Yep....I'd do at least 50% daily on WC's until those nitrates are zero. Then resume feeding as normal and monitor nitrates about daily to see what they creep to after a week of no changes, then adjust size/frequency of them for the nitrate climb.
Swordtails dying off one by one.
- Thread starter dan c
- Start date
myswtsins
Global Moderator
Ditto ^
The nitrate climb/creep is something most new hobbyists don't know about (as well as the nitrogen cycle). If your tank produces 20ppm nitrates in a week's time and you do 20% WCs weekly...week 1 - 20ppm, 20% WC brings it down to 16ppm, week - 2 36ppm, after 20% WC 29ppm, week 3- 49 after 20% WC 39ppm etc. Monitor your nitrates and adjust your WC schedule to keep your nitrates under 40ppm.
"No fish died for the first 10 weeks" is a pretty good sign that something happened after 10 weeks, like high nitrates as described above. When things go wrong in our tanks it is usually because something changed and sometimes we don't see a sudden change but the change was happening slowly and finally reached a breaking point.
Swords showing any signs of illness?
The nitrate climb/creep is something most new hobbyists don't know about (as well as the nitrogen cycle). If your tank produces 20ppm nitrates in a week's time and you do 20% WCs weekly...week 1 - 20ppm, 20% WC brings it down to 16ppm, week - 2 36ppm, after 20% WC 29ppm, week 3- 49 after 20% WC 39ppm etc. Monitor your nitrates and adjust your WC schedule to keep your nitrates under 40ppm.
"No fish died for the first 10 weeks" is a pretty good sign that something happened after 10 weeks, like high nitrates as described above. When things go wrong in our tanks it is usually because something changed and sometimes we don't see a sudden change but the change was happening slowly and finally reached a breaking point.
Swords showing any signs of illness?
Thanks for the reply, yeah that makes a lot of sense. Been on daily water changes for last few days now. Very hard to establish difference in colour between 40-60 on api test kit. Def not come below 40 yet. Everything in tank is looking great today, the sword that was showing signs of illness is back to seamingly good health. Read that i should pay special attention to under plants and round back of filters and heater with vac. Make sure there isn't lots of mess round where I can't see so that's tomorrow's plan.
myswtsins
Global Moderator
Check your filters too. In a planted tank they can get dirty fast. Filters remove the crud from sight but it's all still in your water.
Glad to hear things are improving. Keep up the good work.
Glad to hear things are improving. Keep up the good work.
myswtsins
Global Moderator
Alternate cleaning of the sponge filters, 1 this week the other in a week or 2. Squeeze them out in a bucket of tank water.
20-40 before water change? Sound like you're on the right track.
20-40 before water change? Sound like you're on the right track.
