high nitrates

[pairenoid]

i noticed one of my snails died, well it never moved since i got it so im not surprised, but i noticed one more snail. This snail is either moving and staying in a spot for a whole day or 2, or completely upside down looking dead

i checked my nitrates and they raised from maybe 10 to 80ppm
my ammonia is at .25 and nitrites at 0

~2 month cycled, only 1 fish, added every thing alive about ~2-3 weeks ago

should i do a water change immediately?
edit: i decided to do one, but im surprised at my nitrate spike, what causes it?

 

[chiclidlover81]

could be......

Over feeding ?have you serviced you filter ?some filters are nitrate factories if not serviced properly

 

[AquaRick]

You shouldn't be getting any ammonia if you cycled your tank. Overfeeding?

 

[pairenoid]

ok i must be over feeding, i usuallly grind up 2-3 small shrimps for my clownfish, and like 10+ pellets for the rest of my cleaners, i always saw them eat the crap out of it but i guess its too much? i only do it once a day

i did a big water change and i actually lowered my salinity some how instead of increasing it, ugh. I hate salinity care. I will do another water change in a day or two and than raise my salinity this time

how much should i feed? i have 1 clownfish and 1 tiger pistol shrimp, and 5 hermit crabs and 4 snails, 1 died

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I'd feed about 3 pellets twice a day for the clown and one for the pistol shrimp once a day. Same volume of food for frozen anything when you're using that. Nothing for the cleaners. If you feed them they'll eat less algae and you'll only end up with more of it. You're feeding enough for 5 fish right now.

 

[pairenoid]

wow, when i feed like 10 pellets, my crabs eat them all 1 by 1. my clown fish wont eat ANYTHING except a few bites of shrimp, i have to find him something

pellets dont even go into his mouth, hes 100% uninterested and its hard to spot feed my pistol shrimp now as hes always burrowed, so i feed in a few spots and eventually hell come out and grab one

im doing another water change right now :| i wish i didnt overfeed lol

 

[CorallineAlgae]

You could try frozen mysid shrimp. Everything will eat it and one cube will last you a week easily. Again, do not feed the hermits. If you have to purposefully feed them then to have to many. Only feed the fish. The shrimp you could feed every couple of days. Any more and nothing will get better.

 

[Beengirl]

I feed my pistol by using a turkey Baster and the tip into burrow opening and feed the food directly into the burrow. Now he recognizes the Baster and comes right up to it and tries to grab food as it exits the Baster.

 

[pairenoid]

so ive done 2 water changes, a total of about 6-8 gallons and my ammonia hasnt changed, its sitting at the 2nd or 3rd bar on the test

the nitrates went down 2 bars, and im wondering how many water changes can i do? so far i did 2 in a row, and im skipping today, want to do more tom, is that ok?

i really wana get the ammonia and nitrate at 0, nitrates never been at 0 so far

 

[huma-huma]

you need to do a benchmark test on the water you are putting into your tank. test it before adding it to your tank. its physically impossible for your ammonia to not drop after 2 consecutive water changes. you are either doing the test wrong, have a bad test kit, or theres ammonia in your water.

 

[pairenoid]

thing is ive had 0 ammonia for 2 weeks after i had my tank cycled for a month, it wasnt until i started overfeeding, i dont think it is the tap water

 

[CorallineAlgae]

It really is better to rule it out. A simple test will yell you. Once you verify it isn't the source water it'll be safe to continue water changes. Where are you getting your water? I agree, overfeeding is the big culprit here but water changes should be making a difference by now. I'd skip feeding for a full two days and only feed 1/5th or less of what you were feeding before. Right now the ammonia is the threat to everybody's health. Many many people only feed every three days so you're NOT going to be harming your fish by doing this. You have to protect them from the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. That's job one. It starts with testing your new water.

 

[HovaRockz]

If ur using tap water rest assure some of that ammonia is coming from there I suggest u use ro water and check if u notice a difference

 

[pairenoid]

ok ill run an ammonia test on the water, do another water change today, and i havent fed them in 2 days also.

also i noticed one of my rocks has been turning a bright gold? is this algae, i have been leaving the lights on for 10-12 hours a day, i also have new lights coming that are t5h0

im also going to try to raise my salinity from 1.022 to 1.023-1.024 this week. I have been waiting 2 weeks to add a goby but i dont feel safe right now with all my tank fluctuations, goby are not hardy are they? the yellow watchman is the one i want

 

[HovaRockz]

Cud be diatom post a pic

 

[pairenoid]

one last question, i forgot to mention my ph dropped from 8.4 (NEVER changed once) to around 7.8? what causes ph to drop, sorry this was probably important information i forgot

also, ill take a pic right now brb with a photo

 

[pairenoid]

i think its obvious which one im talkinmg about, turning brown!

also the bottom rock has sand on top of it, i keep pushing it off but my tiger shrimp keeps throwing it back, is it ok for the rock?

 

[HovaRockz]

How old is ur tank?

 

[pairenoid]

maybe 2-3 months by now

 

[HovaRockz]

Ok well dats a natural diatom bloom give ur tank time it will go away in time as ur tank matures a lot of us been thru that in our beginnings but keep ur phosphates down and limit ur lights to da lowest amount of light time possible ull be fine and never over feed