- do you use liquid tests or the paper strip tests?

 

[sfuller1963]

ok

sorry about that. i use liquid

 

[Hobgob]

Are you shaking the heck out of the bottle? Like smack it off a table? For at least a minute

 

[jlk]

How big are your weekly water changes? Have you checked your tap for nitrate as well? What are the exact readings for nitrates on your tank and your tap?

 

[sfuller1963]

my nitrates went from nothing to way of scale's. i have managed to get them down to 0.5 now. lost another tiger barb this morning. i normaly do 25 percent water change every week. but wen i checked them they were ok one day and 2 days later they went off the charts

 

[Cynic]

my nitrates went from nothing to way of scale's. i have managed to get them down to 0.5 now. lost another tiger barb this morning. i normaly do 25 percent water change every week. but wen i checked them they were ok one day and 2 days later they went off the charts

NitrAtes or NitrItes? I ask because 0.5 is a NitrIte scale measurement...

 

[Scouser]

its about a sixty gallon tank its a juwel 125 tank

A juwel 125 isn't a sixty gallon.

Juwel use numbers like "125" to inform you of litre capacity.

You tank is 34 gallons I believe, almost half of what you think it is...

Gotta say you should've known that before stocking the tank!

 

[Hobgob]

How long is a while and did you cycle your tank?