High Nitrate - White spot treatment

[AnT2nY]

Hi,

I was away for a few days, came back yesterday tested the water

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 5
Nitrate between 160!!
so i did a 30% water change as i was doing this i noticed one of my black mollies had loads of white spots on so i added the correct dosage of Interpet Anti white spot while i was refilling the tank (forgot to remove the carb filters out remembered about 30mins after i put the anti white spot in and removed them then)

Ive cranked up the temp to 28-29c

Today.. the molly is looking better not as much on the lava rocks at the bottom.

Just tested my tank today

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 2
Nitrate its sort of between 80-160 on my chart

should i leave it for a few days before doing another PWC?

when doing the PWC do i need to topup on the anti white spot treatment

[librarygirl]

Originally Posted by AnT2nY

Hi,

I was away for a few days, came back yesterday tested the water

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 5
Nitrate between 160!!
so i did a 30% water change as i was doing this i noticed one of my black mollies had loads of white spots on so i added the correct dosage of Interpet Anti white spot while i was refilling the tank (forgot to remove the carb filters out remembered about 30mins after i put the anti white spot in and removed them then)

Ive cranked up the temp to 28-29c

Today.. the molly is looking better not as much on the lava rocks at the bottom.

Just tested my tank today

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 2
Nitrate its sort of between 80-160 on my chart

should i leave it for a few days before doing another PWC?

when doing the PWC do i need to topup on the anti white spot treatment

Is this a new tank? What size is the tank and what other fish are in there?

With nitrite at 2 and nitrates over 20 you absolutely cannot wait before doing water changes. And 30% changes aren't going to cut it, I'm afraid. You'll need to do at least 3 water changes of 50% each today. That's just to get nitrite down below .25 and it'll help lower nitrates a lot too. Test the water daily after this and any time nitrite and/or ammonia go over .25 do a water change(s) to get them down. Same with nitrate over 20.

The fish are likely suffering from poisoning from the toxins in the water. I wouldnt' dose any meds until you know exactly what it is, they're already stressed from the toxins. Plus the clean water alone should help.

Also why are nitrates rising that fast? What is your water change schedule? You're either not maintaining the tank well enough, and/or it was never fully cycled, or it's grossly overstocked. There's a link in my signature called 'new tank with fish;' it'll help you.

[AnT2nY]

Hi, It is a 60litre tall tank with 10 guppies 6mollies and 6 neons tetras. there are also a few of the molly fry's think i have seen about 8 in total

The tank is abbout 9 weeks old, and i did the fishless cycle .

Ok, are you recommend doing 3x 50% PWC's today?

will get to doing the first 50% change now then wait 30minutes and test again then do another 50% change is that how to do it?

i take it i should abandon the ich treatment until the nitrates/nitrites are under control, if it is even the ich

[LyndaB]

what test kit are you using?

you don't need ich meds, you can just raise the heat to 86 slowly

[AnT2nY]

API liquid test kits

so i just need to work on getting and keeping the toxins down to an acceptable level?

[LyndaB]

Your readings need to be 0, 0, <20

[AnT2nY]

Thanks for all the replies!

I have now done 3 50% PWC's fish do actually look alot more active

I have just tested the water


Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 40

shall i do one more 50% PWC? or wait till tomorrow?

[AnT2nY]

Oh ... also shall i cut back on feeding them or continue giving them their small pinch of flakes in the evening?

[LyndaB]

Fish can go a number of days without food. If they're responding positively, you might as well feed them. Just don't overfeed. Then, give them tomorrow off of food and feed again the next day. This will also help get your nitrate down.

[AnT2nY]

Thank you Lynda

Should i do another 50% water change tomorrow i have stats currently of

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 40

[steez]

Keep testing your water daily, do water changes as needed. Like earlier posted, you need your readings at 0, 0, <20.

Increasing temp and adding aquarium salt to mine fixed my ich problem that I had. Just be patient and make sure to keep the heat / salt going for at least a week after you don't see any left. The parasite will remain in the water, so you gotta keep going or it will just reinfect the fish.


What water conditioner do you use? (This should be the only chemical you add to your tank)

[librarygirl]

Originally Posted by AnT2nY

Thank you Lynda

Should i do another 50% water change tomorrow i have stats currently of

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 40

I'd bang out another 50% at least to get the nitrites down and nitrate down as well. They may climb back up by tomorrow so test the water again and do another water change(s) if the levels are back up. Do you know how this happened? If the tank was cycled something had to have happened to cause a mini-cycle. Did you do the full fishless cycle and get 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and some nitrates at the end? Finding the cause of this is going to be important as well.

For the ich you could just try the heat method at least for now (adding salt now may be difficult due to all the water changes you'll need to do to keep your toxins under control). Slowly (1-2 degrees every 12 hours I think is the amount) raise the temp until it gets to 86. The heat alone may kill the Ich. The fish were probably stressed due to the toxins in the water.

[AnT2nY]

Thanks all, ill do another test in the morning and do PWC's as needed.

Yes, i did the full fishless cycle the nitrites werent quite 0 they were 0.50 when i added the first 6 fish. I did remove the standard filter and replace it with a different one a few weeks back (i put the old filter sponge in the new filter) as that actually killed 2 of my fish as they got sucked in!

I also found a molly which had died in an ornament i moved it when i was doing the water changes and it came out floating up.

I am adding Interpet Bioactive Tapsafe when doing the PWC's

[librarygirl]

Well not fully completing the cycle could have contributed, as could have changing the filter (although if you used the old filter media just changing the filter housing shouldn't have caused any harm). I'm betting the dead fish did it; they can decay and cause bad water if left unfound. Hopefully this mini-cycle won't last long. Just keep testing and do water changes as needed until it rights itself again. Good luck.

[LyndaB]

Yes, I would definitely do one more. You're almost there. Good job!

[AnT2nY]

Hi thanks once again both of you

I have done another 2 50% PWC's

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 10

Shall I now leave it and test again in 24hrs?

[librarygirl]

Originally Posted by AnT2nY

Hi thanks once again both of you

I have done another 2 50% PWC's

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 10

Shall I now leave it and test again in 24hrs?

It's a tough call. With nitrite at .25 it's becoming borderline toxic. If you can do one more 50% change tonight, I would. Either way test again first thing in the morning and be ready to do 1-2 water changes as needed if nitrites are back up.

[LyndaB]

I completely agree..... again, you're almost there and you're doing a great job!

[AnT2nY]

thank you again

The white spots are now disappearing off the fish and they look soooo much happier

I tested again this morning and have done 2 50% PWC's and the nitrite is now a very light purple but more blue which puts it between 0.25 and 0 rather than the 1-0.5 it was this morning

Will leave it a few hours and test the water again and probably do another PWC to get that nitrite down to 0 fully

[librarygirl]

Originally Posted by AnT2nY

thank you again

The white spots are now disappearing off the fish and they look soooo much happier

I tested again this morning and have done 2 50% PWC's and the nitrite is now a very light purple but more blue which puts it between 0.25 and 0 rather than the 1-0.5 it was this morning

Will leave it a few hours and test the water again and probably do another PWC to get that nitrite down to 0 fully

You're doing awesome! I'm sure the fish appreciate the clean water. Hopefully this won't last long and then you can just do 1-2 weekly pwc for maintenance.