29 gallon Nitrate issue

[Crowsmuse]

Hey friends!
So here is what i have
a 29 gallon tank:
sand
a couple of lava like rock
a small piece of driftwood
java fern
wisteria
tiger lotus
small cryp (sorry forget what kind at the moment)
a small tuft of grass (forget kind)
pennywort

aquaclear 50 filter
fluval heater
aquaclear 30 powerhead

1 - golden ram
1- german blue ram
2 - amano shrimp
1- dwarf red colored long finned bristle nose plecco

i keep the plants trimmed, so there's not alot of plant debris
i clean the intake and do a 25%-30% water change once a week.
(during this change, i always gravel vac under the driftwood as there is usually alot of shrimp poo)

and as you can see, there aren't alot of fish in there.

so why, would my nitrates always pop up weekly at 80-100ppm?
i don't feed them alot at all;
2-3 cichlid pellets, one teeny algae wafer a day
and the occasional blood worm as a treat, and i feed them off the tongs so i know they eat what they get - as far as bloodworms are concerned.

all the other readings are normal, 0 ammonia and nitrite, ph around 7-7.2

I'm at a loss,
any ideas?

 

[Rivercats]

Have you tested your tap water for nitrates? How often do you clean your filter? Do your nitrates lower when you do a WC?

 

[Crowsmuse]

Hey there, no i have not thought to test my tap, because my other tanks are fine, its just this one.
I will though when i get home.
I only clean the filter intake when i do weekly WC, but once a month i take the filter apart and rinse it except for sponge ( i rinse that in aquarium water)
and change out the zeocarb.
i haven't done a water test after the change, i will do that next change.

 

[Rivercats]

Sounds like for whatever reason that tank has built up nitrates. What's your stock in it? The best way to bring nitrates down would be to do a 50% WC wait 2 hours then do another 50% WC. Wait a couple hours or till the next day and test to see how far they have dropped. If need be repeat the above procedure until you get nitrates down to 20ppm or lower. Also Fluval makes a Nitrate absorber resin that really works and is rechargeable.

 

[wildroseofky]

I have the same size tank and same filter. i also had the same problem for awhile. I found that a lot of stuff was getting trapped under the rocks and decor in my tank. I started lifting everything up every couple of weeks and cleaning out from under it. Really helped to keep the nitrates under control. i also really bang the heck out of my sponge when I clean it. The aquaclear sponge seems to really hold a lot of gunk and just swishing it in the tank water doesn't get it clean.

 

[Crowsmuse]

What's your stock in it? Also Fluval makes a Nitrate absorber resin that really works and is rechargeable.

per above, very small stock
1 GBRAM
1 golden ram
2 amani shrimp
1 dwarf BN plecco
I will do a test tonight, and another WC if still high
((moving all my rocks and doing a thorough GV))
I will check on that nitrate absorber

 

[Rivercats]

Every now and then I had to use that media in the goldfish tank so I know it works. It gets recharged with aquarium salt. It does it's job in about 24-48 hours usually then you remove it. Once you get the nitrates down then if you do weekly 50% WC's it usually will stay down. If it doesn't then there is something in the tank causing it.

 

[candymancan]

Basically rivercats said what I was going to say... When my moms 30g and my 27g had nitrates that high it was when the tanks weren't planted and we never did water changes except the occasional day we would suck the gravel up and change like 20% of the water but that was like once every month or two.. lol .. Then I got all live plants upgraded my lighting and got new fish and started taking better care of my tank..

In order to get the nitrates down I had to do a 50-70% water change, then the next day do another 50-70% water change and clean the gravel each time.. After that my nitrates finally went from like 80-100+ PPM to 10.. Now I simply do 50% weekly or biweekly water changes and my nitrates stay 10PPM... if I don't do a water change after 2 weeks though the nitrates get to 20-40PPM... Granted the plants I noticed really slowed it down but since I have mostly slow growing plants I don't think they can keep up with the bioload so that's why I got some wisteria and lots of water sprite in my tanks.. The watersprite seems to really help with the nitrates I noticed they build up a lot slower then before. Plus water sprite and wisteria look cool I think anyway..

 

[Crowsmuse]

Thanks to everyone, there is something however,that I still dont at all understand.:
The tank is so UNDERSTOCKED, with both plants and livestock, i have no clue why the nitrates are out of control.
last night, i did another 50% WC, pulled all the rocks and DW, and gravel vac'd the crap out of the sand (literally) clogging the vac several times.
also yanked the filter, replaced the zeocarb, scrubbed the inside, rinsed the bionubbies, added fluval clearmax (because i had it in cabinet- gonna get that other stuff today).
let it run for a few hours then tested again, Still 80-100 ppm

frankly I am at a complete loss.

I am going to get that nitrate absorber on the way home today and also do a 35-50% WC again today.

This is crazy, the sand was new, in this tank.
it was put over a shallow layer of already cycled floramax.

I cycled it fish free for 60 days with an already cycled filter before moving its 5 inhabitants in.
the levels were fine every week before the wc, then boom..
for no apparent reason, the nitrates are out of control.

what would cause this?
the rams have laid eggs and eaten them a few times, could that be it?

i even have wisteria in there, which is supposed to help lower nitrates too, as well as the pennywort, right?
i wish i could understand the cause, then finding the remedy would be that much easier.

 

[Rivercats]

The only plausible reason is your tap water is what your reading is and not what you were told. One way to verify that is to ask a neighbor who's house or apartment is right by yours and would be on the same water for a sample and test it. If it comes out the same then either your water really has that high of nitrates or your test kit is off, which can also be tested if you know someone who has the same brand test kit that you can test your water with.

 

[candymancan]

Where do you live ? Like rivercats said it might actually be in your tap water... Test your tap water out and see what the nitrates are... You could also get a bottle of water and test that to see if its your test kit or not. Then go to a local fish store like petsmart or something and have them check the water even if they use test strips... If you have nitrates in your water then you need to contact your water supplier and tell them... nitrates are toxic to humans and can cause all sorts of health issues.. including cancer in the long run..

So get this looked at... and if you have well water, consider getting a water treatment system in your basement or something to treat your water before you expose yourself to nitrates anymore

 

[Crowsmuse]

did the test, all other tanks ok, tap water 0ppm

 

[candymancan]

Just keep doing 50-70% water changes until it goes down... and are you sure your looking at the color correctly ? Hold the tube against a bright light or look at it in the sunlight and don't hold the tube directly against the white background on the API color chart... that will make it look darker...

All I can say now is if your tap is 0ppm then your test kit should be fine... keep changing your water until it goes down.. I had to do 2-3 70% water changes until my high nitrates dropped to a orange color... that's how high mine were.. Don't vacuum the tank anymore you obviously cleaned it up... no need to stress your fish and plants anymore... just change the water till the nitrates in the tube turn orange.. orange is 20ppm.

 

[Crowsmuse]

are you sure your looking at the color correctly ? Hold the tube against a bright light or look at it in the sunlight and don't hold the tube directly against the white background on the API color chart... that will make it look darker...
.

LOL I am quite sure, yes.

and each time i did the test twice, just in case

we are doing 50% water changes every day, and testing after each time.
its going slowly down.

all so much!!

 

[candymancan]

If its going slowely down after so many water changes then my guess is you never really did water changes to keep the nitrates down in the past... At least enough to actually keep them down... Your nitrates were probably higher then 80-100... more likely 150+

 

[Crowsmuse]

i take a slight offense to that
as i do weekly water changes of 30% every week on all my tanks.
what i DIDNT do, was add the fluval filter media and yank all the decorations and plants and gravel vac every single square inch per suggestions on this board.
that sir, is what i think is making this difference.
i didn't do that in the past because its not that old of a tank, and its, as mentioned under stocked.
and i also test every single week, the nitrates only got this high in the last couple of weeks.
that is why i asked for assistance.

 

[GodFan]

i take a slight offense to that
as i do weekly water changes of 30% every week on all my tanks.
what i DIDNT do, was add the fluval filter media and yank all the decorations and plants and gravel vac every single square inch per suggestions on this board.
that sir, is what i think is making this difference.
i didn't do that in the past because its not that old of a tank, and its, as mentioned under stocked.
and i also test every single week, the nitrates only got this high in the last couple of weeks.
that is why i asked for assistance.

To be honest very few tanks require all of the decor to be removed everytime you vac. Did you say your trates are going down? Is it possible something died in there and was rotting? I am not as faithful on my water changes as you are and my trates dont reach those levels. Thats why I think sonething may have died in there.
Oh another thing. Do you have snails? I have heard of lots of snails ruining a tank before.

 

[Crowsmuse]

Did you say your trates are going down? Is it possible something died in there and was rotting? I am not as faithful on my water changes as you are and my trates dont reach those levels. Thats why I think sonething may have died in there.
Oh another thing. Do you have snails? I have heard of lots of snails ruining a tank before.

yes going down.
decor is literally 2 rocks and a piece of DW- not hard to yank out, so that was ok. and only a few plants.
as far as dead things, the tank has only 5 inhabitants, and there are still 5 daily head count is easy.
and I clean out dead plant matter every weekend.
and no snails, thank god. i had a 72 bowfront where they laid eggs in my crypts and DW, and they did ruin my tank. i got some plants online that had like one, in the roots, and thats all it took.now i am hyper vigilant.

there was alot of crud in the sand, more than i expected, to be honest. i usually only vac in certain areas where i know there's alot of poop.
also the sand clogs up my vac really easy.
plus the added media seemed to help as well.

 

[GodFan]

yes going down.
decor is literally 2 rocks and a piece of DW- not hard to yank out, so that was ok. and only a few plants.
as far as dead things, the tank has only 5 inhabitants, and there are still 5 daily head count is easy.
and I clean out dead plant matter every weekend.
and no snails, thank god. i had a 72 bowfront where they laid eggs in my crypts and DW, and they did ruin my tank. i got some plants online that had like one, in the roots, and thats all it took.now i am hyper vigilant.

there was alot of crud in the sand, more than i expected, to be honest. i usually only vac in certain areas where i know there's alot of poop.
also the sand clogs up my vac really easy.
plus the added media seemed to help as well.

Ok sounds like yiu got it figured out!

 

[candymancan]

i take a slight offense to that
as i do weekly water changes of 30% every week on all my tanks.
what i DIDNT do, was add the fluval filter media and yank all the decorations and plants and gravel vac every single square inch per suggestions on this board.
that sir, is what i think is making this difference.
i didn't do that in the past because its not that old of a tank, and its, as mentioned under stocked.
and i also test every single week, the nitrates only got this high in the last couple of weeks.
that is why i asked for assistance.

Take offense all you want bud.. sometimes 25-30% isn't enough to keep nitrates down... That's what I was implying... Mine need a 50-60% weekly water change to stay down.. A pleco for example 4 inches or not puts off a lot of poop... your pleco assuming its the fully grown one 4 or so inches long.. is probably equivalent to all 10 of my neon tetra's or more..