!!Nitrates too high (too many fish?)!!

Definitely increase the volume and frequency of your water changes.

Try doing 50% water changes twice a week and see if that brings nitrates down to a safe level.

I personally freak when nitrates are 20ppm or above, but that is just me.

Definetely increase the water changes. But not 50% twice a week.

I had the same problem and it took 9 or 10 days but finally got them under 20 ppm. Do it to fast and it will kill the fish.

I started out with 25% daily water changes for the 1st 4 days. Then increased to 33% for the next 4 days. Then do the 50% water changes if need be. My NA was off the chart so it may not take you as long.

that doesn't add up. If your nitrates are at 180ppm, and you change 25% of the water, your nitates should be at 135ppm, not 40. I wouldn't buy reverse osmosis water because your tap water has 10ppm nitrates. 10ppm is small, and the trace elements in the tap water are good for the fish. No fish naturally lives in water that is almost pure.

With 11 little fishes and 7 bigger ones, you have only slightly less stocking then my 75. Personally, I'd want to lower the stocking levels some.

As a note... adding plants to deal with the nitrates is a poor solution to that problem. Nitrates aren't the only contaminant that fish add to water over time... they're just the easiest to test for. If your nitrate levels are that high there are all sorts of stuff at high levels in your aquarium... using plants to bring down the nitrate levels will just mask this, not help it.

The high nitrates are a result of a few things: your tap water (which you know about, but apparently are using RO instead), overfeeding, overstocking, not enough water changes, not cleaning the gravel

IMO the first thing you need to address is getting a handle on the nitrates. You need to increase the number of water changes you are doing and the amount of water you are changing out.

The nitrates, with that load of fish, need to be kept at ~20ppm until you do something about the stocking problem. If a 25% change is only getting you down to 40ppm, then do a 50% change. Up the water changes to 50%, every 4 days and get those nitrates down. You also need to clean the gravel thoroughly but do not do this all at once. Wait until a few water changes have the nitrates down to ~20ppm, then start cleaning the gravel deeply. Just do ¼ of the tank. Next water change, do a new ¼ and the one you already did. Keep adding new parts of the tank until you are cleaning all the gravel at every water change. I bet you have some nasty stuff deep in that gravel bed. Don't push the gravel cleaning! If you do, you could release some very noxious gases that could kill your fish outright. Slow and easy does it for the gravel cleaning and water changes.

If you do not get the nitrates down, a couple of neons and algae eater will be the least number of fish you lose.

Every time the nitrates climb over 60ppm, you stand the chance of losing fish.

As for the RO water -- I don't know why you are using it, because it obviously isn't helping any. Your nitrates are still out of control. IMO use it for the next few water changes until you get the nitrates down then gradually switch over to your tap water. I hope you are using something like Kent's RO Right with the RO water?

Now, as for the stocking -- you have a lot of fish in your tank that need to be in schools and are not. You have some fish in your tank that will grow too big for the tank. You have a lot of bottom feeder fish that need to be in groups and those are the first ones who usually go when nitrates are out of control.

Boesemani Rainbowfish - take these two back if you can. If you don't, you are going to lose them. They are very sensitive to water conditions and are probably sporting threads on their mouths. Eventually it will turn into a bad case of columnaris and they will die. They are also schooling fish and need to be in groups of six or more. You don't have room for a school of Boesemani.

Kuhlii loach - need to be in groups of 3 or more.

CAE - keep him if you want, but be warned that they often turn aggressive and attack other fish once they reach adulthood

bala shark - need to be in schools of six or more. I believe they are also too big for this tank. Not 100% sure there. Someone else can confirm.

Clown loach -- need to be in groups of 3 or more. They also grow too big for this tank.

Angelfish - do not do well with Rainbowfish, especially a proper school of rainbowfish

IMO, take back the Rainbowfish, bala, clowns, kuhlii and CAE and you will not have as many problems with nitrates.

If you *have* to have a cool fish on the bottom, take the above back, wait until you get those nitrates under control and maybe get a group of kuhlii loaches. Those don't grow near as big as the other fish and are fun to watch.

JM2C
Roan

I agree with everything Roan said, and would also suggest cleaning out your canister filter. DO NOT USE chlorinated tap water to do this however as it will kill off your beneficial bacteria. If it hasn't been cleaned in a while detritus and mulm trapped in it will act as a nitrate factory. One more suggestion, switch to liquid nitrate test if your using stips. The nitrate test on the 5in1 strip is probably the most inacuarate test in the hobby

I use the AP test kits and when I look at the nitrate card I think I'm color blind. I don't see a difference between many of the darker colors. Off the top of my head I can't quite remember but to me the 80ppm looks lighter than the 40ppm. Its sooo confusing. I always have to ask others to look at that test for me.

hurricanejedi said:

I use the AP test kits and when I look at the nitrate card I think I'm color blind. I don't see a difference between many of the darker colors. Off the top of my head I can't quite remember but to me the 80ppm looks lighter than the 40ppm. Its sooo confusing. I always have to ask others to look at that test for me.

Click to expand...

One thing that you must do is observe the tube while it is being held directly against the white background of the test card. This must be done under very good broad spectrum lighting with the tube held so that it does not cast shadows onto the white card. Do it exactly the same way each time and you will figure out a standard procedure for reading the nitrate results.

The color differences are incredibly subtle at the high range, but the important thing is that if you cannot tell the difference between 40 and 80, it doesn't really matter because your nitrate is too high and you should do a water change.

If I get a reading that is at least 20ppm, I do an immediate water change.