Help me!!! | Ammonia looks ok | Nitrate and Nitrite Uncontrollable

[esoxlucius]

Your test results are not in the "medium range", they are terrible. A healthy system should have bright yellow ammonia (0ppm), sky blue nitrite (0ppm) and should always have a positive nitrate reading, typically very light to mid orange (10-20ppm). Can you see why I use the word "terrible" in reference to your colours.

In that size of tank, with that stock, you'd be hard pushed to find any filter that could help your cause. A huge sump with adequate bio media relative to your stocking levels would help but the easiest way, as mentioned by everyone, is to substantially increase your water changes and thin out your stock.

If you insist on keeping all those fish and just rely on water changes alone then you are probably looking at anywhere from 50-70% water changes on a daily basis, your test kit will confirm either way. All this is made worse by the fact that oscars and tinfoils are amongst the fastest growing fish in the hobby, so your situition is becoming incrementally worse as time passes....that is if your fish survive or don't suffer from severe stunting due to toxic poisoning.

I'll be brutally honest. Your current plight is not what i'd expect from someone who "understands" the hobby.

 

[tlindsey]

Oscars are susceptible to HITH hole in the head disease so nitrate level over 20 ppm would be a concern. Your aquarium is equivalent to 108 US galllons so personally would only have 1 Oscar. The added bio filtration would be helpful but proper water changes are more effective. Tbh you will need to to do everyday water changes as the stock you have grow. More growth and feedings equal more ammonia produced and like others stated your aquarium is over stocked.

Poultry is not good to feed to fish it's hard for fish to digest and will cause health problems .

 

[neutrino]

Poultry is not good to feed to fish it's hard for fish to digest and will cause health problems .

It's also not helping your nitrogen waste issues.

 

[brianp]

Hi.. I have a 400 liter tank with 5 oscars, 1 Common pleco, 1 red tail shark, 3 tin foils and 1 bonsai Thai silk. They all are half of their full size right now.. my tank is bare bottom and I have a internal filter (planning for a sump in coming days) + 1 max size sponge filter. In the tank, have placed golden pothos (7 to 10 stems) and (2000 gram ) ceramics rings within the tank + 3 air pump supporting the aeration. I do 200 liters of water change every 20 days (I use seachem prime and seachem stability while water changes). I think, I do over feed my fishes most of the times. (I now feed them twice a day morning and evening).. I feed 1.5 to 2 tablespoon in one time of following by changing the order every day (Toya Freezed dried Shrimps, Tayo Blood worms, Optimum 3 in 1 pallets + Optimum quick red) and every 2 weeks - chicken breast raw after boiling and cut to small pieces.. I love my fishes a lot.. pls tell me how can I control ammonia/ nitrate and nitrite to 0 levels all the time and where am I going wrong?

here are some pictures of the test!

View attachment 1452986
View attachment 1452987
View attachment 1452988
View attachment 1452989
View attachment 1452990

View attachment 1452991

The high nitrate reading indicates that your biological filtration is working (or perhaps struggling) and that your water changes are grossly insufficient. Your nitrogen input (protein/food) is probably also excessive. When the nitrate piles up, it will suppress conversion of further nitrite to nitrate and eventually, ammonia to nitrite. My guess is that the phosphate level is also quite high. I agree with the others that you should thin the population, throttle back on the food and increase water change frequency. IMO, Seachen Stability is a good product and I would encourage its use. However, the Seachem flora will settle to the bottom of the bottle and can be difficult to resuspend. Pour off one third of the clear buffer and shake briskly to resuspend the bacteria before dispensing. The liquid should be cloudy, not clear.

 

[Oughtsix]

Thankyou all for guiding me here and a warm welcome! I am late on this community but not late in the hobby.. am trying and putting every effort to enjoy this hobby. I understand the nitrogen cycle and beneficial bacteria concept and washing filters media with aquarium water only.. As I mentioned above, the fishes have not reached their actual size and by the time they reach 12 inch, I will be rehoming few of them to a new glass box.

How many fully grown oscars on 400 later tank? any calculations here!

What if I get a sump of 120 litres and increase bio filtration (ceramic rings) with good mechanical filtration? will that help me in any way without reducing fishes for now? because the test results I shared above are in the medium range, not worst... right?

by adding more pothos and lucky bamboo to the tank, will it help in lowering down the nitrate/ nitrite levels?

First, welcome aboard!

I think you got a bit overly excited and went all in way too fast. You are not the first person to do this, or even the first person on this board to do this. I respect that you asked for help!

I believe everyone here would agree that you need to REALLY up your water change regime! I would recommend 50% water changes every day until you get your tank parameters under control. 400l ~ 100g, so 200l or ~50g a day is a lot of water to change daily. HOW do you change your water? Are you doing the bucket brigade? In my house reliable water changes have to be easy water changes! If you are not setup to siphon the old water directly down the drain and replace it easily I would highly recommend automating this routing with a long hose. We would be more than happy to give you some suggestions on making your water change easier if that is an impediment to changing your tank water more often?

I apologize for restating this but you are way over stocked. You need to develop a plan for reducing your stocking level. Adding a sump will dilute the water a bit but it will not be enough to support the stocking level you have.

Pothos and lucky bamboo do help reduce nitrates but adding more is like putting a band-aid on a broken arm. Adding more plants will help a tiny bit but it won't be enough to make a dent in your parameters. The only thing that is going to reduce the nitrogen levels in your tank quickly is water changes.

More bio filtration should bring your ammonia and nitrites down to zero but it will convert these to more nitrates. Your nitrates are already at emergency levels! You need to flush them from the tank with water changes. All the bio filtration in the world is not going to control your nitrate levels, water changes will!

Back when I kept cichlids they produced a LOT of poop! Removing the poop with a net or a python BEFORE it breaks down will remove a big portion of the nitrogen compounds before they have a chance to build up.

Let us know how it is going! Pretty much everyone on this board is here to help make the experience of fish keeping a happy one!

 

[contactharpreets]

Thankyou all for your concerns and suggestions here

Oughtsix - About how I do water changes? - I have a 200 litre blue water drum, I fill that drum completely and put water conditioner as per the dosage to kill chlorine/ Chloramines and heavy metals (Seachem prime).. I do add 3 to 4 mugs of aquarium old water to have the same water chemistry and then put my internal filter to circulate and aerate the water for 30 mins..

In the meantime - I flush out 200 litres of water from the tank by using a water pump and pipe attached to it which directly goes to the drain.

As soon as the aquarium is half empty, I use the same water pump for filling water to aquarium from 200 litre blue drum (where the freshwater was stored). Once the aquarium is fully filled.. I do add seachem stability for 200 litre new added water as per the dosage (~ 2.5 caps) and some rock salt to the tank every time I do the water changes. This process takes me around 45 to 60 mins. let me know if am following the right approach here!


on the stocking (update is) - have moved 1 Oscar and 2 tinfoils out of the tank..

current stock is - 4 oscars (6 to 7 inch)
1 Tinfoil - fully grown
1 bonsai Thai silk - (3 to 4 inch)
1 common pleco - (4 to 5 inch)
1 Rainbow shark - (5 to 6 inch)


now my question is - if I do water changes daily will not the beneficial bacteria die or will reduce? Is there any impact on the nitrogen cycle due to this?

2. Once the water parameters are met by daily water changes - will all 3 things come under control for future? I heard that nitrates/ nitrites are less toxic in comparison to ammonia .. is there no product to kill nitrates

3. I have bought a product called (microlife - S2 by aquatic remedies) - it says helps in removal of ammonia/ nitrite and nitrate which contains Nitrosomonos and Nitrobacter..

pls shed some light here - point by point

I did my first water change today and below are the results!

is that even possible that ammonia level is 0 at all times? Is it possible when am doing the test, ammonia reading is more than 0 but as the day progresses it’s converted to Nitirite and ammonia is 0


Nitrite - am confused between 0 to 0.25 ppm


Nitrates - I read somewhere till 20 ppm it’s ok to have it.. not sure what’s the current reading after looking at the color.. it looks like in a range of 40 to 80 ppm

 

[Gourami Swami]

Welcome to MFK! Doing daily water changes will not harm your beneficial bacteria or cycle as long as the water is properly dechlorinated before going into the tank.
I think the others have already covered what the issue is- too many fish, not enough water changes. At full size, a 108 gallon tank is large enough in my opinion for a single oscar and maybe a couple smaller tankmates. Your nitrate reading looks like 80+ to me. Usually up to 20ppm is acceptable, but for oscars I recommend to keep it lower because they tend to develop Hole-in-the-head disease when the nitrate is higher.

 

[Rocksor]

Thankyou all for your concerns and suggestions here

Oughtsix - About how I do water changes? - I have a 200 litre blue water drum, I fill that drum completely and put water conditioner as per the dosage to kill chlorine/ Chloramines and heavy metals (Seachem prime).. I do add 3 to 4 mugs of aquarium old water to have the same water chemistry and then put my internal filter to circulate and aerate the water for 30 mins..

If you do enough water changes weekly, you will have very close to the same water chemistry in the tank and from the tap, (except for nitrates). There's no need to pollute your water bin with old tank water.

NItrates are best removed through water changes.

 

[esoxlucius]

now my question is - if I do water changes daily will not the beneficial bacteria die or will reduce? Is there any impact on the nitrogen cycle due to this?

As already mentioned, your beneficial bacteria/nitrogen cycle will remain unharmed, as long as you use the correct dosage of dechlorinator.

Once the water parameters are met by daily water changes - will all 3 things come under control for future? I heard that nitrates/ nitrites are less toxic in comparison to ammonia .. is there no product to kill nitrates

Yes, once you get your stocking levels under control, and you have a suitable water change schedule in place, then your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels will improve dramatically. Ammonia and nitrite are equally toxic and to have positive readings of either is a very bad sign. Nitrate is less toxic than the former two, but overtime elevated long term exposure of nitrate can also lead to problems. You really don't want your nitrate above 20ppm, which is orange on the chart.

I have bought a product called (microlife - S2 by aquatic remedies) - it says helps in removal of ammonia/ nitrite and nitrate which contains Nitrosomonos and Nitrobacter..

Many of these off the shelf products are gimmicks. No product whatsoever will ever replace the benefits of a sensibly stocked adequately sized aquarium with a suitable maintainance schedule in place. Parameters basically look after themselves if you've got all this dialled in.

You've made the right decision in thinning out your fish levels but you're still overstocked, and your parameters will continue to give you grief if you don't thin out more.

 

[Oughtsix]

Thankyou all for your concerns and suggestions here

Oughtsix - About how I do water changes? - I have a 200 litre blue water drum, I fill that drum completely and put water conditioner as per the dosage to kill chlorine/ Chloramines and heavy metals (Seachem prime).. I do add 3 to 4 mugs of aquarium old water to have the same water chemistry and then put my internal filter to circulate and aerate the water for 30 mins..

In the meantime - I flush out 200 litres of water from the tank by using a water pump and pipe attached to it which directly goes to the drain.

As soon as the aquarium is half empty, I use the same water pump for filling water to aquarium from 200 litre blue drum (where the freshwater was stored). Once the aquarium is fully filled.. I do add seachem stability for 200 litre new added water as per the dosage (~ 2.5 caps) and some rock salt to the tank every time I do the water changes. This process takes me around 45 to 60 mins. let me know if am following the right approach here!

This sounds like a very well though out and logical water change method. Is this a routine you can keep up for twice a week pretty much indefinitely?

now my question is - if I do water changes daily will not the beneficial bacteria die or will reduce? Is there any impact on the nitrogen cycle due to this?

Water changes will not hurt your beneficial bacteria if you use dechlorinated water. I am on a well and have not dechlorinated water for the past 20 years so others will be better educated on chlorine and beneficial bacteria.

My 180g tank automatically changes about 50g of water every morning. The auto change pump was inadvertently unplugged for a few days. There was no ammonia and no nitrites. The Nitrate reading was higher than normal.

2. Once the water parameters are met by daily water changes - will all 3 things come under control for future? I heard that nitrates/ nitrites are less toxic in comparison to ammonia .. is there no product to kill nitrates

There are several approaches ridding your tank of nitrates. THE NUMBER ONE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO CONTROL NITRATES IS WATER CHANGES! Other approaches for nitrate reduction may water change frequencies at best (like from every day to every other day).

3. I have bought a product called (microlife - S2 by aquatic remedies) - it says helps in removal of ammonia/ nitrite and nitrate which contains Nitrosomonos and Nitrobacter..

I have never heard of it and don't know anything about it. My gut feeling is very skeptical! If there was some nitrate reducing magic bullet everyone would be using it. (In fact there is a magic bullet that everyone usues - water changes). ?

pls shed some light here - point by point

I did my first water change today and below are the results!

is that even possible that ammonia level is 0 at all times? Is it possible when am doing the test, ammonia reading is more than 0 but as the day progresses it’s converted to Nitirite and ammonia is 0

.25ppm ammonia immediately after a water change? That seems very high. I might consider 2 50% water changes a day until the Ammonia and nitrites disappear.

All of my established tanks in the past 20 years have run at 0 ammonia... prior to that goodness knows what kind of a mess of tank water I had!

Nitrite - am confused between 0 to 0.25 ppm

I would call that trace levels of nitrites. It should be zero.

View attachment 1453092
Nitrates - I read somewhere till 20 ppm it’s ok to have it.. not sure what’s the current reading after looking at the color.. it looks like in a range of 40 to 80 ppm

I would call that 40-80ppm also. That is WAY too high for after a water change!

The first thing I would do is use the test kit to test the nitrate levels in your tap water. You need to know your enemy before you can fight your enemy.

I would then up your water change frequency to two times a day for the next couple of days until all the levels come down to a reasonable level.

Is the a big build up of poop and other organic matter in your tank or in your filter? The bacteria could be converting all that waste into Nitrates faster than you can flush the nitrates down the drain.