help with water again

[kaz]

my reading is

ph 7.2
am 0
nitrate 80 to 100
every week or ten days ive been adding 2 to 3 gallons of fresh mineral water.

 

[rich311k]

You need to change some water. 20% at least for the next couple of days. You have to get those nitrates down

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I agree, you need to do 20% water changes the next 2-3 days to get the nitrate level down. It's way high...

 

[Guest]

are you just adding new water and not removing any old water? The bacteria in your water (biological filter) will change ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate, and then the nitrate continues to build up and the only way to remove it is by doing water changes. As the others said, do small water changes daily over the next few days to get the nitrates down and then you need to start doing some weekly, biweekly maintenance on the tank... Maybe a 20% water change each week.

 

[kaz]

yes it goes away by itself i just add water. i just added maybe one to two gallons of tap water right now.

 

[kaz]

do i just get water out and just add new one? or let it go away?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Remove 20% of the water, then add fresh tap water that has been treated with dechlorinator. Do that for 2 or 3 days. Might want to do a vacuum of the bottom too to get rid of excess waste.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

For a healthy tank, you want to take some water out and replace it. Don't just let it evaporate then add. The nitrates will build up and kill your fish. If necessary, you could do a 50% water change to bring the nitrates down, but remember, the temp of the new water needs to be as close as possible to your tank temp. 20% water changes are better if you can't get the water as close, as it won't affect the overall temp too much if you add the water slowly.

 

[Guest]

you can't just keep adding new water because the nitrates will continue to build up. You have to do water changes to remove the old water... You use something like a syphon or gravel vac to remove the old water into a bucket and then replace it with fresh, dechlorinated water.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

In my 26 gallon, I just use cold water from the faucet. I fill up a 5 gallon bucket and treat it. I use another 5 gallon bucket for the removal of tank water using my gravel vac. I fill the 5 gallon bucket. Then I'll use a koolaid pitcher that I use for my aquarium only, and scoop water out of the new water and slowly add it to the tank. Once I have the tank filled back up, my overall tank temp has only dropped 1 degree. That's my normal way of doing it.

With a bigger tank, might want to use a python. But for 26G and smaller, a 5 Gallon bucket does just fine.

 

[kaz]

i empty about 30% and added the same, the nitrate went down a bit but not much.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Keep up with the changes. You may want to increase it to two or three 50% changes over two or three days. But if you're changing out that much water, make sure the temp is the same as the tank water.

 

[talloulou]

It's important to vacumn the gravel with the water changes. That's where all the crap is!!!

 

[Blazeherd2306]

Definately vacuum the gravel. Try doing 30-50% water changes until the nitrates go down. So, if this is the 20 gal in your profile, change anywhere from 6-10 gallons.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Keep doing it for 2-3 days, and vac the gravel. Could do it for a week to be sure, then do regular changes once a week.

 

[Guest]

keep doing the water changes... it may take you a week or more to get the nitrate levels down and then you can go to doing it on a weekly basis.

 

[kaz]

ok today i did a 50% water change but now i have a problem. i cant find a guppy and a red platy are missin in action. could it be they went under the uf?

 

[talloulou]

Did you heavily vacumn the tank??? Sometimes when you do this and it hasn't been done for a long time it kicks up tons of debris into the water column. The fish may have went in to hiding. The water should clear up after a bit and they will come out again assuming you didn't vacumn up the fish 8O

 

[kaz]

i hope not. my vacume has a grid on it so i doubt that happen but again who knows. i did vacum alot of debri. I am down to:
1 sunfire platy
1 red platy
6 neon tetra
1 red gourami.

im interested in getting a red claw crab, would it be good to have and what are the benifits and so on?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

As for the crab, wait til you get the water parameters under control. They need a much better environment than most fish. I had got some bamboo shrimp when my tank was cycling, didn't last 3 days. The fish just might be hiding, check back later, they might show up. As for the UGF, they aren't the best. HOB and Canisters are much better.