Hi Guys,

HELP!!!!

Just did some testing of the water in my tropical tank, readings are:

PH 6

Ammonia 0

Nitrites 0

Nitrates over 160

Did a water change yesterday and added a few more new plants, this tank is heavily planted and has been for months, don't know what has caused this and how do I fix it, read in the Master Test Kit, doing water changes can make this worse, what do I do? :-? :-?

Any HELP would be great.

Lynda

There's a few products that you can purchase to combat nitrites and nitrates. Since your tank is well-established I actually recommend them, but for people with new tanks LET THEM CYCLE, DON'T USE THEM!!!

Two products that can defeat nitrate/ite spikes are - Prime and Nitra-zorb. Prime is a dechlorinator that can be used at 5x the standard dose to wipe out high levels (almost immediate) and Nitra-zorb is a bag that you put in your filter or just drop in your tank and it absorbs the levels slowly.

Good luck!

Thanks Blue and Kim,

If I use the Prime, which is meant to wipe out the Nitrates immediately, what effect does this have on the fish, is it like adjusting the PH does it have to be done slowly?

Not at all. Nitrates and nitrites are just poison (contaminants) in the water and the sooner and faster removed, the better.

I'm not sure you have given good/full advice there Blue - nitrates are acid if there very high and removed to quickly the tanks PH will/may change dramaticly this can cause a lot of harm to the fish!!

Ph is 6!!!!! this may be due to high nitrates ??

Good point Stu, thanks for covering my back there. Lindyloo, watch your pH levels when dealing with your nitrates.

So what do you guys advice me to do then?

Should I start by doing a water change, I cant get any of this Prime until tomorrow anyway, do you think my fish will be OK untill then, is this likely to cause any deaths, they are all looking quite happy at the moment, what do you guys suggest I do re: the PH when I put this Prime in the tank then, do I add PH up while I'm getting rid of these Nitrates, and what causes the Nitrates to get so high?

Thanks for the help Lynda

5-10% water change and monitor your levels daily to see the affects. Prime is a bit drastic, I suppose, as pointed out by Stu. Main thing is to determine what caused the nitrate spike. With a heavily planted tank this shouldn't happen unless you have say.... a piece of rotting driftwood.

Once you figure out the problem and deal with it, I think regular water changes and a nitra-zorb bag will prevent this from happening again.

How many times did you test the water?

Nitrates are anions (negatively charged ions) and are neither acid or alkali. Acidity is caused by the hydrogen ion concentration being elevated (lowers pH)

I cant work out why this has happened, I do water changes twice a week takinng out approx 20% of the water, I have no driftwood in this tank, when I planted the new plants yesterday I fertilised them with Sera fert tablets could this have anything to do with it?

Lynda

Prime shouldn't alter your ph. I use it when doing waterchange everyday.

Could it be your test kit is faulty?

Best way to get rid of nitrate is big water change. Make sure that the water you are putting in have the same PH and temperature if you are doing massive waterchange. hth

Cheers,

ronnie

Thanks for your help everyone, I will do a water change now and will test again in the morning. Do I do a vaccum aswell or just change the water?

Discusguru: Don't think its a faulty test kit , will test again in the morning. :-?

Thanks again

Lynda

Look on the sera fert label and see if it is designed to produce nitrate. Most nitrates are pretty soluble and will leach into the water. Ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish but nitrate is needed by your plants, you just have more than they are using and I suspect it is from your added fertilizer. Water changes and use by plants will get rid of it. It may pay to reduce the light until you sort it out or you could get a massive algae bloom.

NO Sera Fertilisers contain Nitrates or Phosphate.

Yep, checked the box and Sera Ferts container no Nitrates or Phosphates.

Still cant work out why this has happened, doing water changes about every second day to try and get this problem under control, it's slowly coming down.

:bounce:

:bounce:

Lynda

Try testing your tap water, it might have a high level of nitrates in it.

Must admit didn't even think of doing that, thanks for that HummingBird.

Lynda

Hi HUmmingBird,

Just checked me Tap Water for Nitrates and it comes up as 0, so no thats not the problem, keep thinkin, lol it's slowly coming down anywayz so should be back to normal soon,hopefully.

Thanks for the tip anywayz.

Lynda

Between water changes and plants using it, it will come right. The trick will be to figure out how it got elevated. I am pretty sure nitrate is not toxic to fish, it just contributes to algae problems.