High nitrates !!!!!!!!

[Snype2live]

Well I have a 29 gallon tank with 11 endlers , 10 neons, 8 corys(2 three-lines, 6 peppered corys). I feed them a "good" pinch of omega one color enhancing food once a day and i feed my corys 8 shrimp pellets (1 each) a day. my nitrates are jumping to between 10-20 ppm every 2 days . im testing with api master test kit . the tap has no nitrates in it . so my question is what am i doing wrong to make the nitrates get so high ...i did 10 gallon pwc yesterday and nitrate levels are 10 and i did a 10gallon water change yesterday and im running out of test solution ... am i just being paranoid will my fish be okay with just a weekly water change of 10 gallons or do i need to stop feeding as much or go as far as not feed as much and feed every other day ... i dont know realy how often to feed them as ppl say everything from every other day to 2's a day ... btw idk if i mention tank is fishless cycled

 

[librarygirl]

I'm guessing it's probably too much food that's left uneaten and decomposing. 8 shrimp pellets is a lot, a whole one seems like a lot for a Cory (I have them too and I don't feed that much lol). Try a 50% water change once per week (or two smaller 25% changes) and vacuum the substrate if you don't already and cut back the pellets to a few pellets every 2-3 days and see if that helps. Also you might want to swish your filter media in old tank water during a water change; food and stuff can get clogged in the filters and decompose and cause nitrate spikes sometimes.

 

[librarygirl]

Oh and just in case....count your fish to make sure they are all present and accounted for. A sudden spike in levels can sometimes be caused by a dead fish decomposing (although let's hope not ).

 

[Snype2live]

sounds like exactly my problem so 8 shrimp pellets every day is way to much huh!?

 

[Snype2live]

no dead fish i think im just way over feeding

 

[Mumma.of.two]

IMO your feeding way too much. Cut what your feeding in half and fast them all once a week. As said, increase your water changes.

 

[Snype2live]

okay so cut down to 4 pelets a day and a pinch of day or should i also move it to every other day and 50 percent water change every week once a week

 

[Mumma.of.two]

What I would do is a small pinch of flakes 6 days a week and 4 pellets 2-3 times a week. The cories will be eating flake food that makes it way to the bottom of the tank so they won't starve.

 

[alex07]

Your nitrates aren't high at all, so don't worry about it. I would worry if it's higher than 40

 

[Snype2live]

i havent giving it a chance to get up to forty im pretty sure that with if on day one it was 5ppm by day 7 it would be 40 ppm would that be okay ?? as long as it not getting above forty before the water change of 50%