When I first rescued my Jack Dempsey, almost a year ago, he was very ill and I had to keep him in a ten gallon tank. (I was a new fish owner and never could get my levels to 0 or close to 0) Then after a few months, I bought a 55 gallon tank and cycled it for a month and a half. Then I acclimated him, and everything was great. My levels at that time were close to 0. I would do regular 10% water changes once a week. At the end of Summer, my roommate and I decide to clean the gravel, but we ended up taking out half the water. Then that's when things started to go wrong. After that it was a constant battle of trying to bring my nitrate levels down. I did the same amount of water changes every week, but nothing was changing. I could notice it in my fish, he was very stressed... When it got really bad, he would get fin clamp and barely move. So I found this product called nitra-zorb. And it worked so well! All my levels went back to 0 or close to 0... But as soon as I took it out after a week or two, my nitrate would skyrocket! And I didn't have the money to keep buying nitra-zorb every two weeks... So I stopped and just stuck with my water changes and gravel cleaning... Then it came to a point where I was doing more frequent water changes or changing out a little bit more water once a week because my fish looked so unhealthy. And I've noticed when he's stressed he gets almost clear feces. But he would still eat regularly. Then one day a few weeks ago I started to notice the ammonia spiked. It was 0 this whole time or close to 0, but now it's at .25. Then I watched a video on how to break down and clean my filter and did so. When I went to plug it in, it stopped working... So I mailed it back to the manufacture for a new motor... I was panicking for my fish, so I went out and bought a more expensive filter (maybe mine is not a good enough filter?) and the new filter is great... Except my ammonia and nitrate levels were high, so I bought another nitra-zorb thinking that would be a quick fix. (In the back of my old filter, it was small, room for two filter pads so I had room to put the nitrazorb... But my new one, has four filter pads and I barely any room to put the nitrazorb so I took one filter pad out and put the nitrazorb in its place...) And the levels are higher then ever? I feel like I'm losing my mind! So I called the nitrazorb customer service for some help, and they told me everything I already knew... My levels are now as followed ammonia- .25 and nitrate- 50 to 100 I'm not too sure. So I'm out of options. I don't know where to go from here. My fish is so stressed and the last few days it's been hard for him to eat. Out of this whole process, he's only not had an appetite in the first few weeks I had him and that's because he was really ill. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? I'm desperate and am almost wiling to pay someone to come to my house to see what's going on...
Help! Nitrate and ammomia levels sky high ):
- Thread starter Fish4m
- Start date
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The link for the article in my signature might help you get all the basics in order.
How much food you feed as well as what kind, can have a big impact on the tank. Cut back on food.
The fish could have white poo from not eating or have internal parasites.
Also cleaning or replaceing the filter pad with tap water will kill BB. Thus ruining your cycle. Not using enough water treatment if you have Cloramine in your tap water can kill BB as well.
If cleaning, try to do one thing a week,
clean glass if you need to, small pwc
clean filter out, small pwc if you need to
Large pwc no other cleaning
Clean gravel, small pwc
This way you don't destroy too much at one time, otherwise you can rinse off and kill and diminish your ability to have the BB handle the tank.
You can always do pwc as needed to keep your parameters in the safe zone.
How much food you feed as well as what kind, can have a big impact on the tank. Cut back on food.
The fish could have white poo from not eating or have internal parasites.
Also cleaning or replaceing the filter pad with tap water will kill BB. Thus ruining your cycle. Not using enough water treatment if you have Cloramine in your tap water can kill BB as well.
If cleaning, try to do one thing a week,
clean glass if you need to, small pwc
clean filter out, small pwc if you need to
Large pwc no other cleaning
Clean gravel, small pwc
This way you don't destroy too much at one time, otherwise you can rinse off and kill and diminish your ability to have the BB handle the tank.
You can always do pwc as needed to keep your parameters in the safe zone.
I've been feeding him the same amount of food for the last 6 months... Four Tetra Cichlid sticks, in the morning and at night... The white feces he's been having on and off for a year... I've treated it several times with metronitizole. Should I do it every time I see white feces?
I use a water conditioner every time I do a water change. Mine says to drop two drops per gallon. So I use a one gallon pot to measure...
I've never replaced my filter pad with tap water... My filter broke last week and I'm waiting for it to be fixed... so I panicked and bought I new one. I'm waiting for the other one to get fixed. But I can't not have water filtration for the time being... I also forgot to mention, when I look at my broken filters pads and filter, it started to grow this tiny white fuzz on it when I left it out of water. I feel like that's mold. Right?
What should I do when my old filter is fixed? Put both the new and old filter in? And let it run for a month? And then take the old filter out?
I do choose to clean one thing at a time, gravel one week with a pwc, clean glass another week with a Pwc...
But I always do a 10% water change every Sunday for the last year. Except for that time I accidentally changed half the water in the tank back in the summer. But that's when everything started to go wrong...
Ever since my filter broke last week I've been doing water changes every other day just to keep my nitrate levels down): my fish is losing his apittie and I know that's a red flag I havent seen for a year. So I know that's really bad....
I use a water conditioner every time I do a water change. Mine says to drop two drops per gallon. So I use a one gallon pot to measure...
I've never replaced my filter pad with tap water... My filter broke last week and I'm waiting for it to be fixed... so I panicked and bought I new one. I'm waiting for the other one to get fixed. But I can't not have water filtration for the time being... I also forgot to mention, when I look at my broken filters pads and filter, it started to grow this tiny white fuzz on it when I left it out of water. I feel like that's mold. Right?
What should I do when my old filter is fixed? Put both the new and old filter in? And let it run for a month? And then take the old filter out?
I do choose to clean one thing at a time, gravel one week with a pwc, clean glass another week with a Pwc...
But I always do a 10% water change every Sunday for the last year. Except for that time I accidentally changed half the water in the tank back in the summer. But that's when everything started to go wrong...
Ever since my filter broke last week I've been doing water changes every other day just to keep my nitrate levels down): my fish is losing his apittie and I know that's a red flag I havent seen for a year. So I know that's really bad....
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