Question about nitrates and water change

[larochem595]

Hello,
I feel like this is a silly question but I'm going to ask anyway...I'm new to fishkeeping.

Today the nitrates in my tank was at about 40 ppm (I couldn't tell if I was in the 20 or the 40 ppm) so I decided to do about a 50% water change. I slowly added in the new water but one of my fish looked rather unhappy, had its fins clamped and just stayed in my plants. The other were all going about their usual business. The water was properly aged, conditioned and temperature matched.
My question is this: is it possible to do too much of a water change? I wonder if that much of a change in nitrates was a shock to my fish? Should I be changing less water at a time?

Thanks in advance for the help,
Michelle

 

[Caliban07]

Hello,

I feel like this is a silly question but I'm going to ask anyway...I'm new to fishkeeping.



Today the nitrates in my tank was at about 40 ppm (I couldn't tell if I was in the 20 or the 40 ppm) so I decided to do about a 50% water change. I slowly added in the new water but one of my fish looked rather unhappy, had its fins clamped and just stayed in my plants. The other were all going about their usual business. The water was properly aged, conditioned and temperature matched.

My question is this: is it possible to do too much of a water change? I wonder if that much of a change in nitrates was a shock to my fish? Should I be changing less water at a time?



Thanks in advance for the help,

Michelle

This is a very good question and not silly at all. To cut a long story short, fish keepers I feel need to be more aware of something called TDS (total dissolved solids) TDS is all salts minerals and heavy metals that are in the water. You cannot see them. Nitrates are a part of this.

This fish are constant using a system within their body to constantly regulate and balance these things internal and external to their body. If they achieve a balance that they are happy with and are not using too much energy to control this then a healthy well fed fish will be fine.

If you alter the concentrations of these salts etc significantly. The fishes system has to respond and adjust to the change. This can stress the fish because achieving the new balance might require more energy.

Some fish don't show any signs of being effected but their system is still adjusting just the same. So fish do show signs of being effected like yours. Having said that there may have been other reasons your fish wasn't happy with the change but this is the most likely.

It's good that you did it slowly though. Your fish will be ok and if the shock was not too great, will return to his usual self. over the next few days.

If you want the detail explanation you can search for my 'importance of TDS' thread and Dalto's 'the myth of infinite acclimation in fresh water fishes' thread. Sorry I don't know how to post links.

Good luck


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[Caliban07]

To answer your question about water changes. If it was unusual for you to do a 50% change then this is probably why the fish wasn't happy.

If you usually do 50% changes but have altered something in the tank that adds to TDS then the change may have been greater.

If the tank is new then this could have been another reason.

People who religiously and frequently change 50% water are not slowing TDS to change much before the next change so a sort of stability can be maintained and the fish are still happy.

However, the reason I say a sort of stability is because if your taking water from a tap and the water company decide to make drastic changes (which they do often without telling anyone) you can comprise the whole tank. This happened to someone on here and is the reason I wrote the TDS thread.


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[larochem595]

Hmmm, I read up on TDS. I keep platies and I keep the GH at 150 ppm. Perhaps I need to go smaller/slower with my water changes.

Update: The smallest female in my tank looked terrible this morning... She was just hovering at the bottom of the tank, with her fins clamped. I thought she was dead. Then, I fed them. She shot up to the top and was feeding pretty vigorously. The others all look fine.
So, I have no idea...
Thanks for the help,
Michelle

 

[Caliban07]

Hmmm, I read up on TDS. I keep platies and I keep the GH at 150 ppm. Perhaps I need to go smaller/slower with my water changes.

Update: The smallest female in my tank looked terrible this morning... She was just hovering at the bottom of the tank, with her fins clamped. I thought she was dead. Then, I fed them. She shot up to the top and was feeding pretty vigorously. The others all look fine.
So, I have no idea...
Thanks for the help,
Michelle

That's ok.

What are your other parameters? Stock, tanks size and filtration etc. how often do you feed?




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[larochem595]

That's ok.

What are your other parameters? Stock, tanks size and filtration etc. how often do you feed?

I have 3 platies in a 10 gallon tank. I feed daily. Filtration is good.
Ammonia is 0, nitrites are 0 and nitrates are about 5 ppm. GH of 150ppm, KH of 120 ppm and pH of 7.5. (I'm amazed that I've learned about all these things and actually know what they mean!)

A little history on my tank... I am new to fishkeeping and was originally using my tap water. I became aware that we have a problem with nitrates in our tap water. The nitrates in our tap water was about 40 ppm. My fish seemed ok at the time and I did a bunch of little water changes from an alternate water source, making sure that I matched the GH and pH as close as possible to what was in my tank. I brought down the nitrates to about 10 ppm over the course of about 2 weeks.

The tank slowly got high in nitrates on its own. Last night it was somewhere between 20-40 ppm so I did the 50% change.

I'm thinking that maybe the TDS between my tap water and my alternate water source was too much of a change, even though the water from my new source has been slowly added over a few weeks. Or perhaps I did my change too quickly last night.

I'm hoping the little fish pulls through =/
Thanks for the help!!
Michelle

 

[Caliban07]

I have 3 platies in a 10 gallon tank. I feed daily. Filtration is good.
Ammonia is 0, nitrites are 0 and nitrates are about 5 ppm. GH of 150ppm, KH of 120 ppm and pH of 7.5. (I'm amazed that I've learned about all these things and actually know what they mean!)

A little history on my tank... I am new to fishkeeping and was originally using my tap water. I became aware that we have a problem with nitrates in our tap water. The nitrates in our tap water was about 40 ppm. My fish seemed ok at the time and I did a bunch of little water changes from an alternate water source, making sure that I matched the GH and pH as close as possible to what was in my tank. I brought down the nitrates to about 10 ppm over the course of about 2 weeks.

The tank slowly got high in nitrates on its own. Last night it was somewhere between 20-40 ppm so I did the 50% change.

I'm thinking that maybe the TDS between my tap water and my alternate water source was too much of a change, even though the water from my new source has been slowly added over a few weeks. Or perhaps I did my change too quickly last night.

I'm hoping the little fish pulls through =/
Thanks for the help!!
Michelle

Sounds like this is the case and you have it under control. You may be able to buy reverse osmosis water from the fish shop and you can mix it with your tap to cut the nitrates and the hardness.

There are options available. Whatever you do, just try to keep things stable as you know.

Smaller nitrates build up more quickly in smaller tanks and the fish you have have quite a large bioload.

You know what to do. Happy fish keeping!


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[larochem595]

Sounds like this is the case and you have it under control. You may be able to buy reverse osmosis water from the fish shop and you can mix it with your tap to cut the nitrates and the hardness.

There are options available. Whatever you do, just try to keep things stable as you know.

Smaller nitrates build up more quickly in smaller tanks and the fish you have have quite a large bioload.

You know what to do. Happy fish keeping!

I think I'm just going to continue using water from my grandfather's house, its easiest.
I think that I'm finally in a rhythm now, just going to make my water changes smaller next time.
Thanks!
Michelle

 

[ppo8820]

She will probably die soon. I am not trying to be harsh, but for some reason platys never seem to bounce back once the clamping and sluggishness occurs. Did she have babies recently? Its a known thing that for some reason, female platys never seem to fully recover from birthing fry. They usually deteriorate afterwards, even in healthy tanks. Maybe its too hard on them? Every platy I have had that started clamping and acting like the one you mentioned, even though it ate, died shortly afterwards and oddly quickly.

People always say they are such hardy fish, but I have not found that to be the case with the females.

 

[larochem595]

She will probably die soon. I am not trying to be harsh, but for some reason platys never seem to bounce back once the clamping and sluggishness occurs. Did she have babies recently? Its a known thing that for some reason, female platys never seem to fully recover from birthing fry. They usually deteriorate afterwards, even in healthy tanks. Maybe its too hard on them? Every platy I have had that started clamping and acting like the one you mentioned, even though it ate, died shortly afterwards and oddly quickly.

People always say they are such hardy fish, but I have not found that to be the case with the females.

Yeah, I think I may lose her too. I haven't had her that long but I don't think she has given birth at all recently.
She's still on the small side. I read an article on TDS in the aquarium and it said that younger fish have a more difficult time adjusting to sudden changes in TDS.
The other fish look ok.
So, I'm just going to wait and see....

Michelle