Am I crazy??

[Jade.Crusader]

A fellow local fish enthusiast is having issues with his 120 (sky high nitrates, etc), and posted his progress to our local Facebook group. He did a 50% water change and added more plants to his filter, and I suggested this:

"If it were me I would take everything out (except the fish) and really vacuum the heck out of the gravel and do a 50-75% water change, then set everything back up again (don't forget a good water conditioner. Hermiston water is nasty!) and then do a 30-50% water change every other day until it remedies itself. Do the filters need replaced? That could be a source of nitrates too. Make sure to take time between each replacement. If you have four filters, only replace one a month or so, or you could risk your tank losing too much good bacteria too quickly. Good luck!! "

And the response from someone was was, "Sorry, but pulling everything except the fish and stirring up the substrate would kill the fish, not help!"

Then the OP also responded with, "That was my thoughts too :/ "

Am I wrong to think that the gravel needs well-vacuumed occasionally?? I do that with my 20, twice a month. Takes me all of 15 minutes and my parameters are perfect and the tank is sparkling...

 

[Jade.Crusader]

Now he has said, "It would be the same as locking animals up in a room full of smoke and waiting to see how long they could keep breathing."

It's that true?? I am worried I am hurting my fish now ...

 

[tanker]

Well, it is always nice to do a gravel vac. Nitrates, unless it is from the incoming water, come from the conversion of the Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate, Plants do absorb Nitrates, so they do help.
So you are on the right track,

As for being crazy, --I cannot comment on that.

 

[SnakeIce]

Your practices would reduce organics in your tank, which does help keep things looking cleaner. But for his situation if he is growing plants in his tank some organics are beneficial to the plants and the plants roots bring oxygen into the substrate preventing the annoxic conditions that would produce the fish killing risks that brings.

He is right that if an annoxic pocket were disturbed it could release stuff that could kill his fish, but his reasoning for why not to disturb the substrate is faulty. By leaving that junk in the tank it has a chance to leach stuff into the water, so his reasoning that only stirring it is potentially harmful is wrong. Not regularly stirring a deep substrate is potentially harmful to your fish, unless you have plants because the roots carry oxygen down into the substrate and thus prevent the annoxic conditions and the lethal byproducts.

Don't worry about continuing your current practices, and your suggestion was not off base. There is a real cause for concern, but he is off base on why he is worrying.

 

[Slappy*McFish]

It also depends on how much detritus is in the substrate, DOC, TDS of the water, etc. Slow changes are definitely better than big drastic changes.

 

[sumthin fishy]

When I got my 55 used the nitrates were off the charts. I planned on rehoming the hodge podge of cichlids, but wanted to get them into better conditions first. I took home as much of the water as I could carry, and started slowly cutting it down through increasing sized water changes daily. I huge change of 75% at that point could shock the fish. You are on the right track, but it should be done at a slower pace. perhaps doing smaller vacs in a systematic grid each day. Unless you are letting your tank get that bad I doubt you are hurting your own fish. The only other issue I see is the filter replacement. There really is no need to replace the media, just clean all the solids off in the old tank water.

 

[smitty]

I think you are in line with what needs to be done.

 

[Greggz]

The first thing he has to figure out is why the sky high Nitrates? Over stocked? Over feeding? Rotting plants? Dirty filters? No water changes?

To get things back in balance, I think you were on the right track. There is a difference between vacuuming the gravel and "stirring up the substrate". And cleaning filters in shifts is a good method.

And I've always been in favor of large regular water changes. I've done them for years, and my fish love it.

Once he gets the numbers back in line, he needs to figure out the root cause. In a good healthy tank, Nitrates should never get really high.

 

[FreshyFresh]

I'd do a lot more than 50-75% water changes. The problem is likely nothing more than not doing large enough or often enough water changes. For sure he needs to find the route cause, but water changes is what fixes it short-term.

 

[Narwhal72]

There is one issue that needs to be considered.

If his water quality is poor because he hasn't done water changes for a very long time and then suddenly does a massive water change he can seriously stress the fish out due to the sudden change in water chemistry.

Fish adapt to poor water quality because the change is gradual. Sudden changes (even if for the better) can be lethal.

If you do do regular large volume water changes that's great. The water never really changes that far between water changes. So there really are no abrupt changes in water quality.

I would recommend starting with weekly 25-50% water changes and after 2-3 weeks increasing the volume to 50-75% once the water quality has started improving and gotten closer to what the incoming water is.

Andy