Nitrates - Need help

[palmbreeze]

I have a 55 gallon aquarium that has been set up for years. I housed African Cichlids until about two weeks ago. I sold my Cichlids and turned the aquarium to a community tank. The first week that I had my community tank I had two gigantic plecos in the aquarium. One was about a foot long the other was about 8 inches. I sold them to my LFS. Then I noticed a few neons were dying. I tested the water and my nitrates were through the roof! I mean off the charts! So I quickly do a 50% water change, clean the filter, and vacume the gravel very well. A couple days later the nitrates spike again! They won't stay down. They go down when I do a water change, but then the next day they are up again! I'm doing water changes almost on a daily basis! What causes nitrates? How do I make them go away?

Ammonia ~ 0
Nitrites ~ 0
PH ~ high, I have pretty hard water (haven't tested lately)
A couple live plants. No CO2 or fertilizers. My husband started dosing Excel to see how that plants do. I have a couple floating at the top, two planted, and a large anubias. No special lighting or anything.


Notes: My husband took over water changes awhile ago when I still had my cichlids. When I cleaned the gravel and filter I noticed a lot of gunk built up. He was doing water changes once a week, but I don't think he was vacuming the gravel or cleaning out the filter.

 

[Plecosterone]

Keep up with water changes and add some more fast growing plants such as Hornwort. Vacuum the gravel everytime you do a WC. The more plants you have, the more nitrate they will use up. I have a hard time keeping mine above 0ppm and actually add nitrate to the tank for the plants.

 

[rhardy]

Two weeks ago when you set up your community tank you changed the bio balance in the tank. You have 35 fish in the tank now. You are probably going through a mini cycle. Frequent water changes are needed until the balance returns. Continue testing the water frequently.

 

[GeoPappas]

:lol: Sounds right to me. By adding or removing fish, you change the balance in the tank, and it needs to recycle.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

If the tank was in a "mini-cycle" then ammonia and nitrites would be spiking...sounds more likely that there is some kind of decaying matter somewhere in the tank which is producing extra ammonia and nitrites for the biological filter to consume and produce extra nitrates from.

How often were you checking the nitrates when the cichlids were in the tank?

What kind of filter is it? How did you clean the filter? If you haven't already I would try removing the media and make sure there aren't any debris built up in the bottom of the filter.

If you haven't already you can also try doing some deep gravel vacs to help remove any dead particles that have slipped deeper into the substrate.

 

[Zumo]

Also try adding Amquel Plus. works great in my tanks.

 

[nickmcmechan]

think your doing the right things, keep the gravel vacs going

 

[muppett]

We to kept getting high nitrates after years of no problems, but ours stemmed from inserting a new pump. It cost us two baby Oscars but made us sit up and take notice. We then discovered that when it rains (quite alot lately) our tap water nitrate level rises to 50 - we have now got to the point we put the water into buckets, treat it and then let it stand for 4 or so days and then we can use it. Otherwise we are putting as much in as we took out! Has anyone else found this problem??

 

[yourchoice]

Plant food can increase nitrates.Don`t over dose.

 

[Hooked Newbie]

Two weeks ago when you set up your community tank you changed the bio balance in the tank. You have 35 fish in the tank now. You are probably going through a mini cycle. Frequent water changes are needed until the balance returns. Continue testing the water frequently.

I agree that the balance has changed, but a "mini-cycle" would show Ammonia or NO2 before NO3 (I think). I think the bioload has just increased, but if the other readings are 0, the tank has not lost it's cycle. Maybe add more plants and reduce the stock or maintain the frequent water changes until things stabilize...