Nitrate levels too high!!??? Help please

[J-T-T]

Hi everyone!!

I am hoping you guys can give me some advice on how to drop my nitrate levels in my tank & some possible causes of out of control levels

Here are the details:
55g tank
Been doing every other day 10% pwc changes due to the nitrate levels and every seven days a 30% pwc. ( not trying to shock my fish with dramatic level changes)
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0
PH is 7.4
Nitrate sky high. At best I have been able to get it to 40 with the above routine
Fish family includes
10 tetras
About 15 barbs. ( the last time mom dropped her eggs they hid pretty well as I started with 4)
A Borneo sucker.

 

[kimmcannally]

How often and how much do you feed them? I tend to overfeed my leopard ctenopoma tank, which causes my high nitrates. Just did a wc today. My level was 80, so I did a 50% change which dropped it to 40. Will do another tomorrow to get it to 20. You need much larger changes to get your level down.

 

[J-T-T]

Thanx!! I will do bigger PWC's. I read somewhere online that big changes cause too big of a swing that could cause issues but I will do a 50% this weekend. Thanx again!! Oh on the feeding. My son has been doing that so I will pay more attention as to how much he is putting in for everyone!

 

[kimmcannally]

Check your tap water with an API master test kit. When I do a 50% change on my 10 gallon, I drip it in with an airline to cause a very gradual change - it takes hours. I do it because my tap water is 8.2 and tank is 7.6 to 7.8.
I also keep a tub of water that has an airstone in it - that helps lower the pH after day or so. Make sure you match the temp as well.

On my 55 gallon tanks I just run the water in very slowly with my aqueon water changer.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

On my 55G and 75G, I've been doing 75%-80% PWC's with no ill-effect on the fish. I just did one this last weekend. And the tank looks great, and the fish are happy.

 

[Iodizedfate]

I usually do a 50% water change on my tank. As long as you temperature match and the PH isn't too far off you should be good to go.

 

[J-T-T]

Thanx to all!!! I will start to do bigger PWC. you have all eased my concerns about hurting my fish. Good to know I can make a bigger difference for them in a good way faster!!!