Nitrate levels - why now?

Morning all,

I have a newbie question and am hoping I have not missed something terribly obvious!

I started with a 80l Boyu tank 10 weeks ago, all has been perfect (cycled for 1 week with stability & prime, added fish slowly, nitrate in 10-25 range) until last week when the Nitrate levels spiked to 113. But the strange thing it that I have not changed anything prior to the spike.
From reading, it seems like I may have overstocked the tank (although I stocked it based on advice from the pet shop!)

So, 3 questions for the boffins:
1. Is it possible that the tank has been close to some sort of 'tipping point' and has now fallen over the edge? Or have I just made a rookie error?
2. The advise I have received on how to rectify is:
- 25% change every 2 days for a week
- 2 caps prime every day for 5 days
- 4 caps stability every day for 5 days
- add more live plants
Is this good advice?
3. will the above be a permanent fix?


Some other info that may be relevant:

Nitrites = 0.24
pH = 7.5
chlorine = 0
hardness = 7

Despite the hight nitrate levels, the fish seem happy.
Feeding generally every day or every other day, small amounts that will be consumed within 60 seconds.
Have had one guppy die, not sure why. He just seemed to swim slower and slower until he eventually expired.
All except the plecos developed Ich in the 3rd week, dosed with a product from Seachem and all cleared up.
Plants - have gone for more real than fake plants. The one circled in the picture grows like a weed (2cm per day!) I have to keep thinning it out and discarding. Other plans grow really slowly.
Testing done with Tetra test strips. After the one high reading I got another test kit but same result.
Water changes have been done each week - around 20% each time. I try to vacuum the gravel, but not so easy with the plants there and I don't really want to take them out each time.
Water used for changes is filtered (regular drinking filter). I tested the filtered water and apart from sky high CO2 levels, the water seems fine with almost 0 chlorine.
Filter matting washed out when it looks yucky.
The tank I have has an integrated filter - water sucked up one side, flows over matting, then charcoal pods then back to tank. There does not seems to be space for bio balls or similar media.
Introduced driftwood 1 month ago. Despite boiling it and keeping in a bucket for 2 weeks the tank water still went brown. Removed wood. Brown colour slowly clearing with each water change.

Current fish in tank (no change for the last 3 weeks).
2 plecos (5cm)
3 saifin mollies
6 guppies
6 red fin columbian tetras
4 wag tail platys
4 danios

Any comments, suggestions or help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Dale

 

Purigen .... will do wonders for that tank.

 

Thanks, had not heard or read about Purigen before. Will give it a try.

 

Like f-fish said, Purigen will help a lot, remove the charcoal and replace with the purigen if your budget allows. Nitrate levels will spike in the beginning of a new tank cycle, keep up the water changes that will lower the nitrate levels. You mentioned cleaning the matting, clean it in the waste tank water when doing water changes that way you will not destroy the beneficial bacteria. The plant that you circled is called "hornwort" they do grow like crazy, do not trim to much, they help a lot in removing nitrites and ammonia, also provide protection for you future guppy fry. Keep your lights on for only about 8hrs a day otherwise algae will be your next problem. Invest in a cory cat or two they help in keeping your substrate clean and add a lot of character to a community tank. Lastly enjoy your new aquarium

 

Thanks for the tips. Am loving the aquarium ... better to watch than the TV

Do plecos not do the same as cory cat? i.e. scavenge off the bottom. Can I have both in the tank?
Also, the plecos seem to produce an amazing amount of poop - I was wondering if that contributes to the nitrate issue.

 

yeah was also surprised to see that. Yes all waist could contribute the the nitrate issue you have. Yeap both cats and pleco's can do ok. Feed them some greens - as in green veg.

Later Ferdie

 

Plecos are algae eaters and very dosile, cory's are scavengers and active,both in the tank is a plus. Plecos do poop a lot, but at 5cm in a 80l tank should not be a problem if you keep up the weekly water changes. Not more than 20%

 

Up to 50% can be done weekly and should help with nitrates. Key contributors to nitrate is food and physical waste. So careful Feeding and good substrate cleaning is already winning half the batttle

 

I had the same problem in my grow out tank. It made 15-20ppm of nitrate a day, the feeding caused the mess. After going through everything it turned out to be the sponges or any part a the filter that catches debris. I keep these very clean now and the nitrate problem went away. It produces only 5-10ppm per day now with same feeding as I'm taking out all the mess instead of leaving it in the system.

So to clean the matting before it gets yucky will make a major dent in your nitrates. As for water changes, keep the nitrates under 20ppm, how often you do water changes and % will be different for every tank.

 

I agree with advice given but would just like to add that the integrated filters on those tanks are not very efficient
The internal pump they supply is not very effective either

The fact that there is no space for bio balls or ceramics where your good bacteria can grow, eventually becomes a problem
I had a Sun sun 350l with same set up and eventually i had to add a canister filter to the tank
With the fish you have, for now i would take the charcoal out and replace it with some matrix or some ceramic rings and see how it works for a while and then take it from there

 

Correct - hence the need for purigen. Batting to trap the particles and dispense of and purigen to get the parameters under control ... shared office space and the other guys have a 3ft with an aquaclear 30 ... 9 goldfish 2 common pleco's and a BN ... gravel and some of that resin stuff. Tank always had a fishy nose and water was never clear. Got them some purigen and educated on regular batting replacement... crystal clear and no fish smells. They do need to recharge the purigen once a month.



I keep a few bags charged, that way when something goes pear in a tank and I have no clue why, my current go to (yes even before a WC) is to run some purigen.


Later Ferdie

 

Thanks for the advice. The local fish shop was open this morning, so went shopping

Removed the charcoal canisters from the filter tray. Put some Seachem Matrix in there and a bag of Purigen. There is not enough height in the filter tray to put them vertically, so for now there is a layer of the white matting stuff; below that on the inlet
side is the Matrix and on the outlet side is the Purigen. I know it's not perfect, but it seems like there is some consistent flow through both the matrix and the Purigen. Will look at creating a small chamber in the filter tray for the Purigen so all the water has to pass through it.

If all of this is still not successful, I suppose I will have to look at a canister filter or similar, but one thing at a time.

While busy with all of this I also took out the pump and cleaned it out and found there was a small amount of styrofoam jammed near the impeller (and some sludge), obviously packing material that I never thought to look for Once it was removed the difference was amazing! There is now a real flow around the tank.
Of course one thing led to another and with the increased flow the tall plants were being 'blown' over, so they got moved to the side wall ... than then an interesting thing happened ...
I have a school of 6 Columbian tetras. They are very pretty but always swam individually, ignoring each other. Now that there is a stronger current in the tank (and more open space) they swim in a school, just like magic, and always against the current. Yay!!!!

So all in all a very successful day thus far

 

Nice one ... sounds like you did all the right stuff.

Later Ferdie

 

Morning all,

Quick report back and another word of thanks for all the contributions.
Fergie, your Purigen suggestion has worked wonders, the water visibly clearer this morning
Nitrates now below 50 and still dropping 10-20 each day, so looks like all the changes have worked.

@MariaS, please can you clarify this comment for me

Did you specifically mean Boyu tanks? or ALL tanks with internal filter? Reason for the question is that I also looked at a Juwel 180 for a future purchase but don't want to waste my time if tanks with internal filters / pumps are all rubbish.

 

Sorry for late reply, i meant all of them in general
I havent owned a Jewel but i did have a Boyu and a Sun sun
They all have prety much the same integrated internal filters that dont give you much space for a decent amount of media
After setting your existing one up, you should get a feel of filter size when you go have a look at the Juwel.
Have a look and see what your gut feeling tells you...
The fish you plan on keeping also plays a role in the filter requirements for your new tank

 

@MariaS Thanks - makes sense now.

 

Comming in at the end of this thread I would just add my 2c. I will replace the 2 plecos, they grow fast and huge, with 2 ancistrus. Way less bio load in general