Hey, i have a fully cyled cichlid tank ( unfortunaly no cichlids in it cuz i have lost them all, i just have 4 zebra danios and a pleco). my lfs tested my water and they said my nitrate was toxic to the fish, i thought that was totally wierd becasue my test kit said that my nitrate was fine... so i went out and bought the same kit the LFS uses and it tests toxic. i did over a 50% water change and the levels are still reading toxic???? whats should i do? i tested my tap water and the readings are 0 for nitrates.....the guy at the LFS suggested Amquel Plus to remove the nitrates...but shouldnt water changes reduce the nitrates not increase them?!?!?! HELP!!!!!!!!!!
Nitrate Out of Control
- Thread starter livewyr25
- Start date
Water changes, water changes, water changes
Every day, even twice a day, change a large portion (50% or so) of the water until the levels reach an acceptable range.
I'd stop feeding for now, it will help to reduce the waste in the tank.
I'll take a guess and say the reason your water tests toxic after a 50% change could be simply that your water was more than twice the highest level read by the kit - reducing it by half it will still be at the top end of the range (say if the kit reads up to 100ppm and your water was at 200ppm, reducing the nitrates to 100ppm would still produce the same reading when you test). Do water changes until you're dreaming about them, and those levels will come down
Every day, even twice a day, change a large portion (50% or so) of the water until the levels reach an acceptable range.
I'd stop feeding for now, it will help to reduce the waste in the tank.
I'll take a guess and say the reason your water tests toxic after a 50% change could be simply that your water was more than twice the highest level read by the kit - reducing it by half it will still be at the top end of the range (say if the kit reads up to 100ppm and your water was at 200ppm, reducing the nitrates to 100ppm would still produce the same reading when you test). Do water changes until you're dreaming about them, and those levels will come down
hahah that was what i was afraid of lol.........(if i can give any tips to testing water.....make sure u buy test kits with expiration dates....avoid aqua. pharm...there are no expiration dates so you dont know if ur tests are accurate), i lost over $50 in cichlids.........
How did you cycle your tank? If it was fishless, did you remember to do the giant water change before adding fish? What sized tank? How many fish?
NO3 is not toxic in the short term, and I suspect that the long term toxicity associated with NO3 has more to do with the toxins and pollutants released along with the ammonia that becomes NO3. In any case, I don't think that Amquel is going to help you out.
Like Blinky said, water changes and lots of them. 50% twice daily until you get it below 20ppm. Then drop back to twice weekly 50% and see how pH, KH and NO3 look before water changes and gauge by that.
NO3 is not toxic in the short term, and I suspect that the long term toxicity associated with NO3 has more to do with the toxins and pollutants released along with the ammonia that becomes NO3. In any case, I don't think that Amquel is going to help you out.
Like Blinky said, water changes and lots of them. 50% twice daily until you get it below 20ppm. Then drop back to twice weekly 50% and see how pH, KH and NO3 look before water changes and gauge by that.
i did a fishless cycle on a 29 gallon. i did do a massive water change after all my readings were 0 for ammonia and nitrites. i have been doing massive water changes, i prob changed 90% of the water today and still getting nitrates out of the roof. also now im getting high nitrites reading.......my tank was fully cycled!?!?!? i tested my KH and its around 120 and my GH is 75. PH is around 8.0. Nitrates are unreadable they are so high. and now my nitrite is between2.0 and 5.0 really need all the help i can get people!!! thanks 
Well, I hate to be the pointer-outer of bad news, but I think that you found the culprit of your fish deaths.
What's in the tank right now?
Also, since you didn't likely change 90% all at the same time, it's not the same as a 90% water change, there's a dilution factor. For example, if you change 50% of the water there should now be half as much of whatever left in the tank. So if you change another 50%, you haven't changed 100%, you've just cut it in half again, so two 50% changes back to back is actually a 75% change.
I know that that's not really helpful, just an explanation. Right now it looks like something happened to break your cycle and you're getting NO2 again. If you know anyone with an established, disease-free tank, steal some filter media from them. Also clean their tank for them, get all the mulm you can, deep gravel vac-ing, rinse sponges in old tank water, etc. Clean out everything into a bucket of tank water. Take that back and add the bucket and contents to your tank.
Let it settle and start up with the water changes again. 50% twice daily, but don't clean the gravel or anything else just yet, just remove the water.
And yes, check the tap, or whatever your source is. Tap can contain NO3, but not NH3 or NO2. If your tap is clean, than the NO3 must be of tank source. Don't worry, we'll find it.
What's in the tank right now?
Also, since you didn't likely change 90% all at the same time, it's not the same as a 90% water change, there's a dilution factor. For example, if you change 50% of the water there should now be half as much of whatever left in the tank. So if you change another 50%, you haven't changed 100%, you've just cut it in half again, so two 50% changes back to back is actually a 75% change.
I know that that's not really helpful, just an explanation. Right now it looks like something happened to break your cycle and you're getting NO2 again. If you know anyone with an established, disease-free tank, steal some filter media from them. Also clean their tank for them, get all the mulm you can, deep gravel vac-ing, rinse sponges in old tank water, etc. Clean out everything into a bucket of tank water. Take that back and add the bucket and contents to your tank.
Let it settle and start up with the water changes again. 50% twice daily, but don't clean the gravel or anything else just yet, just remove the water.
And yes, check the tap, or whatever your source is. Tap can contain NO3, but not NH3 or NO2. If your tap is clean, than the NO3 must be of tank source. Don't worry, we'll find it.
I do have an establish community tank which i put some of its gravel in the extra filter basket that came with my emperor 280 last night, so hopefully that gets everything going again.i cant mix the gravel into my tank because its a cichlid tank and i have a cichlid/sand mix on the bottom. so it would have to do in my filter basket. what would cause my cycled tank to reverse like that???? i tested my ammonia levels on the tank and it still read 0 ppm. my tap water tested fine with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate so ill just wait it out for the cycle to start again..
Not cleaning the gravel may be a big mistake - gravel is an excellent reservoir for nitrates in old mulm.