ok so I have a 600 gallon mix cichled tank with abot 135 2-5 inch fish. I set up a sulfur denitrator and I love it i am currently passing 175ml/min through it or about 60gpd and that only keeps the nitrates at 35-40ppm and I need to leave my continuous water drip system on at 2gph or 48gpd. Just with the sulfur denitrator I am doing a 50% water change every 5 days and I am barely keeping up with the nitrates production just seems very high to me. I know I do feed 3 times a day NLS algae max and the cichled pellets. My sand is clean with no visible excees poop only a strand or two I have about 20 geo's that keep the sand very clean, I change put my filter socks once a day what else am I missing or is it i just have a very large bio load? The fish look great and are breeding like crazy i just order another sulfur denitrator so I will be changing over 150gpd so that is a 100% water change every 4 days with out adding water. FYI my well water has about 5ppm nitrates in it that why I decided to go with the denitrator because I would like to keep my tank under 5ppm closer to 2-3 ppm. Is a 50% water change normal to have to change this much water. I also dose trace mineral and use cichled salt.
Holy cow cichlid are a messy fish
- Thread starter Tj203
- Start date
I have an understocked African cichlid tank and still experience some nitrate issue, not near as high as your figures but still on a every 4-5 day 75% WC schedule.
What other fish do you have in this tank? Also what size are the fish?
While there is no specific formula or rule for true bio load calculation, I'd be curious if you are maxed out for stocking.
What other fish do you have in this tank? Also what size are the fish?
While there is no specific formula or rule for true bio load calculation, I'd be curious if you are maxed out for stocking.
Well I am only at 50% every 5 days. I am waiting for the second reactor to come in the mail. I know I am on the high side for bio load but i was more just looking for reassurances that this is normal and I was not missing something obvious. There is about 130 fish in there. It was weird how the nitrates Creeped up they were good up in till about 6 weeks ago when they went from always being 10_15 ppm with me dripping about 30 gallons a day of 5ppm nitrate well water in then over maybe a week they went from 15ppm to 50ppmand have been there ever since. I now have the sulfur denitrator up and running i was just expecting them to go down. I have included some pictures of the tank so you can see my bio load
I agree, feeding 3 times per day is excessive, and probably the cause of the high nitrate (I try to keep my tanks closer to 5ppm).
I normally feed once per day, but make every 3rd day a fast day, and believe the fish are better off health wise.
I feed my big Oscar onec a day but when they are small i like to feed 2-3 times a day and i skip one day a week. As far as over feeding all the food is gone in maybe 15 seconds. I have no problem doing the correct maintenance i just thought it was weird that it stays at 40ppm after a water change it shoots right back up but dose not go higher when I leave it. Thanks for all the input as long as this is normal
Have you checked for dead fish? That’s a lot of stocking to keep track of...I can’t keep track of a pack of less than 20 cardinal tetras lol
But if you’ve seen a sudden spike I would get something is causing it. Check for dead fish and also if you moved decor around maybe you created an area for food to collect in? Maybe check that out as well.
But if you’ve seen a sudden spike I would get something is causing it. Check for dead fish and also if you moved decor around maybe you created an area for food to collect in? Maybe check that out as well.
You are 100% right i can't keep track off all of them but I watch my tank anywhere from 4 to 10 hours a day so I know it was not a bigger fish I know them but a smaller one maybe. I know i lost 2 Snails in the beginning I didn't even affect my nitrate as far as I can tell is was under 10 ppm. I am going to try and poke around some of the rocks but I have a cross flow pump that works very well, when I turn it on it gets the water moving so I would hope that would get a dead fish out of his spot. It has been high for about 5 weeks now
That’s a tough one for sure!
I wish I had more suggestions for you.
And your most likely correct in think the cross flow would push out food or dead fish...that’s just a poopy situation. If it was a dead fish surly the NAs would be lowered after a weeks water change...
