High nitrates

[Solarris]

I have a 55 gallon tank. I've never had problems with my levels till this week. My ammonia is 0 but my nitrates are extremely high. The color matched the highest level on the API test kit! I did a 30 to 40 percent water change yesterday before I realized my levels were so high. At the beginning of this month I hooked up a new canister filter. I added purigen to this filter even though I've never used it before. I left my Marineland Emperor 400 running and am planning on taking it off in about a week and half and moving the biological filtration component in it to the canister. I can't figure out why my nitrates are so high, maybe I'm overfeeding but I'm not sure. What should I do to get them down? I'm worried about my fish. My upside down cat hasn't been acting like himself lately, I haven't seen him eat in several days and I found one of my bamboo shrimp dead a few minutes ago right before I ran my tests. I was about to do another water change but wasn't sure if it was a good idea to do water changes two days in a row or if that would even help since I did one yesterday and they are still this high. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[sealife]

Was your tank cycled? how long has it been up and running?
What is levels of Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate exactly?

Large daily water changes until the Nitrates gets in safe zone of 10ppm or under.

 

[Luananeko]

Purigen only stops nitrates from going higher, it doesn't lower the existing levels in the tank. You need to do water changes as recommended above until they get to reasonable levels, after which the purigen can keep it there. Have you tested your tap water for nitrates? Sometimes after rainstorms you may see nitrate spikes in your tap water, which then can raise levels in your tank if you use it for water changes.

 

[Solarris]

My tank is 6 years old. Ammonia and nitrites are both 0. Nitrates are 160. When I tested 2 weeks ago ammonia and nitrites were both 0 and nitrates were at 20. I can't figure out how they would have gone up so quickly. We haven't been having any rain here at all so I don't think that could be the cause.

 

[Brookster123]

What does rain have to do with the tank? How often do you change water? Is it possible you stirred up.the substrate prior to testing. Did you perform the test a couple times?
Edit - rain would affect the source water?? How many shrimps do you have? Any unaccounted for? Dead/rotting fish can spike.
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[Luananeko]

Brookster - Over here at least, rainstorms tend to wash organics down into our reservoirs, which ups the nitrate levels in our tap water. Hence my comment about the rain being a potential factor, but it sounds like that's not the case since they've been dry.

OP - Is the tank planted? Is it possible a plant or fish died and cause a spike? What's your stocking levels?

 

[Brookster123]

Brookster - Over here at least, rainstorms tend to wash organics down into our reservoirs, which ups the nitrate levels in our tap water. Hence my comment about the rain being a potential factor, but it sounds like that's not the case since they've been dry.

OP - Is the tank planted? Is it possible a plant or fish died and cause a spike? What's your stocking levels?

Gotcha, my b, sometimes I skim read, missed the fine print

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[Solarris]

No unaccounted for fish. I have 1 full grown upside down cat, 1 3 inch pleco, 2 bamboo shrimp since one has died today, and 3 platy. The tank isn't planted. I'm planning on adding some plants, I even bought an anubias yesterday, but I haven't put it in yet.

I only did the test once and maybe I did stir it up some when fishing out the dead shrimp. I'll go try it one more time just to be sure. I didn't think of that.

 

[Solarris]

Just retested. The color had changed to the 160 level before 2 minutes were up, didn't have to wait the full 5, and that's as high as the test goes. Heading to do a water change now.

 

[dragon14]

Good luck, keep us posted. I hope that you are able to find the source of this.

I've been reading this thread, what a perplexing problem!

 

[jennandjuicetm]

Do you normally vacuum the gravel? That might help either way. When I added purigen to my tank after one week i still had zero nitrates.

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[jennandjuicetm]

Another thought, have you checked the purigen to see if it needs recharging?

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[Solarris]

I haven't checked my purigen. I just put it in about 3 weeks ago and didn't think I needed to check it yet.
It just occurred to me that when I did my water change yesterday I did a much more thorough vacuuming of the gravel than usual. LOTS of debris came out. I guess I'll need to keep doing thorough gravel vacuuming every time I water change if that could be the cause.

 

[Solarris]

I did a 50 percent water change about an hour ago and just now decided to check my nitrates out of curiosity. The nitrates are testing at the same level as before. Is it too soon for the nitrate level to have gone down? Does it take multiple water changes before you see any difference?

 

[Luananeko]

Water changes should have an immediate effect, but if the nitrates are high enough then you'll still be off the charts until you do multiple changes. Is it possible your nitrate test kit has gone bad? They do have a limited shelf life... I would bring a sample to your LFS to double check the levels.

 

[Brookster123]

Im starting to suspect an error in testing, not user so much as perhaps the test kit has expired?? The 50% wc will cut nitrates unless your tap/source has high nitrates to begin with.

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[Solarris]

I didn't realize these test kits would expire. I have had this kit for several years now. In fact I think it's the same age as the tank, 6 years. I can't find an expiration date on the box. Guess I'll be looking for a new test kit tomorrow to make sure. Thanks.

 

[dragon14]

I didn't realize these test kits would expire. I have had this kit for several years now. In fact I think it's the same age as the tank, 6 years. I can't find an expiration date on the box. Guess I'll be looking for a new test kit tomorrow to make sure. Thanks.

Hopefully that's all it is! Keep us posted

Is there a date on any of the nitrate test dropper bottles?

 

[Solarris]

No, no dates on the bottles either. Thanks to everyone for all the advice. I will definitely keep y'all posted.

 

[sinibotia]

No, no dates on the bottles either. Thanks to everyone for all the advice. I will definitely keep y'all posted.

I just bought a brand new API freshwater master test kit and a reef master test kit last month, and the expiration dates are between 2015 and 2019. My nitrate test in particular expires in 2019- 5 years after purchase; so yours is almost definitely expired.