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rabbart

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jan 21, 2017
Messages
9
Hi guys,

First thread, i have had fish in the past but recently got back into it properly so still learning.

Some background:

I have a 4ft 250lt tank being cycled 9 times an hour stocked with 9 africans, two juvenile plecos and a single rivulatus.

I was away for two days recently and during that time the temperatures locallly reached 36/37 degrees Celsius. So quite warm days which resulted in the loss of 5 fish (from 14 to 9 africans). I immediately took some water to the my regular aquarium shop this afternoon where I was told my ph was low (7.4 i try to keep it around 8/8.2), my nitrite was 0.5 ammonia was 0 and nitrate was 40ppm.

The fix:

I added a 400 l/h power head close to the top of the water to help with oxygenating the water.

I did a 50% water change and gravel vac (slightly overdosing the water ager cn before adding tap water, followed by adding cichlid salt) I then added the recommended dose of pH buffer over 6 hours.

Current status:

I tested the water and came up with the following:

pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 40ppm (could be slightly higher the colour difference between 40 and 80 is non existant to me)

My worry is the ammonia levels and potentially high nitrate levels. How do i get these to zero?

Thanks
 
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