High Nitrate - update now I have nitrite & ammonia

Hi! My tank has high nitrates and I need to get them down. The test reads 40ppm. i do feel like i have been overfeeding a little bit so Im going to feed way less. My tank is not overstocked. Should I do a water change, if so how much? i tested my tap water and it has 0 nitrates. My nitrites come up as 0, ammonia 0, ph: 7.6, high range ph 7.4-7.8 (so about 7.6). What should I do?

HELP! My nitrate is coming up as 40ppm. What do I do? Is this safe?

 

If you did a 50% water change with tap water measuring 0 nitrates you would dilute the nitrates in the tank by half, so your nitrates would be around the 20ppm mark after the water change. Just make sure the water you use is temperature matched and dechlorinated. Live plants, avoiding overfeeding and overstocking and adequate filtration should help control nitrates too.

 

If you did a 50% water change with tap water measuring 0 nitrates you would dilute the nitrates in the tank by half, so your nitrates would be around the 20ppm mark after the water change. Just make sure the water you use is temperature matched and dechlorinated. Live plants, avoiding overfeeding and overstocking and adequate filtration should help control nitrates too.

OK great. Should I do a 50% right now?

 

40ppm isnt dangerously high but the lower the better really. Some fish will tolerate higher levels, some wont.

You could do 50% or you could do 25% today, which would bring the nitrates to 30ppm followed by another 25% tomorrow. The key is to try and match the parameters to avoid stressing the fish.

Id perform the water change then keep an eye on your levels to see how quickly the nitrates creep up and establish what is causing the build up.

 

40ppm isnt dangerously high but the lower the better really. Some fish will tolerate higher levels, some wont.

You could do 50% or you could do 25% today, which would bring the nitrates to 30ppm followed by another 25% tomorrow. The key is to try and match the parameters to avoid stressing the fish.

Id perform the water change then keep an eye on your levels to see how quickly the nitrates creep up and establish what is causing the build up.

OK I just did water change (50%) and now my nitrate is at 20 but ahh my ammonia is at 0.25 what do I do???

Help! I have a 20g and the Nitrate was high so somone reccomended I do a 50% water change because my tap water was lower than my aquarium water this got my nitrate to 20ppm so its good. but then I tested my ammonia and nitrite and my nitrite is at 0.25 and my ammonia is at 0.50. What do I do????

 

Nitrates usually aren't an emergency. 40ppm is certainly not an emergency for most fish, so there's no need to panic over that in the future. Its not good for them long-term, but its generally not going to kill them. Just do regular water changes to keep your levels down.

You can deal with your ammonia and nitrite levels the same way you deal with your nitrate. Just do a water change. Keep an eye on those levels and change the water whenever you need to.

Is this a new tank? Is it cycled? What fish do you have in there?

 

Nitrates usually aren't an emergency. 40ppm is certainly not an emergency for most fish, so there's no need to panic over that in the future. Its not good for them long-term, but its generally not going to kill them. Just do regular water changes to keep your levels down.

You can deal with your ammonia and nitrite levels the same way you deal with your nitrate. Just do a water change. Keep an eye on those levels and change the water whenever you need to.

Is this a new tank? Is it cycled? What fish do you have in there?

Might be worth testing the tap water to see what ammonia and nitrite levels are like as well. Im struggling to see how a water change on what seems to be a cycled tank can produce after readings like that.

 

Help! my nitrites and ammonia are high after a water change. I did a water change because my nitrate was high and now I have a nitrate of 20ppm. and now my ammonia is at about 0.50 maybe 1.00. And my nitrite is at 0.25. What do I do?

Might be worth testing the tap water to see what ammonia and nitrite levels are like as well. Im struggling to see how a water change on what seems to be a cycled tank can produce after readings like that.

Yes. I tested tap water and both nirites and ammonia 0. this is so weird. should I do water with decloranated water?

Nitrates usually aren't an emergency. 40ppm is certainly not an emergency for most fish, so there's no need to panic over that in the future. Its not good for them long-term, but its generally not going to kill them. Just do regular water changes to keep your levels down.

You can deal with your ammonia and nitrite levels the same way you deal with your nitrate. Just do a water change. Keep an eye on those levels and change the water whenever you need to.

Is this a new tank? Is it cycled? What fish do you have in there?

Ok. I will do a water change, 50%? Nope! Yes cycled! 1 angelfish, germain blue ram, mollies, and guppy, and cory catfish.

 

Did you not use dechlorinated water when you changed your water?

 

Did you not use dechlorinated water when you changed your water?

yes.

 

Vacuum out any leftover food and poop in the tank. They are producing ammonia and overwhelming your bacteria. Just stop feeding and let the bacteria do the work

After a day or two you can resume feeding but feed very little

 

yes.

Thats probably your issue, or the start of it anyway. The chlorine added to the tank may have killed off the beneficial bacteria in your tank, causing the rise in ammonia and nitrites. The chlorine wont be helping the fish either.

add tap water conditioner to your tank, dosed to the correct amount. In future, use dechlorinated water when changing your water.

 

Thats probably your issue, or the start of it anyway. The chlorine added to the tank may have killed off the beneficial bacteria in your tank, causing the rise in ammonia and nitrites. The chlorine wont be helping the fish either.

add tap water conditioner to your tank, dosed to the correct amount. In future, use dechlorinated water when changing your water.

So what do I do. I just did 50% water change with declorinated water. Ammonia still high.

update: tested nitrite (its 0) going to double check I will update you. Ammonia a littl better for sure 0.50 now.

 

Do you happen to know what the ammonia and nitrites were before the change? If they were both 0 you might want to test the water source.

 

Do you happen to know what the ammonia and nitrites were before the change? If they were both 0 you might want to test the water source.

Yup. both were 0 tested water and ammonia 0 and nitrites 0.25. Nitrites in aquarium are 0 now after I did another 50% water change and ammonia went down a little bit but still high. What do you reccomend I do?

 

Test some tap water to be sure

 

Test some tap water to be sure

ok doing that right now. I will comment the results

Just tested the tap water amonia is 0.25-0.50 and nitrite is 0.25. what should I do?

 

You could consider finding a different water course but seeing as your tank is cycled it should be able to convert the nitrites to nitrates. Prime can be used to detoxify ammonia for 24 hours while the tank cycles it to nitrates.

 

You could consider finding a different water course but seeing as your tank is cycled it should be able to convert the nitrites to nitrates. Prime can be used to detoxify ammonia for 24 hours while the tank cycles it to nitrates.

ok. And ammonia?

 

ok. And ammonia?

Prime can detoxify it for 24 hours while the tank cycles it into nitrates.