high nitrates

[ineke]

Hi All,

I have 2 tanks at the moment with high nitrates of 20 but ammonia and nitrites are 0 this seems to be a common problem with my tanks. Do you think it would just be overfeeding? the 2 tanks are not overstocked -1 tank is the new fish tank which is just finishing cycling and is great apart from the nitrate no deaths fish look healthy

the other tank has been cycled for a while but this is now my shrimp nursery tank and since the adults have been taken out the nitrate has slowly risen usually sits at 0-5.

I think I've answered my own question too much food for the amount of fish and shrimp:rolleyes:

Cheers

Ineke

[Jess]

I would say in your case it is probably just due to overfeeding. A few large water changes should solve the problem :)

My tanks usually sit between 0 and 5 as well, but a couple of weeks ago I noticed a HUGE nitrate spike in one tank. It was at about 40ppm! I just about passed out. I had lost my native Zebra shrimp and even found a couple of dead cherries, so it certainly explained a lot.

What had happened was I had been moving a few things around in my tank and had stirred up all the detritus in the gravel. This had all been sucked up into the filter so the tank looked lovely and clean, but when I actually took a look in the filter all the media (including the Purigen) was completely covered with the sludge. I think this had suffocated all the nitrifying (?) bacteria, and I wasn't doing enough water changes to keep up with it.

Since then I cleaned the filter and recharged the purigen, and nitrate is back between 0 and 5 again. It wouldn't hurt to take a look at your filter too, just to make it's all clear :)

[ineke]

Thanks Jess,

Iv'e just done some water changes on the problem tanks and will do a bit more in a couple of days AND I won't feed the babies for a few days plenty of moss to chow down on and the youngest are over a week old. I will have to cut the fish feeding by half but they see me in the kitchen and swim frantically saying feed me feed me so I will feed 1/2 of what I have been. Filters were cleaned with last water change in the bucket of tank water so they aren't too bad. I think in the shrimp tank I just fed the normal amount before remembering the adults were out of there.

I really do feel luck the nutty professor have done nothing but water testing this morning!!!

Cheer

Ineke

[Squiggle]

Hehehe, I bet you're not that nutty, lol, how's the flubber going? :congratulatory: Seriously though, looks like your on top of the problem. I know fish get fed every day but I only feed my shrimp every two or three days, in between they usually feed on the bacteria in the substrate, on the plants, the biofilm & in the substrate :encouragement:

[ineke]

Thanks Squiggle I have always been heavy handed so will just cut right back with the fish and alternate days with the shrimp