3 of the angels are about 2 inches in diameter not including fins. The 4th angel is about 1.5 inches. The guaramis are about 2 inches long. Im assuming its from the under gravel filters I had. But I removed those yesterday and did a 50% water change. But nothing changed. Before that I would do a 10% water change every 2 weeks. Now I do it once a week. I switched to using tap water also. I used to do water changes with drinking water and it was a hassle, I was concerned about chlorine and chloramines but I quess Amquel takes care of that.
Nitrate ...
- Thread starter kyazh
- Start date
I have a UGF and my nitrates rarely get over 20ppm.
what type of test method or kit are you using??
Part of the problem could be from the fish in your tank..but I also see you have a 30ppm right from the tap.
the angels are young but you will most likely need to move them to a bigger tank in the future..I stick by the 10 gallon per angel rule.that being said with 4 you'd need atleast a 40 gallon more preferrably larger.
continue with wc's maybe a couple times per week.
what type of test method or kit are you using??
Part of the problem could be from the fish in your tank..but I also see you have a 30ppm right from the tap.
the angels are young but you will most likely need to move them to a bigger tank in the future..I stick by the 10 gallon per angel rule.that being said with 4 you'd need atleast a 40 gallon more preferrably larger.
continue with wc's maybe a couple times per week.
First of all in the past your waterchanges were way too small to make a dent in the nitrates - or any toxic materials collecting in the tank for that matter.
Before you started changing more water your tank was heading into OTS - old tank syndrome. (maybe do a forum search on this topic... :thm: )
You need to do at least 25% a week - and considering your tap water has 30ppm of nitrates to begin with even 25% arent enough. Thats for someone with nitrate free tap. You probably need to do 50% once - better 2x a week.
The generally accepted "safe" limit of nitrates is 40ppm and with a tap of 30 its hard to get there/ stay there without large volume waterchanges.
I also didnt read if you gravel vac every time you change water ? You need to do that to get all the decaying materials out of the gravel/ tank - because they contribute to your nitrate problem.
I dont know about your lighting setup but i'd look into some kind of floating plant thats a good nitrate consumer - duckweed for example.
In combination with the large waterchanges they will help to lower nitrates and hopefully you'd be able to keep them below 40ppm that way.
Before you started changing more water your tank was heading into OTS - old tank syndrome. (maybe do a forum search on this topic... :thm: )
You need to do at least 25% a week - and considering your tap water has 30ppm of nitrates to begin with even 25% arent enough. Thats for someone with nitrate free tap. You probably need to do 50% once - better 2x a week.
The generally accepted "safe" limit of nitrates is 40ppm and with a tap of 30 its hard to get there/ stay there without large volume waterchanges.
I also didnt read if you gravel vac every time you change water ? You need to do that to get all the decaying materials out of the gravel/ tank - because they contribute to your nitrate problem.
I dont know about your lighting setup but i'd look into some kind of floating plant thats a good nitrate consumer - duckweed for example.
In combination with the large waterchanges they will help to lower nitrates and hopefully you'd be able to keep them below 40ppm that way.
well first I would suggest doing at least a 30% water change weekly (as opposed to 10%), and really doing a 50% every week would be good for your fish. it should cut your nitrates in half every week and there will come a time when you'll be changing out as much as your fish are putting in over the course of a week. The 10% water changes are probably not helping your cause, since if for example you have 200ppm of nitrates, 10% only brings it down to 190ppm. if your fish produce 30ppm a week (as an example) next week you would be at 220ppm, do a 10% change, bringing it down to 198ppm, gain 30 over the next week, bringing it back up to 228ppm, and so on. basically doing 50% a week will go a long way toward keeping your pollutants down.
like star_rider was saying eventually your angels will be too many for this tank, especially with the other crittres you have in there, so eventually overcrowding will be a problem.
I tihnk my suggestion would be to do 50% changes once a day until your nitrites are down below 50ppm, then you can spread out the changes to maintain that level of pollution. using a plant to eat nitrates (as papa suggested) is also a very good idea
like star_rider was saying eventually your angels will be too many for this tank, especially with the other crittres you have in there, so eventually overcrowding will be a problem.
I tihnk my suggestion would be to do 50% changes once a day until your nitrites are down below 50ppm, then you can spread out the changes to maintain that level of pollution. using a plant to eat nitrates (as papa suggested) is also a very good idea
If you still have a 200 ppm Nitrate test after a 50% waterchange your Nitrates are higher than the test can register. That means you had over 400 ppm of Nitrates! :huh: You also have 0.5 ppm of Nitrites which are highly toxic. That is my main worry at this point. Nitrates takes months to do damage. Nitrites can do damage in days. Read up on OTS and take the appropriate action.
^yah and if they are that high its going to take having to change out all of the water practically to get it down. I don't know what is the largest safe increment of change you can do but I'd try to do a lot in a series until it is at a readable level.
Hrm, duckweed is a good sponge, but I'd not add that into the tank. Duckweed populates like MAD.
Hornwort, anacharis, watersprite, java moss -- low light plants that will help with the nitrates. Only the moss is a slow grower.
Now, those plants will help with the nitrates problem, but they will not do all of the job for you. If anything they will balance the nitrates you have already in your tap water. You still need to do 50% waterchanges every week to keep the tank in good condition.
Here are the links to the OTS stuff everyone is mentioning to you:
OTS
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/small/ots.html
Water Change Basics
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/water/waterchange.html
Water Change Math
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/water/waterchangemath.html
Water Change Math for Source/Tank Mismatch
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/water/otswater.html
Roan
Hornwort, anacharis, watersprite, java moss -- low light plants that will help with the nitrates. Only the moss is a slow grower.
Now, those plants will help with the nitrates problem, but they will not do all of the job for you. If anything they will balance the nitrates you have already in your tap water. You still need to do 50% waterchanges every week to keep the tank in good condition.
Here are the links to the OTS stuff everyone is mentioning to you:
OTS
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/small/ots.html
Water Change Basics
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/water/waterchange.html
Water Change Math
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/water/waterchangemath.html
Water Change Math for Source/Tank Mismatch
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/water/otswater.html
Roan
Ok, after doing 4 50% water changes my nitrate level is down to 80ppm. :bowing: It must have been like 1000 or something, Ill continue to do 50% water changes untill its down to a safe amount. Thanks for the help :thm:
