Very high nitrite and nitrate

[CraftyNana]

I did a complete cleanout on my tank to get rid of nuisance snails , and I started over , so it's like a new tank syndrome. I tested my municipal water , and it is very high in nitrites and nitrates and doing a water change for my tank will not do any good. I have.\n Microbe lift night out and tap water conditioner.\n That I've been using to work with the water and the nitrates and nitrates aren't going down. I live out in nowhere land so I can't go to the neighborhood store and get something to work with my tank.\n I'm going to town tomorrow and I need to know what I need to do to get this nitrites and nitrates down in the tank. I'm going to buy some potted plants because I know that that helps and I don't have a substrate in my tank to plant them in so I'm going to use the potted plants.\n I don't have the levels of the nitrites and nitrites to give you, but just know that they're very, very high. And I've lost a couple fish already.I don't know what to do tonight to try to save what's going on.Can someone help me please

My tank is a 75 gallon breeder tank and I have doased it with 35 mill of the microbe lift. I also put a treatment of the API tap water condition are in it. I have turned the uv light off. My tank has tetras, yo yo loach, cordoras, gouramis, and I also have a five gallon tank with the same problem , with three amazonian dwarf frogs in it.

 

[Dechi]

You can get bottled water that still has minerals, or add minerals if it doesn’t have any.

For long term fix, you can’t get a 3 or 4 stage rodi unit that will give you 0 TDS water and then re-mineralize. You can find some on Amazon.

 

[CraftyNana]

Can you explain what minerals I would add back in?And that I can't do until tomorrow.Is there anything that you can suggest for tonight?I've been looking at an RO system.I'm trying to get the money together to get one

 

[Dechi]

Can you explain what minerals I would add back in?And that I can't do until tomorrow.Is there anything that you can suggest for tonight?I've been looking at an RO system.I'm trying to get the money together to get one

I’ve never done it but you can find the minerals in a bottle. People who use rodi water have to put minerals back into it so that’s what they buy. I’m sure there are some on Amazon as well. But easiest for tomorrow is just to buy water with minerals but you wouldn’t know the nitrates levels in advanced, so hit or miss.

I don’t think there is much you can do unfortunately. You need new water with good parameters. I have the Aquatic life rodi buddy if you want to look it up on Amazon. https://aquaticlife.com/collections...n-4-stage-reverse-osmosis-deionization-system

 

[CraftyNana]

I had live plants in my aquarium before.I cleaned it out and now I have the fake ones.I did that to keep the nuisance nails down if I put some potted plants in there.Is that gonna be as helpful as the other ones or did I need to substrate. I never had a problem with the nitrates. The nitrites in the tank prior to this and the only thing I can think of was the difference is the plants cause I had live plants in the other one. So I just wanted to know before I invest in potted plants, if this was going to be something that's gonna be helpful to the tank, or should I just go with the water directions?

 

[Dechi]

I had live plants in my aquarium before.I cleaned it out and now I have the fake ones.I did that to keep the nuisance nails down if I put some potted plants in there.Is that gonna be as helpful as the other ones or did I need to substrate. I never had a problem with the nitrates. The nitrites in the tank prior to this and the only thing I can think of was the difference is the plants cause I had live plants in the other one. So I just wanted to know before I invest in potted plants, if this was going to be something that's gonna be helpful to the tank, or should I just go with the water directions?

It’s worth it trying to use real plants to lower the nitrates before you invest in a rodi station (which is also more work).

If you want absolutely no snails, you can buy plants that have grown out of the water (they will melt at first but after a while will grow new leaves which will be adapted to life under water) or you can buy 1-2 grow plants which are small but will grow well under the right conditions. Or just do both.

You can also get a pothos or similar plant and put it on top of your tank, roots in water only. They will absorb nitrates.