Fish keep dying - high nitrates?

[LisaLev]

I have not been able to lower my nitrate and am wondering if that is what's causing fish to die.

My 20 gallon tank has been set up for a year. I initially started with three striped danios, and I STILL have two. I added 2 angels earlier this year, and they seem to be doing fine. I added two silver dollar, one died, I replaced, another died. Then, a few weeks ago, I got two guaramos (sp). One died two days ago, the other today. The remaining silver dollar doesn't look too good - hiding and swimming kind of tilted, but still eating. Oh, also have an algae eater (pacho something). I also tried one other angel about 6 weeks ago, but that lasted just a few days.

My levels tonight were nitrate 160 (I know, high), but yesterday morning it was 80, and I did a 15% water change the night before + vacuum, after the first guaramo died. I added Amquel yesterday morning, and again tonight. I can never get my nitrates lower than 40.

Other levels are nitrite 0, hardness 75, alk 300 (always), and ph 7.2 (it's usually higher).

Nothing new in the tank, food is the same (flake). Filtration is the whisper whatever.

How do I lower my nitrates? I don't add Amquel on a regular basis, and usually test every few days. The angels and danios seem pretty resiliant.

 

[Devilishturtles]

The angels and danios seem pretty resiliant.

Probably because they are used to it, but they won't stay healthy with levels that high. That is most definiltey why they aren't lasting long, in my opinion.

How often do you do a water change, and how often do you feed? What is the GPH on your filter? (look on the box)

Nitrates come from excessive junk in the tank. Either from being overstocked, overfed, or underfiltered/cleaned.

 

[msmonih]

Try doing a 50% water change. Don't add anymore new fish. What filter specifically do you have? You can try increasing the ammonia remover with like the bags of Ammonia crystals that fit inside of a filter. I can't explain it well right now I don't know why. Essentially what we did to lower the nitrates is this...we have a Emperor 400. Instead of using the filter catridges we did this...bought blue filter padding, 2 bags of carbon for the size of our aquarium, 2 bags of ammonia/nitrate remover for the size of our aquarium, and 2 bags of biomax for the size of our aquarium. I believe its Aquaclear that carries the bag type. It has done wonders on our 29 g.

It also helps us to have our tanks double filtered it keeps the water clean and the ammonia/nitrates lower.

 

[LisaLev]

I do a water change probably twice/month. Vacuum the gravel and change the filter once/month. I'm not sure as to the gph, or the actual brand. I feed twice/day.

 

[LisaLev]

It's a whisper power filter model 20. I don't know what the GPH is, it doesn't tell me.

 

[severum mama]

Try doing water changes every couple days until you can bring down the nitrates to around 20 ppm or less. Then, change 25-30% every week and that should help a lot.

 

[LisaLev]

I will do more water changes. And another thing... I've used Amquel, but at my lfs, they tell me that it binds the nitrates and nitrites, and therefore doesn't change the readings, but it's safe for the fish. If this is true, how do I know what my readings really are???

 

[Devilishturtles]

After one of your water changes, don't add the Amquel and then test. Most things like that won't affect your test results though(sorry, I don't use amquel) . You may be overfeeding as well. Water changes and less feeding will get you back on track.