Success!... I Think

[MyanRan]

Well, after two weeks of doing PWCs my tank is seemingly back to normal. I have not had a fish die since the incident two weeks ago. There are 9 of them left and my plants are growing really nicely now. My Ammonia is 0, Nitrites are 0, but Nitrates are 110. Why is this reading still so high? Everything in my tank is doing better than ever, so just curious about this ridiculously high reading. Should I continue doing every second day PWCs?

 

[Oceangirl]

What size is your tank? What kind of test are you using to test? Strips or liquid? What kind of fish are they? How long has the tank been set up? What kind of filter?

I just read your profile, depending on the # of each fish. You may be a little over stocked. Some types of Plecos can get VERY LARGE, like 12 inches or more. they also create a lot of waste.

 

[MyanRan]

I need to update my profile, I have no Plecos anymore, I got rid of them. I have a 55 Gallon Corner Tank. I'm using the Nutrafin Test Kit. Liquid. I have 1 Columbian Tetra, 1 Head and Tail Light Tetra, 1 Black Skirt Tetra, 2 Red Eye Tetras, and 4 Ember Tetras.
My plants include: Dwarf Four Leaf Clover, Anubias Frazeri, Rotala Indica, Jungle Val, and Bacopa.

 

[MyanRan]

I have an AquaClear 70 HOB with Sponge, Activated Carbon, and Bio Max. (Yes I know I don't need the Carbon, I'm going to replace it with PolyFill)

 

[Rivercats]

You do need to do a couple 50% WC's to get the nitrates down to 20ppm tops. Also remember that substrate with alot detris and dirty filters (especially canisters) can cause high nitrates even when your doing WC's. Give everything a good clean (except the bio-media) and do the WC's and see if your nitrates go down and stay down. Also be sure your not overfeeding.

 

[librarygirl]

Agreed with RIvercats (clean the media in old tank water). You might also want to test your tap water for nitrates just to make sure that isn't a contributing factor. It may also be from undercleaning the substrate and/or stuff that built up in the filters. You also mentioned some dead fish so that could be a cause too.

 

[Rivercats]

Yep totally forgot about testing the tap water... good catch Librarygirl!

 

[MyanRan]

I think it is about time to do some filter maintenance. I know my water is good quality from the tap. The ph is 8, the NO3 is 0, the NO2 is 0, and the Nitrates are 5. I use SeaChem Prime when I do PWCs. I definitely am not under cleaning the substrate.

 

[Rivercats]

Just got done talking with someone with the same problem and they also had good tap water, clean filter, and they thought clean substrate but when they went in and actually removed some plants to really clean the tank they found some of the plants had a dark slimy substance under the leaves and some in the gravel around the plants. Often times there are area's in the substrate that aren't good (for lack of a better word). I never gravel vac as 95% of my substrate is planted so I have to monitor my water carefully, not overfeed and do 50% WC on the big 220g weekly. The nitrates are coming from something in the tank and it's just a matter of figuring out what is causing them. Just throwing out some possibilities of what could be causing it.

 

[MyanRan]

It seems as though I need to go Nitrate hunting then...

 

[MyanRan]

Sure enough, I lifted some of the rocks up and siphoned the substrate under and around that area. It was dirty...