High nitrate wont go away

[Insom1982]

I have a motoro stingray And two African cichlids in a 80 gallon tank tank has been going for all most three months at first I thought this was just the finale stage of cycling the nitrate spike but it has been over a week now and it just keeps bouncing from 80ppm to over 160ppms I have clean gunk off filter media have vacuumed gravel and sand tank is half and half do wcs weekly of at least 15-20% I did a few partial wcs of 10% also I don't know what else to do I even bought some zeo Zob that's suppose to get rid of ammonia nitrate and nitrites not munch luck and now my ray is not eating much

 

[shellieca]

Have you tested your tap water? I would check that if you haven't already. If that is good do more frequent water changes of 50%. 10% isn't much for a tank that size & won't do much to lower nitrates. When my 46g spiked with nitrates I was doing 2-3 50% water changes for 2-3 wks before they finally stabilized at <20.

 

[Cynic]

Your tank is too small to support the bioload of a stingray and you need to be doing a minimum of 50% water changes weekly to even try to get it back under control.

 

[Insom1982]

Yeah I had some supervisor at big Al's tell me 80g with one ray and. A few cichlids would be ok I had my water levels mint a month ago and I did test for nitrates in the tap water nothing there is though some ammonia so when doing wcs I only use prime also was told on several fish forums that 80g for one ray is fine I'm now looking at upgrading to minimum 180g but I would want the tank to cycle fully before I transfer the ray into the new tank

 

[aquandrew]

that ray is going to need 220+ gallons

 

[Insom1982]

All rays sooner or later need at least 250-300g or ponds

 

[Insom1982]

Good news ray is eating again actively swimming looking at some java fern or java moss heard it helps get rid of nitrate big time

 

[bshenanagins]

I would just keep doing WC's as mentioned, 3-4 times a week at about 25-40% each time.

 

[Insom1982]

Yeas I will try that and hopefully it works

 

[Cynic]

I would just keep doing WC's as mentioned, 3-4 times a week at about 25-40% each time.

Disagree. To remove nitrAtes larger water changes 70-80% are far more effective than multiple smaller changes.

 

[bshenanagins]

Disagree. To remove nitrAtes larger water changes 70-80% are far more effective than multiple smaller changes.

Yeah more effective, but that big of a change is a shock to the fish and could potentially initiate a mini cycle.

 

[T1KARMANN]

Yeah I had some supervisor at big Al's tell me 80g with one ray and. A few cichlids would be ok I had my water levels mint a month ago and I did test for nitrates in the tap water nothing there is though some ammonia so when doing wcs I only use prime also was told on several fish forums that 80g for one ray is fine I'm now looking at upgrading to minimum 180g but I would want the tank to cycle fully before I transfer the ray into the new tank

The guy in the shop was not telling you the truth

Male motoro stay a bit smaller than females

A male can grow to about 20" disk and females 28"+ disk

Even if you doubled the size of you tank it would still be to small you need a 400 gal with a foot print of 84x36 and that's the min tank size

Your tank is also very under filtered

Even if you done 50% water changes daily your nitrates would still be high

The good news is rays don't seam to be affected by high nitrates

 

[Jmunroe]

Yeah more effective, but that big of a change is a shock to the fish and could potentially initiate a mini cycle.

The more water changes you do the closer to your tap water your tank will become thus allowing more water changes. If your on city water treat whole volume of tank with dechlorinator and such and you'll never go through a mini cycle.

 

[T1KARMANN]

You have to have some nitrates that shows the cycle is working as it the end waste

 

[T1KARMANN]

Yeah more effective, but that big of a change is a shock to the fish and could potentially initiate a mini cycle.

I agree anything more than 50% is to much at one timev

 

[Cynic]

Yeah more effective, but that big of a change is a shock to the fish and could potentially initiate a mini cycle.

Could possibly shock the fish if your parameters vary dramatically for some reason.

It won't initiate a mini-cycle though, that would only occur through a loss of enough enough nitrAtes to not support your bioload but most bacteria is maintained in your substrate or filter rather than water which is what makes it so annoying to manage.