Nitrate above 120

[HandSomeDevil13]

I did a 30% water change today and checked my water with the liquid kit and noticed that my nitrate was above 120! My ammonia and nitrite are at 0 and my tank isn't over stocked. It's a 10 gallon planted tank. The plants seem to all be doing fine. The only thing I have done recently is add fluval stratum but I doubt that would cause such a high nitrate spike.

Should I remove more water or wait until tomorrow?

 

[DreaminginBlue]

It'd be advisable to do another larger water change now, if possible. If it's late or you don't have much time, do a small one quickly and do another tomorrow morning. Those nitrate levels need to come down; keep changing the water until they do.
Then you need to figure out what caused the spike. Can you list the parameters of the tank? Inhabitants, is it cycled or still cycling, filter, etc.
I hope this gets resolved soon; don't worry too much.

 

[HandSomeDevil13]

I will do another 30% water change now and see where my levels are after. I have had one neon tetra die on me already.

Ammonia and nitrite are at 0. The tank is cycled and my stock is 8 neons and 2 ember tetras. With a few cherry shrimp. I haven't had this issue for more than a year now. My nitrates would typically be around 10.

 

[DreaminginBlue]

If you aren't overstocked and you've been keeping up on maintenance, the only things I can think of are either your tap water has high nitrates or there's some source of the spike that you haven't discovered yet, possibly hidden under plants or substrate (i.e. leftover food.)
To rule those possibilities out, test your tap water and use a gravel vacuum to do a good deep clean of the substrate.
So sorry about the loss of your tetra.
I hope this helps.

 

[HandSomeDevil13]

I checked my tap and its around 5pm so that isn't it sadly. I did a 50% water changed and graveled vac most of my substrate. Hopefully this will lower it to at least half.

Thank you for all the help [emoji4]. I don't want anymore casualties because of nitrates.

 

[DreaminginBlue]

How are things going with your tank? Have the levels stabilized?

 

[HandSomeDevil13]

Sadly no. I checked my water today and ammonia and nitrites are no longer at zero. Both are low and nitrates are at 160.

I did a 25% water change and added prime to neutralize all three. I haven't had any deaths yet so that's the only good news so far. I'm not sure what's going on with the tank. It might have started a mini cycle possibly due to the substrate. Still very odd though.

 

[mimiheart]

Wait a bit after doing the change to check the levels. Right after you do the water change everything is going to be out of balance. If all of the plants and livestock are behaving normally, wait overnight and test the levels after everything has settled. It's best to do a water test before the water change.

 

[HandSomeDevil13]

I will be checking my water tomorrow. I added java moss to try and help with the ammonia and nitrates