Water levels question

[senorkevin]

My ammonia and nitrite are 0 but nitrate is between 50 and 100.
Do I need more WCs or will it fix itself?

 

[wildroseofky]

Yes, do a large water change. You want to keep your nitrates under 40. Mot prefer to keep them between 5-20. My fish start twitching if my nitrates get to 40. You might want to check around decor and plants to see if there is a build up of gunk. That can cause the nitrates to spike.

 

[senorkevin]

I have an elodea that looks like it has something on it. How do I clean that?

 

[senorkevin]

Here is a photo but I'm not sure you can see. It is like a whitish/grey smile on the plant

 

[wildroseofky]

It looks kinda like a fungus but it could be an algae. Have your tried using something to wipe it off? You can try the peroxide treatment. Get some 3% hydrogen peroxide, the kind you use to clean wounds, pull up 3cc in a medicine syringe. Turn off the filter and then slowly squirt the peroxide onto the white stuff. Wait 15 minutes and then turn the filter back on. It will not hurt your fish. This works on algae so it might work on the white stuff. Give it a few days to see if it made a difference. If that doesn't work I would remove the leaves that are affected.

 

[senorkevin]

What else could I use instead of peroxide?

 

[senorkevin]

I have found some of the solution that has hydrogen peroxide but it has a little bit of alcohol. Is that ok to use?
It is a 100ml bottle that has:
Hydrogen peroxide 3.34g
Alcohol 0.35g

 

[Coyne]

I wouldn't add anything with alcohol to the tank.

 

[senorkevin]

I decided to bin the plants as the snails were also eating them and causing them to rot. Now my tank looks bare!

 

[mrvincent]

No alchool to the tank. Peroxide work for spot treating algae like BBA, staghorns.

Mesure your tap nitrates, you'll know if there's nitrates into the tap. between 50-100ppm is really too high.

 

[senorkevin]

My tap water nitrate is almost 10 mg/L
Is that high for tap water? If so what could I use to get it down?

 

[mrvincent]

If your tank is 30ppm and the tap 10ppm, then changing 50% of the water will bring levels down to 20ppm.

Remineralized RODI water is good to bring ALL levels down. Just fit new water KH to the tank KH.

 

[senorkevin]

I have always been doing at least 50% WCs and yesterday I did 2 and 1 this morning.
What is tank KH and how do I fit it?

 

[senorkevin]

I just checked and now know what it is. It is below normal (17ppm) so I think it is ok.

 

[mrvincent]

I have always been doing at least 50% WCs and yesterday I did 2 and 1 this morning.
What is tank KH and how do I fit it?

KH is the carbonated hardness. That is the thing that buff the PH. Lower KH water will drop PH, and higer KH water will tend to get more stabilized PH but at higher values...

You can raise KH with baking soda or carbonate calcium, but the best is seachem equilibrum, as it not only raise KH but GH too (like carbonate calcium). To do this ajustment you need a KH test...

I don't understand why your nitrates levels are high like this if you done that much water changes...