Very High Nitrates

[clp]

Hi!
I have a 45 gallon freshwater aquarium that my ex-boyfriend gave me. Unfortunately he left me with extremely high nitrates in the water, and my fish are dying off. I have been told my some to do weekly H2O changes, and by others to avoid excessive H2O changes to reduce stress. What should I do?
Thanks,
clp

 

[fishfreek]

By high nitrates what do you mean?

What are your readings for nitrates?

I would do a 50% water change and while doing this syphon real good 1/2 of the substrate. Your gonna pull alot of fish waste and such out of that substrate. Follow this up 1 week later by another 50% water change doing the same to the other half of the gravel bed.

What kind of filtration do you have? how often do you feed? what fish are in the system?

 

[shawmutt]

In the tons of research I have done for my tank I came across someone with a similiar problem. They made a good point in saying that it was better to have minute amounts of toxins from the tap water instead of the toxins already in the tank.

 

[ReefRaff]

I have a 36 gallon freshwater tank and my routine is to once a month vacuum the gravel, and change out 50% of the water with standard tap water -dechlorinated (that i don't add till the tank is full). When I vacume, Ipush and twist til it hit's the UG, I move rock's and pull fake plants and clean them. I do this all the way across the tank. Change your carbon once a week, or even at least once every two, and my tnak stay's crystal, and my Chiclid is like 5 years old and just the cutest thing.

this is ofcourse a good idea, after you get the nitrates under control. I would do the water changes as suggested by Freek. Peace Out