WTF!!! Evil Nitrates

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cbfreder said:
How are your nitrItes? As I understand it, high nitrIte levels (2-4 ppm) can give false readings for nitrAtes. I checked this out on a cycling aquarium and sure enough the nitrAte test was off the charts where there were only nitrItes.

Brandon
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You would probably be looking at dead fish if the nitrites were 2-4 ppm.

First of all I don't consider 60 ppm of nitrate to be "insanely high" . I know somone who has spawning dovii in a tank mixed with other cichlids and the nitrates stay between 60-100. (not advocating that level of nitrate) but I have seen much worse. Mine stay around 20 ppm with what would be a similar bioload to your fish from my fish, however I feed much more heavily than you do and only do about 30% water change ever five or so days. The only thing I could think of it to look at your filtration. If it is of adequate size to handle the bio load I would check the media. Is there a lot of build up of dentritus or debris that could have turned your filter against you? This is odd to me. You are definately doing enough water changes. You definately do not overfeed and you are not overstocked.......
 
Have all the fish been together for a while?

For how long?

Has the tank ever been right?

For how long?

If so what changed?

Is it possible to remove the substrate for a couple of weeks.

To troubleshoot, you need to make a change. But only one at a time.
 
OK, the only thing that is new is the 4 5-6 inch pbass, they went in when the 2 large plecos and 15 inch TSN came out. The nitrate used to be abouyt 20, the substrate is all tahitian moon black sand. Not easy to take out. I will be putting the puffer in a brackish tank in about 2 weeks and he will get all the sand and I will use river rock in the tank at that time. Anyone think that it may be my sand that is causing the prob?
 
TankBuster said:
OK, the only thing that is new is the 4 5-6 inch pbass, they went in when the 2 large plecos and 15 inch TSN came out. The nitrate used to be abouyt 20, the substrate is all tahitian moon black sand. Not easy to take out. I will be putting the puffer in a brackish tank in about 2 weeks and he will get all the sand and I will use river rock in the tank at that time. Anyone think that it may be my sand that is causing the prob?
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I was thinking something in the sand. If you can get a majority of it out by vacuuming during water changes, you can wash it for the next tank anyway (you don't want to carry a problem over to another tank, even if it is brackish).

If not, keep the big water changes going for 2 weeks, then change out the sand but hold off on the river rock for a couple of weeks so you can check the water spec.s and see if it was the problem.

Also, now you can see how much junk the fish really create. :grinyes:
 
Gee said:
Is your test still good?

You can also add some Pothos to your tank and/or filter, they really help with trate reduction.
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I thought pothos was dangerous to animals if they eat it, don't know about fish tho, keeping it in the sump could be ok and nice to look at.

Also water hyacinth or water lettuce but they need more light.
 
My mom's had one of those growing in a tank for about ten years. It's a really healthy tank and she rarely has to do water changes. Plus, she has this huge beautiful plant that's continually about to take over her bedroom (not kidding).
 
lovespunaround said:
My mom's had one of those growing in a tank for about ten years. It's a really healthy tank and she rarely has to do water changes. Plus, she has this huge beautiful plant that's continually about to take over her bedroom (not kidding).
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Curious, what kind of fish does she have. This might be good to hide my sumps.
 
What kind of filtration unit?

Dirty canisters/wet dry can cause additional nitrates..

BTW, 60ppm is not that high.. like 200ppm is 'off the charts'..

Go to larger bi-weekly water changes of %50-65..

Taking the puffer out will help alot, they have a big bio-load, along with the other tankmates.
 
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