Need some advice

[pawzz11]

I have had my tank for about 1 1/2 years but I am currently having issues with nitrates. All other water conditions are perfect no ammonio no nitrites but i cant get my nitrates under 80.


The picture shows the decoration differences im working on to try to maybe make a difference the one with the rock background is the new setup ..

My tank has :

marineland canister magnum 350
marineland canister c-series 350 (2 months old to try to help the water conditions)
aquaclear 70 powerhead
inline uv sanitizer
inline water heater
airstone

decorations:
Universal Rocks background
driftwood
rocks
a few fake plants
natural (looking) gravel

Fish:
4 neons
3 black skirt tetra
4 Black Kuhli Loach
2 corys
1 phleco (will be rehoming due to size soon)
1 mystery snail
4-5 ghost shrimp
Is my tank overstocked?
I have had 2 neons and 1 tetra die

When i do my water changes I use the old tank water to rinse the media so it doesnt kill the bacteria...I went to my LFS and they gave me a container of bacteria to put into the tank to make sure I had sufficient amount but havnt seen a difference.

Any ideas on what im doing wrong?

 

[aquandrew]

do you gravel vacuum thoroughly?

 

[pawzz11]

I do thats why I am going to be rehoming paco (pleco about 12") he makes a mess

I'm thinking maybe adding live plants to the tank might help I read they help with the nitrates but then you get into a whole new realm of fish tank care and water conditions

 

[aquandrew]

common pleco? that could be the cause of your high nitrates right there. how often do you clean your canisters? how do you clean them?

 

[pawzz11]

Yea common pleco he started in a 5 gallon then a 10 gallon now a 55 gallon and im not going any bigger so he has to go lol.....

I change my water once a week but was told to clean the filters once a month and i use the old tank water i take out to rinse the bio media. I have kept the same type of filter media in the big canister filter that came with it but since the trays were half empty I did add media such as more ceramic and then also added the bio-chem stars. Of course I change out the carbon when i clean out the canister. The small canister filter the magnum I keep the bio chem stars in teh carbon canister and use a sleeve around that to catch the big stuff. And on the power head I have attached AquaClear One Size Fits All Prefilter and instead of using the sleeves i filled it with ceramic bio rings.

 

[aquandrew]

your definitely going to need to rehome the pleco, they need 150-180 gallons minimum. how much water do you change weekly? if its anything less than 50%, then thats another contributing factor. doing a 50% water change would bring 80ppm down to 40ppm and another would bring it down to 20ppm and so on. 20 ppm is really the highest you want it, anything higher for long term can cause head and lateral line erosion or other bacterial infections.

 

[pawzz11]

ah ok I was told not to do more then 25% water change or it may harm the bacteria colony. Also when i do my water changes I use the Seachem Prime to treat the water is that good enough or should i add more to that? The picture im adding is of my filter set up let me know if i need to change something. The cartridge filter is only used if my water gets cloudy its like a polisher.

 

[aquandrew]

yup that is completely incorrect. when you have such a large bioload, you need to do at least 50% a week. i do 50% water changes on all my fresh water tanks, to keep my fish in optimum health. do two back to back 50% changes, then test your nitrates to make sure they are an acceptable level. your filter looks fine to me, it is more than likely because of the water changes

 

[pawzz11]

Thank you so much.....when my nitrate levels were getting out of hand i would do 3 large water changes and then it would be fine but at teh end of the month it would be back in the 80s

 

[aquandrew]

no problem just do the two large water changes and then go to 50% per week and let us know how it goes. welcome to the forum, by the way, there are a lot of friendly and knowledgeable people on here!

 

[pawzz11]

Will do now one other problem now when i was doing the smaller water changes I was using 5 gallon jugs and went to the filteres water place and got water but with 50% change that wont be an option Im wondering if its safe to just use my tap water all water conditions are ok on it except it has a 40 for nitrates no ammonia no nitrites and good ph level

 

[aquandrew]

Will do now one other problem now when i was doing the smaller water changes I was using 5 gallon jugs and went to the filteres water place and got water but with 50% change that wont be an option Im wondering if its safe to just use my tap water all water conditions are ok on it except it has a 40 for nitrates no ammonia no nitrites and good ph level

your tap water has 40ppm nitrates? did you test it multiple times to make sure? are you using test strips or a liquid test kit? i know some people on here cut their water with R/O water to reduce the nitrates, but my tap only has <5ppm so I've never had to deal with that. maybe look into a cheap R/O system? it would definitely pay off, rather than paying for every gallon of water.

 

[pawzz11]

your tap water has 40ppm nitrates? did you test it multiple times to make sure? are you using test strips or a liquid test kit? i know some people on here cut their water with R/O water to reduce the nitrates, but my tap only has <5ppm so I've never had to deal with that. maybe look into a cheap R/O system? it would definitely pay off, rather than paying for every gallon of water.

Ah sorry retested it my tap was only at 5. I am using the api master test kit liquid in the tubes. So I did a 50% change tonight and alredy have some good results its kinda hard to tell but i think im between 40-20 now that is after being between 160-80. Ill do another 50% change tomorrow and hopefully that will fix it but I'll probably do a 50% change every 2 other day until its at the lowest i can get it. So Im attaching pictures of the pleco that way you can see how very big that guy is and yea I think your right about him being the mess maker i gravel vac tonight again when i did the big change and right were he hides there was a ton of poop again and i had just vac yesterday ugh. Im also putting a picture up of what the water results were my ph has always been at 7.6-7.2 even with filtered water I think it might be the decor or rocks not sure. the test results from left to right ph/ammonia/nitrite/nitrate

 

[aquandrew]

sounds like your definitely going in the right direction, glad to hear!! yeah that is a pretty big pleco, they can get up to 24 inches long and are just pooping machines. if you are interested in a pleco that would be more suitable for your tank, look up bristlenose and rubberlip they are the most common, smaller pleco species, and max out at 5-7 inches

 

[pawzz11]

Good news, the second day I did another 50% waterchange and my nitrates are finally in the 20s Im going to try to get it lower then that. Also on day 2 after I did my first 50% water change I looked at the tank and the floor was covered in poops from the pleco so that day I went ahead and rehomed him at my local LFS he is now happily at home in a permanent big indoor pond. So that should help cut down on the mess too.

 

[aquandrew]

Good news, the second day I did another 50% waterchange and my nitrates are finally in the 20s Im going to try to get it lower then that. Also on day 2 after I did my first 50% water change I looked at the tank and the floor was covered in poops from the pleco so that day I went ahead and rehomed him at my local LFS he is now happily at home in a permanent big indoor pond. So that should help cut down on the mess too.

awesome glad to hear your getting things under control