NO3 help plz

a sh*t load of tetra's, two rams, a few loaches, 2 big Plecos, 1 small pleco, 3 BN pleco (1M and 2 S) 4 cory's and thats it

 

Hi Vez,

Forget about all the fancy stuff, the Zeolite I mean. It costs a huge amount of money and eventually unless you use it properly it will also not remove the nitrate by anaerobic filtration. My opinion about this is that unless you have the Zeolite or whatever medium in a separate chamber that is starved of oxygen, in other words poor in oxygen you are not going to get the anaerobic filter to do the job and you will end up doing water changes in any case.

With regard to ammonia levels in an aquarium that is established, I can tell you without doing the test that the values of the ammonia will be 0 or else all your fishes would be stone dead. I mean the ammonia levels don't have to be very high to give you problems and your fish are healthy right, so ammonia is not even a question.

If you nitrate levels are as high as you have told us, then you need to do what Tom is telling you and that is that you must do a few larger water changes. Remember that a 50% water change will reduce the nitrate levels by half, so if you do a few of these larger changes over the next couple of weeks then the nitrate levels will come down. Don't all of a sudden do repeated water changes every second day, then you run into problems such as chlorine from your water and affects that this may have on your filter, and also you stress your fishes with repeated water changes. If you have no sick fishes, then don't panic mechanic, things are not on the point of a disaster.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Dirk

Many thanks for the reply.

The tank is fine= all happy fish, so the levels in the tank can not be that bad then, i think i must just UP the WC, like i said, maybe do a 30% every 2nd day, and once a week, do a 50%? I know i have a "over stock", but the HOB filters are doing the job well!

or will it be best to maybe do a 10% daily? then on like a Sunday do a 50%?

thanks again to all!

Vez

 

Hi Vez,

I would not bother with the smaller water changes, I would just do a 50% water change on Sunday and finished, it will reduce the nitrate levels for more than the 10% per day. Perhaps you can repeat the 50% weekly water changes for a few weeks and then you will be fine. I would in any case recommend that if you do have a high fish load, you should consider doing 50% water changes at least every second week in future. It will save you all sorts of possible disease problems later.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

I also find it odd that you have high ammonia reading and not anything happening with the Nitrites, and then a high Nitrate reading. Go read through the nitrogen cycle again and you will see why I find this odd... If you have ammonia readings, your fish will be very unhealthy firstly, then you should start getting nitrite readings, and lastly nitrates.

Also, your kH is LOW bud. Are you using RO water or tap water. With a kH that low you have absolutely nothing buffering your pH, and are heading for a pH crash.

With these readings being so "out of it" I would consider getting your water tested somewhere else, and chucking those test strips out.... It sounds to me as if you have a testing problem, rather than a water problem

 

thanks again Dirk!

and thanks Zoom, i had a look on the test kit, Exp date was in 2010 Jan, could this be that the tests are "out of it"??

who can do a test for me?

o ya, it looks like i got my stuff all wrong, i said "amonia" in the first post, and that was wrong, as i dont think i have that prob, as i only have a NO3 prob. sorry...

 

LFS should be able to help ..

 

Um @Vez.... that testkit was probably in it's prime in 2009. This is now starting to make more sense. THROW IT AWAY!!

Most LPS stores will do a test for you free of charge. Try @jungle aquatics ? I know westgate will help you!

 

did not even know they had a Exp. date,,

will pop in @JA and get them to test the water for me, i just did a 40L WC now, so thats 40-50% if im correct (std 3ft tank)

Thanks Zoom!

 

when i get nitrate high then i do heavy water change. or monday 30%, thuesday rest, wednesday 30%, thursday rest, friday 30% wc. Some fish cant like wc. loach fish hate water change :O