NEED HELP! Nitrates are always high!

[Fender1958]

Set up:
55 gallon, Gravel, Fluval 405 (full bio), 10 mid light plants(small), Basic tropical fish.

Ammonia, pH, and Nitrites are perfect, but I continuously have a high nitrate level and black algae. This has been going on for a year now and I keep losing fish here and there when, I guess they cant take it anymore. Every level, including the nitrates, coming from my tap is perfect so the issue is in the aquarium. My media is 4 months old.

Any thoughts and help would be much appreciated!

 

[Rivercats]

How often are you opening up your Fluval canister and cleaning it? Is the same media been in there for 4 months? If so there is where your nitrates are coming from. I run 4 Fluval 406's on my 220g alone and if I don't keep on a strict 3 week cleaning schedule I see an increase in nitrates.

 

[Fender1958]

How often are you opening up your Fluval canister and cleaning it? Is the same media been in there for 4 months? If so there is where your nitrates are coming from. I run 4 Fluval 406's on my 220g alone and if I don't keep on a strict 3 week cleaning schedule I see an increase in nitrates.

Clearly not often enough. Since the ppm is so high should I completely empty the canister and clean everything and refill with tap? I have heard that usung tao kills all healthy bacteria.

 

[wildroseofky]

I had a high nitrate problem too. I started taking my aquaclear filter sponge out once a week and give it a good beating over the bucket. Just squeezing it out in a bucket of tank water wasn't getting it clean. I also clean the whole filter every couple of weeks. Now that the water is warmer I am getting a lot of sludgy growth in the filter. Doing this has kept my nitrates at around 10 sometimes 20.

 

[Rivercats]

Clearly not often enough. Since the ppm is so high should I completely empty the canister and clean everything and refill with tap? I have heard that usung tao kills all healthy bacteria.

I don't know what media you use but one of my baskets has bio-media which is the only thing I don't rinse ever! That is where a ton of your BB is at. Other wise I replace the 100% polyfill I use and rinse all the sponges till they rinse clear under running tap water. This has never caused any B-blooms and keeps everything clean enough to keep nitrates down. Those sponges are the culprits IMO for holding the detris that causes nitrates to rise.

 

[wildroseofky]

I do not mean to high jack your thread Fender but I have a question for Rivercats. Does the polyfill work better? I hate the big sponge that comes with the aquaclear. I added a course filter pad before it and a polishing pad after but the big sponge constantly clogs up. I was wondering if I could use something else and just replace it regularly without hurting my bacteria. I have the bioball things that I never rinse. I even added extra to have on hand to seed other tanks

 

[Rivercats]

I don't use that filter but if the polyfill can be stuffed in then it can be used instead of the sponge. I just watch to see when the polyfill looks dirty and then change it out. As long as you have bio media it shouldn't be a problem.