Nitrates climbing, what could cause this?

[mapexmac007]

Hi all, please see the attached picture of my "numbers" - zero to maybe 0.15 for ammonia, nitrites are zero.

I've got three live plants in this tank, two large veil tail goodies (4" inches nose to anus) who have voracious appetites. Two snails, (one about the size of a grape, one smaller).

They get blood worms, green peas, spinach, occasionally a packaged moist food called "New Era". I feed once/day, in the AM. Occasionally, I'll feed a small morning feeding, and another meal in the evening.

I condition 33% weekly WCs with Prime, I have a healthy-sized ammo-carb pouch in my Fluval 206. Water temps are 79° F — gradually climbing as Las Vegas is now hitting our summer triple-digit temps. pH is about 7.7-7.8.

Any suggestions as to what has caused the nitrates to steadily climb over the past 3 weeks, to the point now where they're dangerously high?

Any help/suggestions would be seriously welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks,
MM007

 

[Coyne]

Its difficult for me to read the log you posted (too small), so take this for what its worth.
If your nitrates are showing higher each week despite water changes, then the size and/or frequency of the PWCs is probably not enough. You could try going to 50% each week (which is what I do), or 25% twice a week if you prefer.

 

[jlk]

Goldies, right? What size is this tank?

Goldfish are hefty ammonia producers and even a heavily planted tank will not keep up with the nitrate production unless it was a very large tank (75+g). You need to increase your wcs to minimum of 50% twice a week once you are able to bring your nitrate levels down to under 20ppm (preferably under 10ppm). Bringing nitrates under control means daily to twice daily wcs until they are back to reasonable range. If you find your nitrates still climbing to dangerous levels with twice weekly 50% wcs, this indicates you need a bigger tank and/or larger and more frequent wcs. Please ask any questions!

 

[anteatergoanna]

Snails are poop machines

 

[RABENA]

can you do more then one w/c a day of 25% to 50%

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[RABENA]

the eyes and around there nose are red is that from going along the bottom finding food

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[BillD]

Two 25% water changes are not the same as one 50% change. As already mentioned, if the nitrates are rising with your water changes, they aren't big enough. No reason why you can't do bigger changes in excess of 50%. I have no hesitancy of removing all but enough water to keep the fish wet and adding fresh water. It wastes less water to do a large change than a bunch of small ones, with quicker results.

 

[BBradbury]

Nitrate Levels

Hello MM...

Large, frequent water changes are the most important thing you can do for your tank. That's because 99.9 percent of the problems with a tank are water related. So, if you keep the water pure, your tank will essentially be trouble free. If you're only giving your fish 30 percent fresh water weekly, you're leaving 70 percent of the toxins in the tank water.

Feeding is a lot of the problem with water conditions. Fish are very small, with tiny stomachs. They can easily go a couple of weeks without food. I feed a little of a variety of frozen, freeze dried and a little flaked every three days. The fish spend their time between feedings foraging around the tank for the tiny pieces of leftover food and there is always uneaten food that dissolves in the water and raises nitrate levels.

So, ease up on the amount you feed and up your water changes to half the tank's volume. Since you must get out all the gear needed for a water change, make it really worth the effort. It won't take much more time to remove more water. The fish will appreciate the purer water conditions.

B

 

[mapexmac007]

Thank you everyone, for the advice and information. My apologies the "numbers" chart was too small. (does this forum auto-resize pics to be smaller??)

Typically, ammo is at or near zero (maybe up to 0.15ppm), nitrItes are always zero. In just three weeks the nitrAtes climbed from 0.0-10.0 up to a whopping 80.0ppm!

Naturally, this has me freaking out. I added a third plant in there two weeks ago (I don't know the name/species) but it's growing like mad.

SNAILS:
The snails are a necessary evil to keep algae growth in check. Algae growth was becoming a problem, but seems to have leveled-off. I'm not too worried about a snail population explosion (I've read this can be a major pain). These two goldies seem to find the tiny snails, and evidently eat them before they grow to any meaningful size. The first snail was a hitch-hiker, when I bought my first live plant. The second snail somehow appeared many weeks later, and survived to grow to a point where the fish don't bother it.

I'll cut-back on the feedings and increase to 50% WCs.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[jlk]

There's honestly no reason to cut back on feeding as your schedule seems fine, if not on the minimal side for growing fancies. If they are in anything less than a 40g tank, your likely going to continue to have nitrate issues. Lots of big wcs are the short term solution and even long term, they really are a must with goldfish. Please ask if you have any questions!