How is my 75 gallon tank?

HI all. I had a question regarding my 75 gallon tank. It is about 3 years old. I have 2 Emperor 400 filters on it, I do 2 PWC a week. In it I have a Pictus Catfish, Spotted Pleco, I started off with 3 Dalmatian Mollies but they bred now I have about 15 total, mostly black mollies. Red Tail Black Shark and an African Dwarf Frog. In the past I had a BAD Nitrate problem, which made me increase my weekly water changes. Right now my Nitrates fluctuate between 40-80PPM. When I detected the Nitrate problem it was at an insane 200+PPM! It may have been like that for several months. However, I ALWAYS did a 15 gallon water change, every week without missing a beat since the start of my tank, I now do more as I previously stated. My question is how do you guys think my tank is over all? Do you think I have any stunted growth or other issues? The reason I ask is it seems my fish quit growing. The mollies I started off with got BIG, however the current black ones are remaining small. My Bala sharks, 2 of them are a decent size, the 3rd is smaller and has not grown in a a while. My Red Tail Black shark is about full grown and nice and fat. Pictus Cat is about 3 inches and nice and fat. Pleco is a big boy. If I did have stunted growth, what would symptoms/signs be? Are there any visible signs? Everyone in my tank seems healthy and they eat with no problem. Also, I only feed once a day. So, over all, how would you guys say I am doing? Any info, tips, pointers, help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!!

 

The simple fact that you have 15 Mollies is crazy to even contemplate!!! I have 3 and they create such a strain on my filters so I couldn't imagine 12 more! But I'd say those with Pleco are your reason for the high nitrates, I'm sure you know he recommended levels for nitrate is under or equal to 20 ppm. I know that there is such thing as nitrate poisoning and that an elevated level of nitrate for to long will definitely stress your fish out and prolonged stress can absolutely stunt growth. The 40-80 ppm of nitrate is that after or before your water changes??

 

can you be more specific on the type of pleco (just want to make sure you don't have the 2 foot type)
mollies are quite sensitive to crowding so you should probably remove some down the line
the pictus cat may eat some mollies and the frog (I'm surprised you got any baby molies to survive with him in the tank)

 

What are all of your current parameters and what are you testing with?
If you could, test your source water as well.

You have some stocking issues if you're interested in discussing that

 

The simple fact that you have 15 Mollies is crazy to even contemplate!!! I have 3 and they create such a strain on my filters so I couldn't imagine 12 more! But I'd say those with Pleco are your reason for the high nitrates, I'm sure you know he recommended levels for nitrate is under or equal to 20 ppm. I know that there is such thing as nitrate poisoning and that an elevated level of nitrate for to long will definitely stress your fish out and prolonged stress can absolutely stunt growth. The 40-80 ppm of nitrate is that after or before your water changes??

The 40-80PPM is now before water changes, before that the INSANELY high PPM was constant but I got it under control. Yes, I know it is 20, which is why I now to 2 water changes a week.

can you be more specific on the type of pleco (just want to make sure you don't have the 2 foot type)
mollies are quite sensitive to crowding so you should probably remove some down the line
the pictus cat may eat some mollies and the frog (I'm surprised you got any baby molies to survive with him in the tank)

My Pleco is a Sailfin Pleco I believe he is the spotted kind. Here is a picture of him. This was taken several months ago. He has not seemed to grow since. I noticed the stop in growth mainly with my Bala Sharks and Mollies, some of the smaller black ones are staying the same size and my smallest bala shark seems to be staying the same size. Same with my bigger ones. Is there visible signs I can look for in regards to stunt growth? My pictus cat does not bother the molly babies much, I think it is because they stay up top. However, now I take them into my local petshop whenever they have fry. My dwarf frog does eat some tho.

What are all of your current parameters and what are you testing with?
If you could, test your source water as well.

You have some stocking issues if you're interested in discussing that

I use test strips. However, my local petshop is who discovered my high nitrate spike. I went in because I saw a little problem with one of my fishes eye and found out I had high nitrates. All is well now tho. I just tested and right now my Nitrates once again are 40-80PPM, however I am going to do a PWC today. I do them every Thursday and Monday. My GH is 180PPM ( I have well water) KH is 80 PH is 7.5 and I have 0 Nitrite. And yes, I would love to discuss stocking issues.

 

I don't keep mollies, so I couldnt tell you how many you could put in a 75g.
But I know Bala sharks get huge. Like...not for home aquaria huge.
And you should only have one shark to a tank as sharks are very territorial. I would return the balas and keep the Red Tail.
You never specified how many Pictus you have, but it sounds like a loner.. They should be in a group of at least 6. With a 75g, id do at least 10.

As for the nitrAtes, I believe its due to the many mollies and the pleco. You might want to consider rehoming some mollies.

Until then, you may want to do 3 water changes a week.

Are you doing at least one 50% change week?

Edit to add: you may also want to pick up a liquid test kit. Strips are notoriously inaccurate and more expensive in the long run

 

I would suggest rehoming at least half of those mollies and keep only males so you don't have a ton of babies. Mollies in those numbers will strain the vast majority of filtration systems. Also, the bala sharks should be rehomed as well as Peacefantasy said, they get far too large for the home aquarium. The pictus also do better in groups so I would consider upping the number of pictus to 3.

I would also start increasing the amount of water you are changing. I'd go as high as 25 or 30 gallons and see if that gets it under control. I also wonder if you are having an over feeding problem or if your tap water has nitrates in it.

 

I would suggest rehoming at least half of those mollies and keep only males so you don't have a ton of babies. Mollies in those numbers will strain the vast majority of filtration systems. Also, the bala sharks should be rehomed as well as @Peacefantasy said, they get far too large for the home aquarium. The pictus also do better in groups so I would consider upping the number of pictus to 3.

I would also start increasing the amount of water you are changing. I'd go as high as 25 or 30 gallons and see if that gets it under control. I also wonder if you are having an over feeding problem or if your tap water has nitrates in it.

Thank you, I will look into rehoming some Mollies. The reason I have only 1 pictus cat is because the petshop said the spotted pictus cats are solo fish and the striped pictus cats are the group ones. I will also have to look into rehoming the Bala Sharks. I will increase my usual 15 gallon water change to 25-30 and do it twice, maybe 3 times a week. Thank you so much!!

 

Unfortunately the LFS was not accurate with their information. The spotted pictus cat is a shoaling fish and will do better in groups.

 

I don't keep mollies, so I couldnt tell you how many you could put in a 75g.
But I know Bala sharks get huge. Like...not for home aquaria huge.
And you should only have one shark to a tank as sharks are very territorial. I would return the balas and keep the Red Tail.
You never specified how many Pictus you have, but it sounds like a loner.. They should be in a group of at least 6. With a 75g, id do at least 10.

As for the nitrAtes, I believe its due to the many mollies and the pleco. You might want to consider rehoming some mollies.

Until then, you may want to do 3 water changes a week.

Are you doing at least one 50% change week?

Edit to add: you may also want to pick up a liquid test kit. Strips are notoriously inaccurate and more expensive in the long run

I do have one Pictus cat, only because I was told upon purchasing that the spotted Pictus are solo fish and the striped pictus are the group cats. I do not do 50% changes, however when I had the 200+ppm Nitrate problem I did a 50 every day for about a week and I got it down. Now I do a 15 gallon water change, twice a week. I will up that to 25-30 gallons, 2-3 times a week. I also will look into possibly rehoming the bala sharks and a few mollies. I am also going to grab a liquid test kit. As far as Nitrate induced stunted fish, are there visible symptoms to look for? I assume after catching the problem and getting it under control they will be healthier and bounce back?

Unfortunately the LFS was not accurate with their information. The spotted pictus cat is a shoaling fish and will do better in groups.

Thank you so much. I will look into rehoming some mollies, possibly the bala sharks and grab more pictus cats. Gosh, why do LFS give bad information? The one I went to is a mom and pops shop and they been in our town since I was a kid, the fact that they are giving bad information out upsets me, ugh!

 

Most of the time LFS give out bad information because of the lack of knowledge. Let's face it though, there is so much information to know with different species of fish it can be impossible to not give out bad info every once in a while. I usually rate my LFS on how high quality they have of the fish in their stores as well as how well they take care of them. Because many times the employees just don't know everything about every fish in their store...and really we shouldn't be getting all of our fish knowledge from one source anyways. It's best to look at multiple sources.

 

As far as over feeding goes, That may at one point been a problem, for a while I fed several different kinds of foods multiple times a day. Now I only feed once a day or once every other day. As Peacefantasy said regarding the sharks, I was also told by my LFS I could put a Red Tail Black shark with Balas bc the Balas were different color than the RTBS, however, I notice he always chases my Balas around when it is time to feed. Ugh!

Most of the time LFS give out bad information because of the lack of knowledge. Let's face it though, there is so much information to know with different species of fish it can be impossible to not give out bad info every once in a while. I usually rate my LFS on how high quality they have of the fish in their stores as well as how well they take care of them. Because many times the employees just don't know everything about every fish in their store...and really we shouldn't be getting all of our fish knowledge from one source anyways. It's best to look at multiple sources.

Very true and nicely said! My LFS is VERY nice, an older guy and his wife owns it and I have been going there since I was a kid, I am 31 now. Each tank has its own filter, unlike the big pet chains that have all the tanks filtering on the same system. I HATE THAT. His fish are VERY healthy, always great looking and never had an issue with them.

 

Yeah it sounds like you have a quality fish store there. I wouldn't be too hard on them about not knowing the pictus are shoaling fish. It even says in the seriouslyfish page I linked that they can "survive" alone but do better in groups. So I'm sure they have kept a single pictus in the past and it has been just fine.

 

For those wondering, here is my 75 Gallon tank.

 

nice tank!