Is this wise? Decor cleaning

[Maridia]

I would cut back on the frozen to be honest. Maybe do that once a week instead of everyday.

I do frozen every 2 or 3 days. But will try weekly.


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[Maridia]

Also, when you get a chance, take a tap water sample, let it sit out in a closed container overnight. Test in the morning and take a pic of the results above the color card. Take a test of the tank water and take a pic above the card as well. Post those. Helps to know exactly what we're dealing with. Sorry for all the odd requests, just helps to narrow it down and cancel things out

Also, you may have said it already and I may have missed it, but what kind of food are you feeding (everything, treats, staple food, live, whatever. Also how often and how much). Food generally is the cause of higher trates when the tank isn't overstocked, and clearly the tank isn't. I have more bioload in my 20 long right now! All your fish appear to be quite young

Sorry for the delay, but here you go. The left sample is my tap left out for 15 hours, sealed of course. The right is my tank sample, 3 days after WC.




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[Maridia]

Hmmm. Looks like I may have found the culprit to my high nitrates. As I mentioned before. I usually do a good thorough clean and my tank looks great. But this time I took the extra time and removed EVERYTHING! All rocks, wood, etc. (not the plants). My goodness, the horror! Tons of fish waste! I vacuumed every square inch, then put everything back, and did a 75-80% WC. This was all last night. So I will check for nitrates again later tonight. If they are still high, I might just lose my sanity. LOL!

 

[Fresh2o]

Hmmm. Looks like I may have found the culprit to my high nitrates. As I mentioned before. I usually do a good thorough clean and my tank looks great. But this time I took the extra time and removed EVERYTHING! All rocks, wood, etc. (not the plants). My goodness, the horror! Tons of fish waste! I vacuumed every square inch, then put everything back, and did a 75-80% WC. This was all last night. So I will check for nitrates again later tonight. If they are still high, I might just lose my sanity. LOL!

Wow. I hope this is the culprit!
If so, then perhaps you can help prevent waste from accumulating by rigging up PVC to form a spray bar that runs along the bottom behind the decor. This would be connected to your power head. The jets would shoot water from back to front where it will helpfully get picked up by the filters. Just a suggestion.
Or do what you just did on a regular basis. Fingers crossed.

 

[Maridia]

Wow. I hope this is the culprit!
If so, then perhaps you can help prevent waste from accumulating by rigging up PVC to form a spray bar that runs along the bottom behind the decor. This would be connected to your power head. The jets would shoot water from back to front where it will helpfully get picked up by the filters. Just a suggestion.
Or do what you just did on a regular basis. Fingers crossed.

That sounds like an awesome DIY project. I will definitely look into doing something like that. I have that powerhead for additional flow, not much else.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Those pictures look like 5 and 20-30 ppm to me, which are acceptable and levels (ideally want 10 ppm or less). Maybe it's just me, but that's the levels I see there

 

[mikem691]

Those pictures look like 5 and 20-30 ppm to me, which are acceptable and levels (ideally want 10 ppm or less). Maybe it's just me, but that's the levels I see there

I see the same on my computer.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Ok good. I think that is the issue 20-30 ppm is still a bit high, but definitely not lethal

 

[Maridia]

After cleaning all that stuff and WC, I took another water sample the next day. I think it's barely a shade lighter.




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[squirrilah fish]

You may just have to be a daily water change guy.


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[Maridia]

You may just have to be a daily water change guy.


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Wow... I've heard of people doing it twice a week, but never daily. I'll look into purigen and other alternatives, along with my weekly WC.


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[BillD]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is cleaning the filters. Removing solid waste before it break down will slow the rise of nitrates. Solid debris hidden in a cannister is still in the tank. Ditto for any other type of filter.

 

[Maridia]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is cleaning the filters. Removing solid waste before it break down will slow the rise of nitrates. Solid debris hidden in a cannister is still in the tank. Ditto for any other type of filter.

I open up my canister and thoroughly clean it roughly every 4 weeks, sometimes pushed out to 6 weeks. This is week 6, I will do a WC today and clean out my canister and take another test. I clean my HOB Aqua clear 70, every week (I can afford to do this since I have 3 other sponge filters for bio). The other sponge filters get cleaned every week (only 1 every week, so i'm not getting rid of everything at once.)

 

[swifty]

As I mentioned before, stop with the wafers. If your fish are nibbling on it and the pleco isn't getting to eat it then most of it is just polluting the tank.

 

[Maridia]

As I mentioned before, stop with the wafers. If your fish are nibbling on it and the pleco isn't getting to eat it then most of it is just polluting the tank.

Thank you. Will stop doing that


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[Maridia]

Alright ladies and gentlemen. If you're having trouble with nitrates and WCs are not helping, then I found a solution! Remove all decor, thoroughly clean the sand or gravel of all uneaten food or waste. Clean your canister thoroughly!!!! Then do a 75% WC! Day 3, 10ppm on my nitrates! Thank you all for all the great advice on troubleshooting and feeding.


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[mikem691]

Glad you got it figured out.