Nitrates

[raylmaier]

Ok I have had my tank for about six months. I was doing fine in the beginning. I had three fish and a clean up crew. Well about two months ago my fish started to get white spots on them and I went out and bought ich treatment. Well long story short they all died. My cleam up crew is still alive. I have waited a month and I am starting to do water changes with NSW in the box from petco. I did a water test today and everything was perfect except the nitrates. I was way off the charts at like over 100 ppm. Now I done a lot of research on how to lower it and they say do a water chane. I just did a water change three days ago of 10 percent. I am clueless. Any help would be great.

 

[wontonflip]

How and where did you treat for ich? There are only 2 known successful cures -- copper or hyposalinity. Both should be done in qt, and the dt has to remain fishless for at least 2 months to truly kill ich....otherwise, adding any new fish or returning the newly-cured fish will just get ich again.

The other way is what most of us do -- if the fish already show ich signs, we just keep feeding them high quality foods and just hope he fights it off.

To lower the nitrates, just keep up with the water changes. Since all your fish are dead, I suggest to leave the tank fallow for the 2-3 months to kill the remaining ich. Then any new fish you get should be qt'd and checked for signs of ich, and treated before adding in.

Most of us don't qt...we just try to keep the fish stressfree :)

 

[bjohanson1234]

Also, say the nitrates are way off the charts. Let's say at 200ppm. Assuming the highest your kit reads is 100ppm, doing a 10% water change will only lower it by 10%. So only 20ppm. You now have 180ppm nitrates in your water, which is still way off the chart that only goes up to 100ppm. The larger the volume of the water change, the faster it will come down.

It will take many water changes to bring it back down to an acceptable limit.

 

[BL1]

I also suggest testing the water that you're doing your weekly changes with as well. Just to make sure that they don't have nitrates in them. It's going to take a while before you see them going down, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes 6 months to get them down to 50ppm doing normally scheduled water changes.

 

[Bifferwine]

If you only have a CUC left, and nothing else in there, I'd be doing 50% water changes to get the nitrates down.

 

[Old_Moe]

Can you borrow a test kit from someone for a second opinion? Just to make sure your readings are spot on.

 

[R3verb]

Make sure you are using RO water as well. Some tap water will contain nitrates.

 

[yvr]

A large water change will help bring down your nitrates in the short term but keeping excess nutrients out of the aquarium water is one key element in reducing your NO3 in the long run. As you now know, dirty bio media become a nitrate factory, most people don't use any additional bio media besides live rock in their tanks. There are many other things that can add excess nutrients into your tank like some commercial foods which may contain undesirable things like nitrates, phosphates etc and overfeeding the tank is also another factor. Using , RO/DI water, a high quality salt with no NO3, phosphates etc like Tropic Marin or similar good quality salt should really help too.

 

[raylmaier]

Yeah I shouldnt have wasted the money on treating them for ich. I should have just seen if they could have fought them off by themselves. I guess I am going to have to do a 50% water change this week and see what that does. Its going to cost about 60 dollars but its worth to get fish back in the tank. I have been fishless for almost two months now. It has sucked but I knew if I didnt wait then I would just waste more money. Thanks for all the advice guys. This website has helped alot.

 

[raylmaier]

also I dont have a qt tank because of space and money. I wish I could have one. They would be nice to have.

 

[john0087]

Did you check Nitite? I was kust ready how nitrite can effect the nitrate test results. You should have zero nitrites in your system. This could be the cause of your fish stress as well as the high reading of nitrates.

Good luck

John

 

[wontonflip]

Don't worry ray...you're not the only one w/ the shoulda-woulda-coulda's :) I've qt'd 2 fish unsuccessfully, when in hindsight, I should have let them be. Neither survived. There is something to be said about qt'ing all incoming fish. But like I said, most of us don't qt. So we have all sorts of parasites in our tanks. But we do our best to keep fish happy, and their water pristine so they keep it at bay.

Make sure you buy fish from a reputable place to raise your probability of getting healthy fish. I will only buy fish from 2 lfs (one more than the other) because they carry only healthy stock.

 

[R3verb]

Another way to battle ich is cleaner shrimp. Tangs are known for being bad about ich and so a lot of tang owners also own cleaner shrimp. The fish will actually go up to the shrimp and hover in one spot while the shrimp clean everything from scales to gills to the inside of their mouths! As long as you can keep them (aka no lion fish), cleaners are a great addition to your tank!

Casey

 

[wontonflip]

Yes, they're helpful, but they don't cure ich, just to be clear. They can only get to the visible ich. Not the ich that's growing inside. But they can help alleviate the external ones at least. They are indeed good for the tank :)

 

[bjohanson1234]

I suggest getting an RO/DI unit instead of the boxed water. It will be cheaper in the long run. The cost around 150 or so.

 

[robbrouse]

I'd 2nd the RO/DI unit at 2 bucks a gallon for the petco stuff that adds up WAY to fast. Even check with LFS and see what sell sell the water for. I can get ro/di for like .60 a gallon or .85 to a buck for salt water.

 

[Bifferwine]

Or get RODI water at your grocery store or Walmart. It's cheaper there than at the fish store! You can usually bring your own containers to refill.

 

[robbrouse]

I have not found rodi at the grocery in my state, just RO. And make sure you test it, (same for pet store) and make sure it's good. I bought some a few years ago and teh TDI was 15. Took it back and they were behind on changing their filters.

 

[Trigger Happy]

I'd test the water going into the tank and when you know that's got the chemistry you want, do bigger water changes , like 30 - 40% until you get nitrate free readings.

I find a 10% water change does very little for the work involved, whereas a substantial one actually can alter the chemistry of the water.

 

[raylmaier]

well just let you guys know my update on the tank. I have everything back to 0 except the nitrates. They are at 20 ppm. But I have a friend that has been doing sw tanks for a while and she said her tanks are around the same numbers and her fish are fine. I did go out and buy some fish. I bought a fire fish, and 2 clown fish. Thans for all your guys help. I do have a cleaner shrimp. I think he is the coolest part of my tank.