High nitrate levels??? New fish hobbyist, please help

Hi All,

So instead of working, I'm googling a solution. Its Thursday, close enough to Friday, so why not be unproductive and google fishy stuff? :laugh:

Just a bit of a background: hubby and I are very new to fishkeeping... VERY new. Tank is only about 2 weeks old. Unfortunately we didnt do enough research before buying a fish and had a few fish deaths in the beginning because of not knowing enough about a cycled tank. I quickly went to LFS and Seachem Stability was recommended to me by the Manager in charge of the fish dept. Used that for 8 days in a row and only 1 fish death since (we added 2 Longfin Serpae Tetra's and the one bullied the other until he had no fins left, just before we were going to separate him and let him heal, he died ) So that was not related to the tank cycling but rather not enough of the Longfins. I know we still dont have enough for a school, but the bully has calmed down and is not nipping anymore since we added more.

Ok so onto the reason I am posting, our Ammonia is 0, Nitrites are sitting at 10 and Nitrates at about 50. Is this normal during a cycle? Is this going to hurt my fishies? Do we need to do pwc's to lower them??? Please help.. We are not sure what to do...

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

regular water changes will help and also use seachem prime to treat the new water to get rid of any nasty chemicals.....I'd say 20% water change every 2nd day for 2 weeks and you should be good to go....don't clean the filter just let it do its thing.....

 

Nitrite... tank is still cycling....

 

The short answer - yes it will hurt your fish.

The longer answer:
You preferably want to see your Ammonia at 0, Nitrite at 0, and Nitrate at <25.
That is only going to happen once the tank has been cycled properly, which could take 6-8 weeks.

What size tank is it?
What type of filter are you running?
What substrate are you using?
What fish do you have in the tank at the moment?
What is your tank temperature?

When you do a water change, you should be using something to remove the chlorine and chloramine from the water.
The chlorine and chloramine are deadly to your fish. It damages their gills, and they suffocate because they can't breath.
Seachem Prime is a good example of one such product.

Every time you do a water change, it is recommended that you add Seachem Stability to the tank, especially if it is still a new tank.
Once the tank is established you can do away with that step.

Don't just add fish to the tank because you think they look pretty.
Some fish can be housed together, others can't.
When you decide on a fish, first google to see whether there are any compatibility issues.
Check whether the fish you want to house together have the same water parameter requirements.

Some sales people in your LFS will give you advice to enable a sale, instead of giving you the honest truth.
Do your own research, and then make an informed decision on what you want to keep either in a community tank, or a species specific tank.

Lastly, welcome to TASA.
Ask questions if you're uncertain, and use that information to make your decision.

 

top reply pezulu......cnt go wrong there

 

Or gravel from a well established tank will also do.

 

Thank you for the advice. Much appreciated. We're currently using seachem stability and prime and have been doing so for a while now. We have a 65l tank with 4 x X-Ray Tetra, 3 x Longfin Serpae Tetra, 2 x mickey mouse Platy's and a bristlenose pleco. Have been managing our stock levels using aqadvisors website. We bought a Sera starter tank kit and are using the filter and substrate that came in that. The substrate looks like small rocks, if I can explain it that way. We also have some pebbles from a friends tank that we added in as well. The filter is a ViaAqua 80-pf. I have researched these and am aware they are not the best. We are definitely going to buy a better quality one soon. Our temp is about 26 degrees at the moment.

PS. We did a 40% water change this weekend. New readings are:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 1
Nitrate - 25

Definitely a big change. Hopefully this tank finishes cycling soon. This is stressful. Fishies look happy though

 

lovely that's good news

 

Thank you for your advise about the water changes as well. We'll be doing small water changes every 2nd day from now om until the tank is cycled and then move to a weekly water change

 

Your cycle is just about done. Think you will be fine now.

 

Good to hear.
Get the best filter you can afford, then pay a bit more and live off bread and water for the rest of the month.
It will make all the difference in that tank.

I am a big fan of HOB filters, and run Cascade 200's off all my smaller tanks.
They are fairly cheap, easy to maintain, and quiet.
My sponge filter bubbling makes more noise than them.