Need Advice!

[RooferGoFishing]

Hello guys.. I'm looking for some advice as my water is cloudy ! I'll start with my setup ..

I have a 60 gallon Tank
One 60-80 Gal Filter
One 75 Gal Filter
Temp - steady 26 Celsius
pH 7.0
Akilinity about 60

Recently my nitrates spiked off the charts.. well past 200 and 10.

I introduced a medium large sized plant.. did a small sugar dose and added a small dose of ammonia reducer.

My water was fine 24 hours after that.. nitrates 40-60 & around 5.5-6.5.

Nitrates are now holding steady around 40 & 4.0 but when I came back from work I couldn't even see my fish.. it looked literally like 60 gallons of 2% farmers. I did a 50% water change and 15-20% daily change due to nitrates. 4 days later and my water is still very cloudy but I can see my fish at least lol...

Any advice would be appreciated..
I have two pleco two black Moor goldfish 2-3"and 20 minnows 2"

They are all quite happy fish but the water... ugh.. I'm thinking a crazy algae bloom..

Thanks guys/gals

 

[RooferGoFishing]

Picture taken just now

 

[Betta keeper]

Other than that sugar dose, everything sounded great

Did auto correct get you, or have you actually put sugar in your tank?

 

[flchamp89]

The percentage of wc should reduce test numbers accordingly.

10g with 40 nitrates does a 50pwc (5g) trates should now be 20...so on so forth

May be test error, may be bacteria bloom, may be parameters (big waste fish), media leech, need good test numbers. But didn't seem like you changed enough to get those results from original numbers

 

[RooferGoFishing]

Other than that sugar dose, everything sounded great

Did auto correct get you, or have you actually put sugar in your tank?

Yes sugar.. it is acidic but it does neutralize nitrite. This was 4 days ago.

 

[Betta keeper]

I would suggest Prime and a bacterial supplement rather than sugar, for cycling.

Prime will neutralize the ammonia and nitrite, and a bacterial supplement will speed the transition from ammonia to nitrite to nitrates

I won't speak about the sugar because it's beyond my own knowledge. You seem to have an idea of how it reacts to the water chemistry.

 

[flchamp89]

Im not a chemist...just a redneck..seems sugar in itself would cloud your tank.

 

[Betta keeper]

That's what I would think too, but I don't like to offer advice without knowledge [emoji848]



Some cloud is normal in the first 24 hours but it usually clears up after about 48.

Personally I would take out the sugar and use bacterial supplement instead

 

[RooferGoFishing]

In this instance I only used sugar for emergency, anything you put in the tank will temporarily cloud your tank. But like I said I used the sugar 4 days ago and it was fine until last night when I got home from work.

Today is 5 days from my 50% water change so I just did another 50%. Looks much better.. will test my nitrates in a couple hours and update..

 

[RooferGoFishing]

Water cleared up a lot getting 40 & 3. pH 7.0
Hopefully back to normal tomorrow night ..

 

[Betta keeper]

Looking better then

Have nitrates yet?

Once you're getting nitrates, you can manage with 25% daily to every other day water changes until your own bacterial colony is built to the point of being able to convert ammonia within 24 hours

When you read 0ammonia/0nitrite/10-20mitrate, your tank has achieved balance and can manage itself with weekly 25-40% water changes


Ps- I don't mean to talk like you are new, I can see that you have a level of knowledge before coming here but I don't know what that level is. I work this forum by phone [emoji6]

 

[RooferGoFishing]

I use my phone too haha. Thanks for the great tips! We all know even with knowledge of our aquariums we can be stumped my nitrates are back up to 80 & 5. Going to change another 15-20gal and repeat process every 24-36hrs. Wish me luck!! My new plant is loving it all!! Lol much healither than the 10gal box at the pet store with 5 buddy's next to him and no fish �� he/she is definitely helping in there !

 

[Aluk3s]

never add sugar or salt to your tank... its just bad...

 

[RooferGoFishing]

Sugar isn't good but it's not terrible either. My uncle had big 180gal salt water tanks and snakes and all kinds of crazy. He recommended for my 60gal, for emergency purpose, use a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar into my filter. It just kick starts the growth of beneficial bacteria that eat the nitrates. Sugar is a carbon source, and while nobody understands the long term affects of sugar dosing, it is proven to reduce nitrates quickly and help bloom beneficial bacteria. In all honesty I would only recommend ever using a 1/2 teaspoon at maximum just to get a distance from danger. Then return to routine water changes etc. But no, a 1/2 teaspoon is not going to implode your tank.. adding table salt on the other hand.. that is an entirely different game... table salt is much different than salt in the ocean.

 

[RooferGoFishing]

Quick thought, I introduced two new plastic fish oranments into the tank with the plant, could they be causing a reaction so absurd?

 

[Aluk3s]

I can agree but a lot of new people are reading wrong tips online and adding too much, dont know for benefits of sugar for boosting beneficial bacteria can you give me some link...

Sugar isn't good but it's not terrible either. My uncle had big 180gal salt water tanks and snakes and all kinds of crazy. He recommended for my 60gal, for emergency purpose, use a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar into my filter. It just kick starts the growth of beneficial bacteria that eat the nitrates. Sugar is a carbon source, and while nobody understands the long term affects of sugar dosing, it is proven to reduce nitrates quickly and help bloom beneficial bacteria. In all honesty I would only recommend ever using a 1/2 teaspoon at maximum just to get a distance from danger. Then return to routine water changes etc. But no, a 1/2 teaspoon is not going to implode your tank.. adding table salt on the other hand.. that is an entirely different game... table salt is much different than salt in the ocean.

 

[Betta keeper]

Check the bottom of the ornaments

My own research has turned up that plastics with the recycling symbol and a number 2,4,5 (the more solid plastics) are aquarium safe. If it's sold for the aquarium, you are probably ok


It's more likely that your crazy nitrite is simply your tank cycling, and it will slowly come to balance over a few weeks

Do you know about the nitrogen cycle?

When a tank is first started, it will experience an ammonia spike. This is followed by a nitrite spike, as the bacterial colony establishes and handles the ammonia. Then, a nitrate spike.

Throughout this whole process, we can use Prime daily to maintain safe water quality for our fish, and do water changes to control the spikes.

It often takes a month or so, but the addition of bacterial supplement can speed it up. Mine is almost finished after a week and a half with supplement