Ich problem, high nitrates please help

3800rs

3800rs

Medium Fish
#1
Mar 21, 2008
94
0
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Long Island
#1
I have a 55 gallon tank. I just bought a few new fish last week and one of them brought ich to my tank. I have the aqua clear 300 filter and i took out the media in it leaving only the foam pad. I put in "ich buddies" treatment on sunday. Monday i did a 25% water change and put another dose of the "ich buddies in on wednesday. I tested the water and the nitrates were really high and the fish started to keep opening their mouths. One fish died, another looks like his skin is decaying. None of the fish really have any white specs on them anymore. Today i put in some ich buddies fungus clear hoping it would help the one with the decaying skin. Where do i go from here ? I do not like playing mad scientist here and i feel if i keep adding all these chemicals the fish will all die.
1. Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate - Nitrate-200ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm ammonia- unsure
2. pH/GH/KH - ? ph-6.8 Gh- appeared soft- 75ppm , KH 40ppm - low
3. Temperature - 76-78 DEGREES
4. Tank size/Filtration - 55 GALLON, AQUACLEAR 300
5. Water change amount/frequency - hARDLY EVER, USUALLY ADD ABOUT 2 GALLONS A WEEK
6. Water additives/Medications - JUST ADDED TANKBUDDIES ICH MED and fungus clear
7. What, how much and how often do you feed your fish? - ONCE JUST ENOUGH TO BE EATEN IN A FEW MINUTES
8. Tank inhabitants - 3-TETRAS, 4 BLIND CAVE FISH, 1- GRAMMOURIE, 1- "COMMUNITY" SHARK
9. Any new fish added to the tank? Who and when? - YES, ADDED 2-GRAMMOURIE AND 2 SHARKS. 1 OF EACH DIED WITHIN DAYS. ADDED LAST WEEK
10. Any unusual behavior or symptoms? JUST NOTICED AFTER ICH MEDS FISH OPENING THEIR MOUTHS
11. How long has the tank been in operation? 20+ YRS
 

d3sc3n7

d3sc3n7

Superstar Fish
#2
Nov 21, 2007
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Ft. Campbell, Ky
www.d3sc3n7.com
#2
Ok my first suggestion: Read!
2: Do a MASSIVE water change if those nitrates are really 200ppm and not a typo of 20ppm.
3: Get some coppersafe, I dont think it will hurt anyone in your tank. But read up on it, to make sure. I'm not familiar with the "Grammourie"

Edit: Did you see the spots on the fish? If so, and they are gone now, your either in the dormant stage (good) or the free swimming stage (bad)

Another Edit: 20+ years of running that tank, and you dont do water changes???
 

Last edited:
TabMorte

TabMorte

Superstar Fish
#3
Jan 17, 2008
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#3
You should be doing 25 to 30 % water changes EVERY week and striving to keep your Nitrate under 40ppm (personally I water change if it gets to 20ppm)

I would suspect what you have is not Ich. If your Nitrate is really 200ppm your new fish are dying from the Nitrates. You need to get that under control and quickly.

What symptoms of Ich did you see? It looks like some one sprinkled salt on your fish. If your fish's flesh is actually 'decaying' as you put it that's something entirely differant.
 

3800rs

3800rs

Medium Fish
#4
Mar 21, 2008
94
0
0
Long Island
#4
the fish did have the white specs, i added an ich treatment and it went away but 1 fish his skin looks all loose and what not. And yes according to the tester the nitrates were at around 200ppm. I never had any problems unitl i got these fish, thats why i found it weird. the spots are gone now, but like i said i notice the fish keep opening their mouths meaning from what i read they are stressed. Should i do another water change ? Thanks for all the input
 

d3sc3n7

d3sc3n7

Superstar Fish
#5
Nov 21, 2007
1,455
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Ft. Campbell, Ky
www.d3sc3n7.com
#5
You should do a water change in the range of about 75%! Keep doing them daily, till that number comes WAY! down. It should be at 20 not 200! Scrap the ich buddies, commercial crap...and go with coppersafe. You still have ICH, you just cant see it, which is bad. Please read that article I wrote. It will answer all your questions
 

alter40

alter40

Superstar Fish
#6
Nov 26, 2007
1,293
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0
40
Charlotte, NC
#6
200ppm :eek:

You really do need to do a LARGE water change, at least 50%. I would probably do a 50% change for 2 or 3 days in a row if I were you. I just checked my API master test kit to see how high it could measure and it only goes up to 160ppm. You need to get your nitrates down. Its also possible that your maxing out the limits of your test kit and it could be even higher then 200ppm.

Your best bet is to do the water changes and hope for the best. Let us know how your tests look after you do the water change.

Good luck!
 

3800rs

3800rs

Medium Fish
#7
Mar 21, 2008
94
0
0
Long Island
#7
will do. its safe to be changing out the water at those quantities on a daily basis ? i read the ich write-up, very informative. i did not see any copper safe at my local store. i did however get some wardley ich liquid crap. is it worth using ?
 

alter40

alter40

Superstar Fish
#8
Nov 26, 2007
1,293
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Charlotte, NC
#8
As long as you treat the water before you put it in the tank you shouldn't have any issues with a large water change. The conditioner will get rid of the chlorine and cloramines from your water and it should make it safe. Just make sure your water is the same temp as the tank water before putting it in the tank. I would keep doing these large water changes until your nitrates are down to 10ppm or so.
 

3800rs

3800rs

Medium Fish
#9
Mar 21, 2008
94
0
0
Long Island
#9
ok, thanks for the fast reply. tomorrow i should do about a 50% water change. Is the wardley stuff any good or should i search for the coppersafe stuff ? Is the high nitrates causing the fish to keep opening their mouths ? they never did that until i administered the first does of ich meds last week.
 

alter40

alter40

Superstar Fish
#10
Nov 26, 2007
1,293
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Charlotte, NC
#10
I haven't really used either medication and haven't had to deal with ich in years so I can't help you too much there. I'm also not sure what would cause their mouths to stay open like that but its probably a mixture of poor water conditions, meds in the water, and the ich itself. The only other reason that I have heard of with a mouth being stuck open on a fish had to do with something getting stuck in its mouth, like a piece of gravel.
 

3800rs

3800rs

Medium Fish
#15
Mar 21, 2008
94
0
0
Long Island
#15
no , swimming like normal but like i said a couple of the blind cave fish are chompin their mouths. just hoping no more die. any reccomendations for the one with the skin that looks like its breaking down ?
 

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