Just to clarify though, none of the fish in there right now are larger than 3". I know they all wouldn't fit in as adults but none are fully grown yet.
Some help with my 30 gallon.
- Thread starter divemaster99
- Start date
Just to iterate, it's not the fish that are making the nitrates...it's the food. The question is which fish do you plan to stop feeding, and those are the ones that need to go.
I did the math, and yes, if you had a 30 gallon with 70 PPM nitrate and were feeding it such that a weekly 50% WC was at equilibrium, then 2 weekly 50% WC would get it to 35 PPM, and you'd need 2 weekly 75% WC to get it to 24 PPM.
So as mentioned earlier:
1) too much food (too many fish)
2) too much uneaten food (left over food is in the tank)
3) food with too much protein (higher than fish require)
4) too little nitrate being removed (WC are not efficient, not frequent enough or not large enough)
One or more of the above is the problem. If you are sure that 2) 3) and 4) are not problems, then yes, remove some of the fish and then feed less. Or add pothos or purigen.
I did the math, and yes, if you had a 30 gallon with 70 PPM nitrate and were feeding it such that a weekly 50% WC was at equilibrium, then 2 weekly 50% WC would get it to 35 PPM, and you'd need 2 weekly 75% WC to get it to 24 PPM.
So as mentioned earlier:
1) too much food (too many fish)
2) too much uneaten food (left over food is in the tank)
3) food with too much protein (higher than fish require)
4) too little nitrate being removed (WC are not efficient, not frequent enough or not large enough)
One or more of the above is the problem. If you are sure that 2) 3) and 4) are not problems, then yes, remove some of the fish and then feed less. Or add pothos or purigen.
Definitely going to look into pothos and I think I'm going to take back my tetras.
so this is my plan:
stock: 1 angelfish, 1 blue gourami, 2 sailfin mollies, 2 bronze cories, 1 asian bb catfish.
wc schedule: weekly 60%
problem with unbeaten food is my gravel is pretty bulky and food can slip in with much ease. I'd replace it with smaller stuff but that would make a huge mess in my tank and stress my fish out, a LOT
You probably do what I do, but with gravel I had to take my siphon and shove it into the gravel about 1 inch deep. Typically pulled a lot of gunk. I found that there was one dead spot where a lot of food collected. Every WC I'd siphon about 1/3 of the bottom to be sure.
I siphon all the gravel every water change, down to the bottom of it, I thought everyone did?
I shall drop my 2 cents in here...if you don't overfeed...and you do BIG WC's(it's going to have to be tested,to determine how big).. you should be ok...... And from corresponding on here with you, I am sure you will do it right
Thanks man! You mean do ok with current stock right? I really don't want to sell any of my awesome fish but I will if I have to.
Actually I meant the revised stock..but if you can get the nitrates down &KEEP them down with current stock..give it a try for a couple of months....if you can control it that long you have figured it out....btw it's ALL about wc's and not overfeeding.... don't let your filter get too dirty either
