Aimara Nitrate production

[nzafi]

I have had my aimara (7-8in) for about a month now and doing my water change last night I noticed that the nitrates looked to be about 40ppm which is higher than I want (prior water change on was Saturday). Considering his size and being in a 180g by himself I am a bit surprised that the nitrates have gotten that high.

Right now I feed him every other day, and watch his tank to make sure I remove whatever he does not eat. I will probably slow down feeding to about once every 3 days. My water change schedule is weekly 40-45% changes which is why I am surprised the nitrates climbed.

I will start doing frequent water changes to get the nitrates down to better levels over the next several days but I was curious if such heavy nitrate production is typical of aimara. This is much higher than my 10in rhom that I previously owned. I will see how things go but my guess is I might need to bump to multiple water changes per week.

 

[MichaelE]

I'm a big proponent of 70%+ WCs a week so I would bump it up. Also, you may want to check under roots and stuff so that you don't have a bunch of accumulated junk under them.

 

[nzafi]

Had a power outage and ended up opening my filters. Found a ton of gunk plus using filters socks as media bag which is just a bad idea. Need to do a deep clean of the filters. Filters I think gunk up quicker with this guy

 

[HarleyK]

What is your nitrate level straight from the tap?
What and how much do you feed every other day?

 

[nzafi]

From the tap it's 0. Feeding every other day one piece of shrimp. It's from a build up of gunk over the past month probably. Doing deep clean on all the filters tonight and will see.

 

[sunnysjourney]

From the tap it's 0. Feeding every other day one piece of shrimp. It's from a build up of gunk over the past month probably. Doing deep clean on all the filters tonight and will see.

That's a good idea. But also make sure that you leave some of the old media untouched, you don't want to remove all the bb from the system.

 

[nzafi]

Never do a deep clean of the media. Will just do a light rinse in tank water and replace the medi bags that are covered in gunk

 

[888fish]

Do a deep clean of your filtering system for gunk, a gentle rinse of your media in aquarium water. Probably a lot buildup of uneaten particles of food you feed that isn't cleaned up by other fish since it lives in solitude.

 

[HarleyK]

I've always heard the reco to only use aquarium water.
For well over three decades, I've been rinsing filter media with tap water, and I have yet to experience a adverse event... Just sayin'. Those filter bugs, once established, are tougher than one might think.

 

[nzafi]

I've always heard the reco to only use aquarium water.
For well over three decades, I've been rinsing filter media with tap water, and I have yet to experience a adverse event... Just sayin'. Those filter bugs, once established, are tougher than one might think.

Yup. There were many years where I did not use tank water either. In all honesty, when I siphon my water I dump 2-3g in a 5g bucket and then just through my media bags into that and clean, along with my foam blocks. It is easier for me than standing in front of a tap and getting water sprayed everywhere

The next house I am hoping to have a better setup of having a nearby room that I can use for fish maintenance versus right now just having a bathroom which is great but has its drawbacks.