what could be causing my high nitrates?

[fishfool58]

Not yet.. Waiting on pay day..another thing on amazon worth getting is the API master test kit for fresh water.. 32$ at petsmart, 33$ at PETCO, 18-19$ on Amazon.

 

[linds3y]

I guess I'm gonna have to start frequenting amazon lol

 

[fishfool58]

That's exactly what I said when I noticed how cheap everything was.. Idk how much you use prime but the big bottles are 20$ at lfs, about 11$ on amazon.. Atleast what I saw.. & a marineland maxijet 1200, powerhead/circulation pump combo 45+ in stores bought mine for 19$ new..

 

[blert]

A new filter will not help you to lower the nitrate level. High nitrate is caused by overstocking, overfeeding, waste/debris accumulation, and/or inadequate PWCs/maintenance.
Chances are good that there is a bunch of crud stuck under the UGF. Add stronger power heads or get rid of it.
Feed less for now. Once every other day and the fish will be fine.

Your PWCs may not be large enough to keep up with waste accumulation. What is the nitrate level of your source water?

 

[fishfool58]

It should help a little with the filter being able to handle the more fish.. But true on the over feeding.. Over feeding is very easy to do.. I was a victim of over feeding for a while..

 

[linds3y]

A new filter will not help you to lower the nitrate level. High nitrate is caused by overstocking, overfeeding, waste/debris accumulation, and/or inadequate PWCs/maintenance.
Chances are good that there is a bunch of crud stuck under the UGF. Add stronger power heads or get rid of it.
Feed less for now. Once every other day and the fish will be fine.

Your PWCs may not be large enough to keep up with waste accumulation. What is the nitrate level of your source water?

I haven't tested my tap water but I will tomorrow. Yeah I think I'm just gonna pull the ugf out sometime this week unless I can find some deals on powerheads...maybe i'll look on amazon ;P

Just every other day? I usually feed them once or twice a day with a mix of frozen foods, sometimes pellets and flakes and fresh veggies..at night I usually drop in 5 small carnivore pellets and an algae wafer or two. Too much food?

 

[Andrew McFadden]

It should help a little with the filter being able to handle the more fish.. But true on the over feeding.. Over feeding is very easy to do.. I was a victim of over feeding for a while..

It won't help really, the only thing it will do is help the tank stay clean and gain more BB. BB only help convert ammonia to nitrite then to nitrate then pwc take care of that. There is only two well maybe 3 things that help nitrate.
1. Find the problem
2. Water changes
3. I had something in my head and forgot what I was going to say.

I assumed she understood what I was saying and I thought she was only asking about a filter because she said she was turning the ug filter off and going to clean really well. But thanks for clearing that up I shouldn't have assumed. Anyways they are right about the over feeding make sure your not giving to much. By making sure its not all laying on the bottom after a few min.. I believe the cause of this is the ug filter.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

I haven't tested my tap water but I will tomorrow. Yeah I think I'm just gonna pull the ugf out sometime this week unless I can find some deals on powerheads...maybe i'll look on amazon ;P

Just every other day? I usually feed them once or twice a day with a mix of frozen foods, sometimes pellets and flakes and fresh veggies..at night I usually drop in 5 small carnivore pellets and an algae wafer or two. Too much food?

It depends on how much ( how big of a pinch) your giving them??

 

[Andrew McFadden]

I haven't tested my tap water but I will tomorrow. Yeah I think I'm just gonna pull the ugf out sometime this week unless I can find some deals on powerheads...maybe i'll look on amazon ;P

Just every other day? I usually feed them once or twice a day with a mix of frozen foods, sometimes pellets and flakes and fresh veggies..at night I usually drop in 5 small carnivore pellets and an algae wafer or two. Too much food?

I would throw it out the window and not waste the money on a new power head. No matter how much you push yuck is still going to get stuck in that thing some where.

 

[blert]

I haven't tested my tap water but I will tomorrow. Yeah I think I'm just gonna pull the ugf out sometime this week unless I can find some deals on powerheads...maybe i'll look on amazon ;P

Just every other day? I usually feed them once or twice a day with a mix of frozen foods, sometimes pellets and flakes and fresh veggies..at night I usually drop in 5 small carnivore pellets and an algae wafer or two. Too much food?

IMO, yeah, way too much. They need less food than you may think. Except for my Goldfish, I feed my tanks about once every other day. Though I toss treats in occasionally.

Be careful when removing the UGF, when you pull it you are going to be putting a lot of crud back into the water column. Clean your other filter first and then clean it again a couple of hours after you pull the UGF and do a big water change.

 

[Jodisgermanshepherd]

I had this problem for a 6 months. It was one piece of my driftwood was rotting in Ye tank slowly but surely. Got rid
Of it and no problems to
Speak of since.

 

[linds3y]

It won't help really, the only thing it will do is help the tank stay clean and gain more BB. BB only help convert ammonia to nitrite then to nitrate then pwc take care of that. There is only two well maybe 3 things that help nitrate.
1. Find the problem
2. Water changes
3. I had something in my head and forgot what I was going to say.

I assumed she understood what I was saying and I thought she was only asking about a filter because she said she was turning the ug filter off and going to clean really well. But thanks for clearing that up I shouldn't have assumed. Anyways they are right about the over feeding make sure your not giving to much. By making sure its not all laying on the bottom after a few min.. I believe the cause of this is the ug filter.

Yeah that was what I meant. I wanted to compensate for missing filtration for taking out the ug, which I plan on doing tomorrow.

 

[linds3y]

I'll let you guys know how it goes after I take it out. I wont be able to get a second filter for a few more weeks. Will the magnum 350 be enough until then?

 

[fishfool58]

I'll let you guys know how it goes after I take it out. I wont be able to get a second filter for a few more weeks. Will the magnum 350 be enough until then?

I wouldn't get another filter unless that's the last thing you haven't tried honestly..

 

[linds3y]

I wouldn't get another filter unless that's the last thing you haven't tried honestly..

Good, cuz I'd rather not...I don't really have $50+ to spend on a filter, got an expensive car repair coming up but I'll do it if its necessary. I'll try taking out the ugf and vaccuming the gravel really well and cleaning the other filter once it's sucked all the crap up and see if my levels go down.

How big of a water change should I do?

 

[fishfool58]

Idk if it would help, but when you take the UG filter out, & all the waste is floating around,
Try to scoop what you can out with your net..

 

[blert]

The Magnum350 filters 350GPH at best. That gives you about a 4.5x/hour turnover rate. You might be ok with that.

I would do at least a 50% PWC a couple of hours after you remove the UGF. Then clean out the Magnum again and do another 50% PWC the next day and then check the nitrate level. Make sure to gravel vac some spots well when you do the PWCs.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Good, cuz I'd rather not...I don't really have $50+ to spend on a filter, got an expensive car repair coming up but I'll do it if its necessary. I'll try taking out the ugf and vaccuming the gravel really well and cleaning the other filter once it's sucked all the crap up and see if my levels go down.

How big of a water change should I do?

You don't have to buy a new filter it won't help your nitrate problem. You have plenty of time to buy a new one just keep testing and doing water changes as needed. I wouldn't clean the canister filter first you may need the BB, I would shut it off before you start on taking out the ug filter.
It all depends on how well you can get your substrate clean on how much water you change. I would most definitely change 50% when doing it and may need to do another later once everything settles. After the first water change turn the filter back on and let it run.

 

[linds3y]

Okay guys I'll let you know how this goes. Am I in danger of losing any fish with all this junk being released into the water?

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Okay guys I'll let you know how this goes. Am I in danger of losing any fish with all this junk being released into the water?

Anything is possible
This is why I said leave the canister alone. Because by what your doing your going to destroy the BB in the tank or most of it anyway. So your best option is to turn it off while your doing the first cleaning. After your done turn it back on and keep a close eye on water chemistry and the fish for sickness.