I have a 30 gal. tank I started around 9/19/07. It's one of those tall skinny tanks about 4 feet high. I have about 12 fish in right now. My Amonia is always 0 and my Nitrites are always 0, but my Nitrates are like 80 and my PH is about 8.0. I can't get my Nitrates to go down. I've been doing 5 gallon water changes, and it goes down a little bit but not much and then goes back up higher. I've been putting in the Kordon NovAqua Plus and AmQuel plus products, but it hasn't been lowering the Nitrates. Everytime I put in the Kordon stuff it lowered my PH about 5 points. I did it twice and it lowered it to like 6.7. My alkaline was like at 60. So, I used Alkaline Buffer to raise my alkiline but it also raised my PH to like 8.0. I tried using the Kordon but it will no longer lower my PH. I tried using Neutral Regulator, but it won't lower my PH either. I add aquarium salt to the new water before I put it in the tank when I do a water change, and I add Cycle every week for maintenance. I change the charcole filter about ever 4-6 weeks. I try to do a 5 gal water change every 2 weeks with filtered water from my water filtration system. Please let me know if you can help me resolve this issue. I can't add anymore fish because they don't last more then a couple of weeks and then die. I guess because of my Nitrate and PH problem. Thank you for your help and time!
Nitrate and PH problems... Help!
- Thread starter Apota
- Start date
Whoops.. Fish..
I forgot to say what kind of fish I have. I have mostely Gouramis, a needle fish, leaf fish, cory cat, sucker fish, silver dollar fish, angel fish, long fin rosery barb. The Gouramis have all there big long skinny fins bitten off or something. It's like they have been cut off. I don't really see them fighting, so I'm not sure what's going on. The Angele fish had one of it's fins cut almost all the way off, but it's grown back already. And it's just the long skinny ones that hang down at the bottom of the fish... Thanks again...
I forgot to say what kind of fish I have. I have mostely Gouramis, a needle fish, leaf fish, cory cat, sucker fish, silver dollar fish, angel fish, long fin rosery barb. The Gouramis have all there big long skinny fins bitten off or something. It's like they have been cut off. I don't really see them fighting, so I'm not sure what's going on. The Angele fish had one of it's fins cut almost all the way off, but it's grown back already. And it's just the long skinny ones that hang down at the bottom of the fish... Thanks again...
First thing, quit trying to fix your ph. If you want to lower it some, put some Malaysian drift wood in, it will lower it naturally. Ph shifts from trying to alter it chemically will do more harm to your fish than leaving it where it is. 8 is probably not going to be a problem anyway, unless you have some really picky fish. If you are only going to do water changes once every 2 weeks, you will need to do more like 50% or 15 gallons. If you want to cut your nitrates in half you have to change half of the water. If I were you, I would do a 10 gallon water change every day until your nitrates were below 20, then consider changing 25% every week. Be sure you are using a tap water conditioner to remove Chlorine and Chloramine.
How many of each kind of specific fish do you have. I think you are probably very overstocked.
If your nitrates are at 80 you need to do around a 75% water change to get them around the 20ppm mark .....anything 40ppm or lower is probably fine but most people try to keep them in the 20ppm range or lower...... I would also start doing atleast a 30% (10 gallon) water change and gravel vacuuming once a week to maintain these levels.
I would also stop adding anything other than dechlorinator to the water.... Dont worry so much about your pH as most fish can adjust to whatever pH you have...If you start and keep adding additives to try and change your pH it will be a never ending thing... easier to let the fish adjust than for you to try and adjust for the fish.
I would also stop adding anything other than dechlorinator to the water.... Dont worry so much about your pH as most fish can adjust to whatever pH you have...If you start and keep adding additives to try and change your pH it will be a never ending thing... easier to let the fish adjust than for you to try and adjust for the fish.
I don't know man, I've been doing a little research. Needle fish, leaf fish, sucker fish(Pleco?), silver dollar fish, angel fish, long fin rosery(rosy) barb. These fish should all be in their own tank, some probably bigger than 30 gallons each. I'm not expert on aggressive fish, but when all these fish grow up, its going to be a blood bath.
Lupin
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- Sep 21, 2006
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- Paul
I'd ask for some pictures to verify what species are these needle fish and leaf fish. Some fish share similar names, no doubt. I would easily assume the pleco is a common pleco which can outgrow the 30g. Chinese algae eaters also will outgrow the tank despite being slow growers and is possibly another fish named as "sucker fish".
Apota, the "skinny fins" you are talking about are ventral fins. What species are your gouramis?
Answer to all your questions.
This is a picture of what type of aquarium I got, but it's not my actual aquarium.
http://content.costco.com/Images/Content/ProductLarge/138101LL.jpg
I have semi-aggressive and none aggressive fish in my tank. I guess you can mix semi-aggressive and none aggressive gouramis together.
I didn't get big fish, they are mostly really small. I have one of each fish. These are the fish I have:
- Needle Fish
- African Spotted Leaf Fish
- Silver Dollar Fish
- Gold Gourami
- Red Fire Dwarf Gourami
- Powder Blue Gourami
- Opaline Gourami
- Dwarf Gourami
- Plecostumus
- Angel Fish
- Long Fin Rosey Barb
- Albino Cory Cat
- I thought the fish will only grow to fit the size of your tank. So, if you have a small tank they won't grow that big?
I'm not sure if my Nitrates are 80, but it looks redder then 40 and 80 is next on the chart. It's kind of hard to read, so I guess they can be between 50-80.
- Where do I get this Malaysian drift wood and how much and how fast does it lower the PH and is it safe for my tank?
- Wouldn't doing such large water changes stress out the fish more and screw up my cycle?
- It was so easy to lower the PH before I raised the Alkalinity. Should I worry about the water hardness or the Alkalinity at all? I'm not sure what they are at right now.
- What should I add to the new water before I put it in the tank? I add the Aquarium Salt, Kordon NovAqua Plus and AmQuel Plus, and Cycle.
- What is happening to the Ventral Fins of the Gouramis? I don't see any of the fish being picked on anymore. Maybe when the fish first get added to the tank they get picked on a little bit, but it stopped a long time ago. I don't see it happening.
- How much should I vacuum and should I vacuum all the gravel? I have some plastic plants and a rock in the tank and it would be hard to gravel under them. How deep do I vacuum? I don't want to vacuum up all the good algae, from the gravel, right?
I guess I'll do a 33% water change today and see what happens. When should I test the water again to see what the new levels are at? 24 hour? 48 hours? I will test it again and see what happens and take it from there. I don't want to do too big of a water change to stress out the fish, and it takes about 4 hours to fill up a 5 gallon container of filtered water..
Thanks....
This is a picture of what type of aquarium I got, but it's not my actual aquarium.
http://content.costco.com/Images/Content/ProductLarge/138101LL.jpg
I have semi-aggressive and none aggressive fish in my tank. I guess you can mix semi-aggressive and none aggressive gouramis together.
I didn't get big fish, they are mostly really small. I have one of each fish. These are the fish I have:
- Needle Fish
- African Spotted Leaf Fish
- Silver Dollar Fish
- Gold Gourami
- Red Fire Dwarf Gourami
- Powder Blue Gourami
- Opaline Gourami
- Dwarf Gourami
- Plecostumus
- Angel Fish
- Long Fin Rosey Barb
- Albino Cory Cat
- I thought the fish will only grow to fit the size of your tank. So, if you have a small tank they won't grow that big?
I'm not sure if my Nitrates are 80, but it looks redder then 40 and 80 is next on the chart. It's kind of hard to read, so I guess they can be between 50-80.
- Where do I get this Malaysian drift wood and how much and how fast does it lower the PH and is it safe for my tank?
- Wouldn't doing such large water changes stress out the fish more and screw up my cycle?
- It was so easy to lower the PH before I raised the Alkalinity. Should I worry about the water hardness or the Alkalinity at all? I'm not sure what they are at right now.
- What should I add to the new water before I put it in the tank? I add the Aquarium Salt, Kordon NovAqua Plus and AmQuel Plus, and Cycle.
- What is happening to the Ventral Fins of the Gouramis? I don't see any of the fish being picked on anymore. Maybe when the fish first get added to the tank they get picked on a little bit, but it stopped a long time ago. I don't see it happening.
- How much should I vacuum and should I vacuum all the gravel? I have some plastic plants and a rock in the tank and it would be hard to gravel under them. How deep do I vacuum? I don't want to vacuum up all the good algae, from the gravel, right?
I guess I'll do a 33% water change today and see what happens. When should I test the water again to see what the new levels are at? 24 hour? 48 hours? I will test it again and see what happens and take it from there. I don't want to do too big of a water change to stress out the fish, and it takes about 4 hours to fill up a 5 gallon container of filtered water..
Thanks....