Nitrates ugg

[Greenphantom]

Well my nitrates are heightend due to a snail die off I think pulled alot of them out and threw them away but its really hard to tell whos dead and whos alive although there were those obvious ones but anyway my fish are starting to drop off one by one I have lost a snowball and a royal who both had fin rot and I was treating with melafix which caused the snails to. I had thought the 2 plecos had died from complications of fin rot bit evidentaly not because fish that looked genrally healthy and have been healthy died found my clown pleco dead this morning and two cory cats through out the day. My nitrates are reading between 5.0 and 10 ppm aside from doing large pwcs what else can I do to help my fish because I dont wanna loose anymore. I d also like to add Ive never had a nitrate problem till now !!!!

 

[Cynic]

Well my nitrates are heightend due to a snail die off I think pulled alot of them out and threw them away but its really hard to tell whos dead and whos alive although there were those obvious ones but anyway my fish are starting to drop off one by one I have lost a snowball and a royal who both had fin rot and I was treating with melafix which caused the snails to. I had thought the 2 plecos had died from complications of fin rot bit evidentaly not because fish that looked genrally healthy and have been healthy died found my clown pleco dead this morning and two cory cats through out the day. My nitrates are reading between 5.0 and 10 ppm aside from doing large pwcs what else can I do to help my fish because I dont wanna loose anymore. I d also like to add Ive never had a nitrate problem till now !!!!

You could invest a large sum of money in a protein skimmer.
You could waste a small amount of money on nitrate reducing filter media.

Or you could just do 1 or 2 large water change (Like 80%) and save yourself a lot of money and fish.

 

[Greenphantom]

Well have been doing 80% water changes daily since I started this thread also pulled all the dead snails I could find out of there I could of even flushed some live ones I am losing fish like crazy 1-2 fish a day my cories are taking it the worst had about 8 for over a year down to 2 lost my snowball pleco and a royal pleco I dont wanna loose anything else WHAT CAN I DO???

 

[Greenphantom]

Also I have this nasty brown film on just about everything in the tank. Facepalm. Like I said my tank has been up and running for about a year and never had a nitrate problem always read 0. I just tested about 5-6 mins ago and I am getting a reading of under 5.0.

 

[aqua_chem]

The brown film is an algae known as diatoms, which is completely normal in new setups. As far as nitrate goes, as long as it is below 40 ppm or so, I wouldn't worry about it. Nitrate reducing media in a FW tank is largely pointless.

Also, you are violently shaking the nitrate test kits for at least a minute, right?

 

[Greenphantom]

The brown film is an algae known as diatoms, which is completely normal in new setups. As far as nitrate goes, as long as it is below 40 ppm or so, I wouldn't worry about it. Nitrate reducing media in a FW tank is largely pointless.

Also, you are violently shaking the nitrate test kits for at least a minute, right?

Oh yes I shake the heck out of it bang it on the desk etc. If you could look at some of my older posts and you will see what I am going thru this is not a new tank but it sprung a leak a couple weeks ago and now everything is screwed up I am loosing fish like crazy never have had these problems ugggg

 

[blert]

Nitrate of only 5-10ppm? IMO that's not the problem. That is very low nitrate in a freshwater tank actually. What are the ammonia and nitrite levels?

 

[Greenphantom]

Ok so I just did all the tests again and heres what I got ammonia 0 ppm P.H. 7.6 nitrite 0 ppm nitrates I am gonna say 5.0 ppm but like I said my tank has been up and running for a year I fishless cycled it for a little over a month which I did read small amounts of nitrates but once the cycle was complete I never had a nitrate problem always 0 until the leak now reading at its highest the other day of 20 ppm I think I pretty much started the cycle over. I tried to save everything deco filter media etc. I put in the tote with the fish but my wife forced me to change the substrate to sand which I think may have been the nail in the coffin for some really expensive fish I think changing the substrate killed to much bb I dont know I am lost right now and I dont wanna loose anymore fish

 

[Cynic]

Ok so I just did all the tests again and heres what I got ammonia 0 ppm P.H. 7.6 nitrite 0 ppm nitrates I am gonna say 5.0 ppm but like I said my tank has been up and running for a year I fishless cycled it for a little over a month which I did read small amounts of nitrates but once the cycle was complete I never had a nitrate problem always 0 until the leak now reading at its highest the other day of 20 ppm I think I pretty much started the cycle over. I tried to save everything deco filter media etc. I put in the tote with the fish but my wife forced me to change the substrate to sand which I think may have been the nail in the coffin for some really expensive fish I think changing the substrate killed to much bb I dont know I am lost right now and I dont wanna loose anymore fish

What sort of filter do you have?

Also changing the substrate could well have both caused the nitrate spike as bits of rubbish and stuff suddenly became dislodged and if you have a HOB filter then possibly also destroyed your biomedia.

If so then there isn't much you can do, your tank is now recycled (Assuming your readings are correct and not affected by any medicines you've been adding to the tank).

Unfortunately fish often die not because of the current water conditions but as a result of what the water conditions were, i.e. the damage has often already been done

 

[Greenphantom]

What sort of filter do you have?

Also changing the substrate could well have both caused the nitrate spike as bits of rubbish and stuff suddenly became dislodged and if you have a HOB filter then possibly also destroyed your biomedia.

If so then there isn't much you can do, your tank is now recycled (Assuming your readings are correct and not affected by any medicines you've been adding to the tank).

Unfortunately fish often die not because of the current water conditions but as a result of what the water conditions were, i.e. the damage has often already been done

I have a aquaclear 110 and a magnum 350 canister