nitrates will not make water cloudy, in adequate filtration will, not do to the nitrates but do to inability of you filtration system to process the ammonia in the water. will also be enable to remove particulates. I more filtration will help a deal with that, but you are still looking at cycling the new filter up. water changes will need to be done every other day, 80% and dosed with prime for size of tank not water replacing, this will need to go on until water tests with a API Master Fresh Water Test Kit comes back with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and showing nitrate. at 20 ppm nitrate or before is water change time, work your stock and feeding including what you feed this can be a once a week thing, or if over stocked more often.
Help high nitrates.
- Thread starter castro1212
- Start date
If tank is cycling , I stay away from large water changes.. Small 10 - 25% twice weekly. My approach is to monitor and control ammonia ..
. Buy seachem ammonia alert, when amm rises. I dose tank with prime , detoxes amm and seachem stability
Allows tank to complete cycle based upon bio load.
I've cycled quite a few tanks this way. With no losses .. Sometimes we keep our tanks too clean .. My two cents
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
. Buy seachem ammonia alert, when amm rises. I dose tank with prime , detoxes amm and seachem stability
Allows tank to complete cycle based upon bio load.
I've cycled quite a few tanks this way. With no losses .. Sometimes we keep our tanks too clean .. My two cents
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
true you can dose up to 5 times the recommended dose safely with prime/safe, long as ammonia is monitored to what prime dose in, prime lasts 48 hours and is good up to 5 times the dose to bind up to 4ppm. I would rather do the every other day and do the the other every day when cycling fish in, water stays cleaner and tank will cycle just fine, 6 to 8 weeks either way, IMHO. the bacteria only grows so fast.
Do a 25% WC and try adding some bottled beneficial bacteria like API Quickstart or Stresszyme, there are other brands also. Seems like your tank hasn't cycled yet or something caused a high loss of BB. I wouldnt think just having high nitrates is causing your water cloudiness. It's probably some other type of bacterial bloom. The BBB will help your tank complete it's cycling while the bacteria count grows. I would also feed very minimally until tank us fully cycled.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
i had the water tested at my lfs and they told me it was high. i dont see how my tank could be cycling its been set up for two years and i havent done nothing out the usual. my water started clouding as my danios disappeared. i thought it could have been from part of them left uneaten. i found no remains or anything and just took all the gravel out. now my tank is going back to normal
and yes i do get my fish from 50 fathoms
and yes i do get my fish from 50 fathoms
You took out all the gravel?
Hopefully your filters have a good bacteria colony in there or you will have ammonia and nitrite spikes which are far more dangerous than your nitrates
And if I can't have everything, well then just give me a taste
Hopefully your filters have a good bacteria colony in there or you will have ammonia and nitrite spikes which are far more dangerous than your nitrates
And if I can't have everything, well then just give me a taste
I highly doubt you will have an ammonia/nitrite spike. Just feed lightly for a few days to let the filters build up their beneficial bacteria. Once you have an established colony of bacteria it does not take very long for it too grow as needed. This would be especially true if you just did a few large water changes to remove large amounts of waste products. Just feed lightly for a few days and don't clean your filter for about a week.
In the future, try to find out what the actual nitrate levels are, because high could mean 20 or 80. 20 is higher than a lot of people like it (and too high for some specialty fish), but for tank raised fish it is not a big problem. I just wouldn't let it get much higher than 20. If it is 40+ then yes you need to do some water changes and tank/filter cleaning to remove waste products.
Now someone mentioned that you needed to learn more about the nitrogen cycle, but they didn't explain it and I didn't see that anyone else did - so I will give a simplified explanation.
Fish create waste in the form of ammonia, and any uneaten food or dead fish will increase ammonia production. Ammonia is highly toxic to fish, but in a cycled tank there are beneficial bacteria that convert the ammonia to nitrite, which is also highly toxic. Again, there is another type of bacteria that converts the nitrite to nitrate, which is not toxic unless it gets to high levels, as described above.
The only way to remove this nitrate is to have aquatic plants, a nitrate filter (very expensive and can be difficult to set up), or water changes. Water changes are usually the easiest and cheapest fix, and are necessary no matter what other step you take to remove nitrates. Even in a heavily planted tank that takes care of nitrates you must change some of the water because other nutrients required by the plants are removed over time. There is also debate about hormones that are released by fish that can build up over time as well. So water changes are always necessary, it is just a matter of how often. The last option to removing nitrates is submerging the ROOTS of some terrestrial plants, with pothos being the most popular. Something to remember about plants though is you have to remove the dead/dying leaves. If you have a dead/dying leaf submerged in the water it will release all of the nitrate it has absorbed which can quickly lead to disaster.
In the future, try to find out what the actual nitrate levels are, because high could mean 20 or 80. 20 is higher than a lot of people like it (and too high for some specialty fish), but for tank raised fish it is not a big problem. I just wouldn't let it get much higher than 20. If it is 40+ then yes you need to do some water changes and tank/filter cleaning to remove waste products.
Now someone mentioned that you needed to learn more about the nitrogen cycle, but they didn't explain it and I didn't see that anyone else did - so I will give a simplified explanation.
Fish create waste in the form of ammonia, and any uneaten food or dead fish will increase ammonia production. Ammonia is highly toxic to fish, but in a cycled tank there are beneficial bacteria that convert the ammonia to nitrite, which is also highly toxic. Again, there is another type of bacteria that converts the nitrite to nitrate, which is not toxic unless it gets to high levels, as described above.
The only way to remove this nitrate is to have aquatic plants, a nitrate filter (very expensive and can be difficult to set up), or water changes. Water changes are usually the easiest and cheapest fix, and are necessary no matter what other step you take to remove nitrates. Even in a heavily planted tank that takes care of nitrates you must change some of the water because other nutrients required by the plants are removed over time. There is also debate about hormones that are released by fish that can build up over time as well. So water changes are always necessary, it is just a matter of how often. The last option to removing nitrates is submerging the ROOTS of some terrestrial plants, with pothos being the most popular. Something to remember about plants though is you have to remove the dead/dying leaves. If you have a dead/dying leaf submerged in the water it will release all of the nitrate it has absorbed which can quickly lead to disaster.
I just upgraded to a 75 and went back to sand do I'll see how this goes now.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
