Nitrates Off The Scale. My Fish Are Dying.

I have a well-planted 29 gallon aquarium with 10 Fancy Tail Guppies, a Plecostomus, 4 Algae Eaters, a Horseface Loach and a Red Tail Shark. My guppies are dying off one-by-one. My ammonia levels and nitrite levels are close to 0.00 ppm, but my nitrates are off the chart.
I tried an initial 50% water change (and vacuuming the substrate), and it seemed to have no effect on reducing nitrate levels. So I did 4 more 33% water changes every other day to no avail. For some reason, the water changes haven't had any effect on reducing nitrate levels.
Now, I think I need to purchase a product to safely eliminate or drastically reduce the high nitrate levels. Can anyone suggest a product?

 

I have a well-planted 29 gallon aquarium with 10 Fancy Tail Guppies, a Plecostomus, 4 Algae Eaters, a Horseface Loach and a Red Tail Shark. My guppies are dying off one-by-one. My ammonia levels and nitrite levels are close to 0.00 ppm, but my nitrates are off the chart.
I tried an initial 50% water change (and vacuuming the substrate), and it seemed to have no effect on reducing nitrate levels. So I did 4 more 33% water changes every other day to no avail. For some reason, the water changes haven't had any effect on reducing nitrate levels.
Now, I think I need to purchase a product to safely eliminate or drastically reduce the high nitrate levels. Can anyone suggest a product?

Last time I had a major nitrate problem I used seachem prime temporary. I found out that I have high nitrates in our water where I live at.

Sorry couldn't be much more help.

 

PosingOwl,
You raise an interesting point. My water could be high in nitrates. Never thought to test my water supply. I have added SeaChem Prime and StressZyme but that didn't work. If my thinking is correct, I believe that beneficial bacteria oxidizes ammonia to nitrites and then oxidizes nitrites to nitrates. However, once nitrates are produced, I don't think beneficial bacteria can eliminate nitrates. There are a few products available for reducing nitrates. I am curious to know if anyone has had experience with any of these products.

 

What are the nitrates in the water you are using? (Idk if you're using tap or well or whatever) but this might be the source of your problem. If it does have high nitrates, you might want to do WC with bottled water to lower the nitrate into an acceptable range, then look into a more permanent solution (such as investing in a RO unit).

 

I didn't check for nitrates in my water supply (city tap water) yet. I know it contains chloramine, but that's beside the point. I will test my water supply for nitrates and post the results.
Do RO units filter out chloramine also?

 

Yes they do. Somebody on here added a pretty blue rock that was leeching nitrates.

 

If there are no nitrates in your tap you either have a really heavy bioload in that tank (what type of Pleco do you have?) and/or your weekly partial water changes are not large enough.

 

I guess we should ask what the exact numbers are, before and after. Are they actually off the charts? Above 80ppm?
It could be you need a single 80% change to really get them down.

 

Large swings in nitrate levels are actually more hazardous to the fish than the high levels are. So when bringing high levels of nitrates down you want to do it slowly over the course of several days.

 

I have a well-planted 29 gallon aquarium with 10 Fancy Tail Guppies, a Plecostomus, 4 Algae Eaters, a Horseface Loach and a Red Tail Shark. My guppies are dying off one-by-one. My ammonia levels and nitrite levels are close to 0.00 ppm, but my nitrates are off the chart.
I tried an initial 50% water change (and vacuuming the substrate), and it seemed to have no effect on reducing nitrate levels. So I did 4 more 33% water changes every other day to no avail. For some reason, the water changes haven't had any effect on reducing nitrate levels.
Now, I think I need to purchase a product to safely eliminate or drastically reduce the high nitrate levels. Can anyone suggest a product?

Hi, I live in London where the nitrates are really high in the tap water. I was having a big problem in that my shrimp weren't breeding and the super helpful members here traced it to my high nitrates.
This is how I reduced them from around 80 to about 10 ( I'm not sure if one factor was more beneficial than the others as I did all at pretty much the same time over a week or so...)
*I bought some Seachem DeNitrate and put it in the filter
*I bought some floating plants
*I started mixing my tap water with some cheap Supermarket bottled water
*I got a Pothos cutting and 'rooted' it in the tank
As I said, my nitrates are now around 10 and the shrimp are breeding happily, so I'd recommend giving any/all of these methods a try!

 

You sound like you have a pretty heavy bioload too. I believe Guppies have a high Bioload and 10 is a lot, especially if you have a Pleco in there that isn’t a BN or rubber Lip

 

Both the ammonia levels and nitrite levels are close 0.00 ppm. The nitrate levels of the tap water I use for the tank is essentially 0.0 ppm as well. So, the tap water is not the problem. In my initial post, I mentioned that I did quite a bit of water changes. I am using API water testing kit and it is hard to discern the exact nitrate ppm. The test yields a dark red color that is beyond 80.0 ppm.

The only thing I can think of is that I have a lot of Fluorite substrate (about 4 inches deep) in my 29 gal tank. Could this quantity of substrate harbor nitrates and release the nitrate to the water?

Also, before I proceeded with the water changes, I added API Algaefix as directed; however, I doubt this would affect nitrate levels - especially after 5 water changes.

jdhef,
I have a Bristlenose pleco that is about 5 inches in length. I think my bioload should be OK for a 29 gal tank.

itsEmma,
My tank is heavily planted with rooted plants. What would you use floating plants versus rooted plants?
Also, what is Pothos?

And thanks for the suggestion. I will buy some of the SeaChem DeNitrate.

Marco Rodriguez,
I have had this tank set up since December 2017. Maybe I do have a heavy bioload. But having the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate level in check for almost 6 months, I didn't think that this was an issue.

 

My tank is heavily planted with rooted plants. What would you use floating plants versus rooted plants?
Also, what is Pothos?

And thanks for the suggestion. I will buy some of the SeaChem DeNitrate.[/QUOTE]

HI again, just from what I've been told and read, I believe that floating plants are superior at removing nitrates as the roots are in the water while the leaves are in the air above the water line. I've got Water Lettuce and some Frogbit. The only thing is, though, that I'm sure that I've heard people mention that there can be problems getting hold of them in America(?)
Pothos is a type of vine-actually mainly used as a houseplant, but, very popular in aquariums to control nitrates. It's been praised in many Threads here where you'll find lots of info on where to get it, how to take a cutting etc as well as how great people find it for reducing nitrates.
Finally to the DeNitrate-I liked the idea of it as it's a natural product rather than a chemical.
As I said, I've no idea which one of the things I did was 'the best' (or maybe didn't help at all!) But one of them definitely sorted my sky-high nitrates!

 

Okay - well, if your source water has 0 nitrates you either are not doing large enough water changes and so the levels have been creeping up and/or you have somehow changed the way you are using the test kit.
Normally when a tank has progressed to Old Tank Syndrome the nitrate levels gradually rise to off the chart levels... so even if you do a 50% water change, the levels are still off the charts. Since I believe you were doing 30% every other day for a while, I would try upping that to 50% daily. I would normally suggest back to back 50% changes in one day, but as mentioned by a previous poster bringing the nitrate level down too rapidly can also be detrimental.
Also - the nitrate test gives more problems for correct results than any other. Were you perhaps getting false 0 readings before, but now are getting actual readings? Do you bang the living heck out of nitrate bottle #2 for the full time? Did you change test kits recently?

 

The nitrate test is difficult discern above 80 ppm. 5 mL samples are used for measuring nitrate levels. I was thinking about using 15 mL samples instead. That is a three-fold increase. I would have to compensate for the larger sample by multiplying the value by 3. (The number of drops used from the test kit remains unchanged.)

Let's say I run a test on a 15 mL sample and it turns out to be 40 ppm. The actual concentration is 3 x 40 ppm = 120 ppm. I think this is a good way to more accurately measure high nitrate levels. I will give it a try tomorrow and post my results.

Mom2some ,
I will try 50% water changes every other day until the nitrate levels are in check.

 

Well...
I'm stumped

 

I'm not sure why the overstocking was brushed off so quickly, all of your fish are pooping machines. It doesn't matter the type of Pleco, they all produce tons and tons of waste. Most algae eaters do because they're eating all the time. Which by the way, what are the others you listed as "algae eaters"? Guppies are actually much higher of a bioload than people assume, they're messy. Your tank handled the bioload at first, but as your fish started growing, your 29 gallons of water became MUCH smaller than when you started. Also, what kind of filter do you have on there?

 

I wonder if instead of doing 15 mL you do half tank water & half tap water (since it has no nitrates).

 

The nitrate test is difficult discern above 80 ppm. 5 mL samples are used for measuring nitrate levels. I was thinking about using 15 mL samples instead. That is a three-fold increase. I would have to compensate for the larger sample by multiplying the value by 3. (The number of drops used from the test kit remains unchanged.)

Let's say I run a test on a 15 mL sample and it turns out to be 40 ppm. The actual concentration is 3 x 40 ppm = 120 ppm. I think this is a good way to more accurately measure high nitrate levels. I will give it a try tomorrow and post my results.

I don't think that will work as you expect. 40ppm (as an example) is 40ppm no matter what the volume of water. Using the same drops in a larger volume of water, will only mean that you will get (most likely) a wrong result. But I don't think it would necessarily give a result one third of the true vale.

I think you would be much better off using Mom2some 's advice above. That method would dilute your nitrates, so your test result would be proportionally lower. So if you went 50-50 you would multiply the result by 2.

 

Out of curiousity, what type of fish are the algae eaters? I know this doesn't answer your question about nitrates, but if these are 4 chinese algae eaters that would shed some light on why you may have such high nitrates.

 

I mix up 5ml of tank water with 10ml of tap.. mix it real good, then pour 5ml back into a tube and do a normal test. This will get you in the ballpark, but remember, the chart doubles each color, 5ppm, 10ppm, 20, 40... so any error in reading is also multiplied by 3. It will only give you a very rough range..

 

AquaticJ and Mazeus,

As far as Algae Eaters, I believe I have 4 Siamese or Chinese Algae Eaters.

As far as filtration, I have two hang on back filters - one biological and one chemical (carbon).

Mom2some and jdhef,

Am I correct to assume that I use 2.5 mL of aquarium water and 2.5 mL of tap water (for a total of 5 mL) to test? And then multiply the result by two? That would be a better approach than the one I proposed.

 

I wonder if instead of doing 15 mL you do half tank water & half tap water (since it has no nitrates).

This is what I do. If 2.5mls of tank water and 2.5mls of tap water tests out to 20 then you can feel pretty confident that your tank is at 40 and a 50% water change will lower it to 20.

 

jdhef,

Am I correct to assume that I use 2.5 mL of aquarium water and 2.5 mL of tap water (for a total of 5 mL) to test? And then multiply the result by two? That would be a better approach than the one I proposed.

yes, you are correct.