I have a 400ish litre mostly African cichlid tank and I am ashamed to say I haven't tested the water for over a year. Tonight I tested and everything was ok apart from Nitrate which to looking at my chart looked between 80 and 160ppm. I am now doing a water change and my husband said 'what if there is nitrate in the tap water?'. I dunno!

So am I doing the right thing by doing a water change? Is there anything else I can do? Is there a product I should have on hand?

Sorry I just have NO idea about this sort of stuff!

I have recently found out that I am under-filtered too so I have bought a second filter and will collect it this week. With the second filter (which is second hand but has been rinsed etc, what should I do? Do I buy all new media? I also have my CF1000 going and this is a CF1200 which I will be adding.

I know these are basic questions - I should know this stuff. Sorry!

Have you tested the nitrate levels in your tap water?

No I will do that right now and report back...

Yes you are off to a good start by doing a water change, make it a fairly big one 30-40% every two days till your Nitrate comes down to near zero.

I doubt there will be any in your tap water?

Also if you have not tested in a while, whats the expiry on your test kit and what brand is it?

You wont need to buy new media, just rinse your new filter with fresh water then rinse that off with tank water as you do a water change... then throw 25% of your media balls from old filter into new filter and put some of the ones than come with the new filter into the old filter, this will act as a seeding process for the media.

You can probaby add new spongefilters in the new filter though that wont matter too much.. if the existing ones are still good then dont worry about it... just rinse with tank water.

by chance is that the CF1200 that sold on trademe in the last few days?

Nitrate in tap water is 0 and no I got the filter from a friend who recently closed down her tank and sorry it was another CF1000 not a CF1200. I have been recommended to buy a CF1200 as they are better but I will wait until I can afford it and this extra CF1000 should make a big difference to my water clarity anyway.

Thanks heaps for your advice! I will retest the water every two days and do water changes accordingly. Test kit is this one http://badmanstropicalfish.com/products/aq_Freshwater_Master_Test_Kit.html but I can't find an expiry date on there. I have had it for probably 4 years though!

Whats your stocking list?

How often have you been doing water changes and how much before now?

Its a bit of a juggling act really. You probably need to do more regular nitrate tests (before or after each water change until you have worked out how much you need to change and how often to keep your nitrates stable and in the orange. Every ones tank is different so you really need to work out your own system.

I have been doing a water change every 10 days or so. My water is always cloudy with particles. But I am hoping the added filter will fix that. I have around 14 demasoni, 3 electric yellows, 6 tropheus duboisi, 3 male peacocksaround 15 lionheads (Steatocranus casuarius), 3 GBA, 1 Dimidiochromis compressiceps, 1 pictus cat and 1 featherfin synodontis. Is the only way to keep nitrates stable by doing water changes? I feed them around 1-2Tbsp of Hikari Cichlid Excel each day.

with that stocking list you ideally want to set aside 30 mins once a wee, spend this time doing a quick water change10-15% once you get those nitrates under control, scrape the sides for algae.then onece every second week give one of your filters a clean.... so maintenance over 4 weeks should look like this

Week 1: 15% water change and glass clean

Week 2: 15% water change, glass clean and clean filter 1 ( rinse all sponges in water removed from tank)

Week 3: 15% water change and glass clean

Week 4: 15% water change, glass clean and clean filter 2 ( rinse all sponges in water removed from tank)

you probably dont need to touch the media in the bottom basket much unless there is a lot of gunk buildup on it... maybe rinse each one in tank water once every few months but ideally thats where all your good bacteria is hanging out...

Have you been feeding any veg based stuff i.e. my plecs love cucumber!

do you have any plants or completely unplanted? they will help control the nitrate

I wouldn't bother with such tiny water changes. Bump it up to about 1/3rd otherwise you're just wasting time.

and dont clean the filter too often, the wool/fine sponge once month or so, the corse sponge every few months and the noodles next to never.

CF1000 will be fine - after all thats double what you have had for filtration. Just rinse off the media in the new filter and give the sponges a good clean up. If they are really past it, now would be the time to replace them before you set it up.

With nitrates that high I am surprised you haven't had fish deaths. Your fish must be hardy! 30% water changes weekly are a good amount to change. For expiry date is there any sort of number on the bottle?

i agree, 15% a week is not enough especially with that amount of fish. I would be doing wc every 3 days or so to get the nitrates down, once you have them down start with 30% a week. Test your nitrates the day before a wc to see where your at and adjust the amount you change according to the nitrates, most people consider anything over 40ppm to be detrimental to fish. Even with 2 cf1000 thats not a lot of filtration africans love pristine water. i would be aimimng for around 50% a week with a good gravel siphon per wc. 1 big wc is more benefical than lots of small ones.

i have always just done a single 30% change weekly with around 6 times the tank volume per hour and never had any issues with water quality that i can recall. Heavily stocked and heavily fed.