Old Tank Syndrome

[HeatherW]

OK, I am embarrassed to post this on here, but I need to ask, so here I go. I have had my tanks up for about a year. When I first started out I was very good and changed my water weekly and tested it weekly as well. Things got established and I got all the sick stuff out of my tanks and we were in a nice maintenance mode. I have gotten lazy! I will admit it, I don't check my water hardly at all, and I am not changing my water weekly anymore - It is changed probably every 2 weeks.

Over the last several months I have started to lose fish. I don't see anything wrong with them - they are just dead. In a few instances I did see some signs of clamped fins, but in most of the cases (and recently) they are just dead.

So here is my question. I want to clean up my tanks and get the water back to where it should be, but I think that if I clean everything too quickly my fish that are in there will go into shock and that will kill them as well. How do I get my parameters back to where they should be without stressing out my existing fish?

ammonia, nitrites, and PH are all stable (and zeros where they should be) it is just my nitrates that are really high. I will check them this afternoon but trust me - they are high. probably at least between 100-150

Thanks for all the help!
Heather

 

[jlk]

Hi Heather! I think we all get lazy sometimes- its just human nature. No worries though! Let us know how all your parameters look when you test them later later on and we go from there. Usually, high nitrates & lack of water changes also means that the ph also may be quite low and theres possibly ammonia present. Basically, to get things back on track you will need to start doing smaller, more frequent water changes so you dont shock your fish with sudden changes in parameters. It will be some work your behalf but you should be able to get things back in order in no time at all.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I'd do two 50% water changes a week until the nitrates are around 10ppm. Don't worry about shocking them... the water us already killing them. They may certainly already be damaged so even giving them fine care now may not completely stop the deaths. Seriously, you know the water is a threat to them so going very slow won't help. Doing daily water changes might be shocking buy twice weekly PWCs can only help.

 

[Rlavassor86]

Smaller more frequent( daily to twice daily) is much safer. Here's a great link.

http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html

 

[jlk]

Smaller more frequent( daily to twice daily) is much safer. Here's a great link.

Old Tank Syndrome

Although theres a few incorrect statements in this link (ie, nontoxic ammonia is converted to lethal ammonium), I still agree that smaller, more frequent water changes (daily or more often depending on numbers) are a better option until things are under control.

 

[Rlavassor86]

Although theres a few incorrect statements in this link (ie, nontoxic ammonia is converted to lethal ammonium), I still agree that smaller, more frequent water changes (daily or more often depending on numbers) are a better option until things are under control.

Yea I didn't notice that mistake. They've got it backwards. Ammonium or NH4is the non lethal form of ammonia.

 

[HeatherW]

OK, so I tested my water. I am not good at reading the Nitrates when they are really high, so I am guessing that I got it right. my first guess was that they were higher, but my daughter said they were no that high.

I have 4 tanks:5gallon / 20 gallon / 14 gallon QT/ 90 gallon
readings: Ammonia/Nitrites/PH/Nitrates

5 gallon: 0/0/7.6/80
20 gallon: 0/0/7.6/60
14 gallon: 0/0/7.6/60
90 gallon: 0/0/7.6/80

I'm doing a large (50%) water change right now. this is a normal water change for me.

so... what are my instructions from here?
thanks everyone!!

 

[jlk]

Thats not that bad!! 50% now and 50% tomorrow and your nitrates should be back in a normal range. If you want them lower, add another 50% then just stay on top of the changes.

 

[Aqualady40]

OK, so I tested my water. I am not good at reading the Nitrates when they are really high, so I am guessing that I got it right. my first guess was that they were higher, but my daughter said they were no that high.

I have 4 tanks:5gallon / 20 gallon / 14 gallon QT/ 90 gallon
readings: Ammonia/Nitrites/PH/Nitrates

5 gallon: 0/0/7.6/80
20 gallon: 0/0/7.6/60
14 gallon: 0/0/7.6/60
90 gallon: 0/0/7.6/80

I'm doing a large (50%) water change right now. this is a normal water change for me.

so... what are my instructions from here?
thanks everyone!!

imo...I would do pwc on all 4 tanks to get trates to 20 or less

 

[CorallineAlgae]

imo...I would do pwc on all 4 tanks to get trates to 20 or less

Same here. It should take about two or three more changes for each tank before you're golden. I'd do one a day then test after the last day. Great job so far by the way.