Nitrate Very High.. What To Do???

[Mermaid20]

I just bought a 20g fish tank and i have had it for about 6 months now. I do regular water changes and test my ammonia, ph, nitrates and nitrites. Everything is good, expect my nitrate levels are high and i cant seem to bring them down. Its at 80ppm. I have done many water changes but it doesnt even seem to have an effect. Could anyone recommend what I should do?

 

[Orion]

How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?

Have you checked your tap water for nitrates? It's not totally unheard of for some water supply's to have high nitrates.

 

[seastaar88]

i have a feeling you'll need to increase the amount and frequency of your water changes. have your nitrates always been so high or just lately?

 

[JWright]

Other important questions:

How many and what kind of fish do you have in the tank?

How much and how often do you feed?

Does your test kit read "80" or does it just go as high as it can go and 80 is the highest number on the scale?

~JW

 

[MissFishy]

The first thing you should probably do is check your tap water for nitrate levels, then confirm your results with another test kit. Just take a sample of both your tank water and tap water into a fish store and the will be able to test the water for free.

Things to consider trying, upping the number of water changes you do (provided of course that your tap water is not the source of the nitrates) or adding live plants.

 

[JWright]

80ppm in the tap water would be pretty extreme...

 

[epond83]

there is almost no way his tap water is 80ppm with nitrates, but if you are doing WC with water that is 20ppm, your nitrates are going to come down slower than with clean water and 'appear' to jump back up in a week or two, especailly if like you said is it really at 80ppm or just at the max reading of the test kit.

Testing the water a day or two after a WC couldn't hurt either just to see where you are at right after a WC.

And yeah stocking would be nice to know in this situation.

 

[Mermaid20]

I checked all water, including the tap water and everything is perfect. I feed my fish once a day and i always do a water change every month. but this week i did 2.

To answer the other question, of how many fish are in my tank.....

2 Guppies
2 Bala Shaks
1 Irredescent
5 Danios
2 Guppies
4 mollies
1 Gold Fish
1 Algea Eater
1 Albino Cat Fish
3 Neon Tetras
3 Glow Lite Tetras
1 Blind Cave Tetra
3 Red Eye Tetras
1 Congo Tetra
3 Sword Tails
and my molly just had babies and there is about 30.
All in my 20 Gallon Tank. (and yes, they have all survived in my tank for 6 months that i have had the tank)

 

[seastaar88]

WHAT?! please tell me you meant to say 120-gallons......LOL!

surviving does not equate healthy or thriving. no wonder your nitrates are sky high!

i know others are going to chime in, but i would honestly re-think your stocking and water change schedule. goldfish produce a ton of waste. a "rule of thumb" so to speak is that one goldfish requires 20G of water, while each additional goldie needs another 10G. irridescent sharks get very large too. i recommend bringing the goldie and all the sharks back to the LFS and ideally pare things down even further.

 

[MissFishy]

OH...MY...GOD. Please tell me you're joking. You need to return about 85-90% of the fish you have in that tank ASAP. Just because they're somehow surviving cramped in there does not mean they are healthy and happy. You have fish that should not be kept together, fish that are too big to be in a 20gallon tank alone, and fish that need schools in order to thrive.

A general rule of thumb for stocking a fish tank is 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. This means that you have room for 20 inches of fish. Your tank would be fully stocked with just your guppies, danios, and mollies.

Your water parameters will soon be toxic, no number of water changes is going to fix that with that stocking level.

 

[JWright]

How do all of those fish physically fish in 20 gallons?

As seastaar said, that goldfish by itself would fully stock the tank when it's full grown.

Those Bala Sharks need to be in a group of 10-12, will grown to 12", and need to be in a 250+ gallon tank.

Iridescent sharks top out at around 3 feet...

A happy stocking level for you 20 gallon would be to keep the danios, add a couple more albino cat fish (I assume you mean cory catfish)... and that's about it... Take everything else back.

~JW

 

[FroggyFox]

Holy cow...that is a lot of fish. I agree with seastaar...even without anything except the smaller fish, a 55 would be fully stocked.

I'd say its safe to assume that even if you did a 100% water change every day that you'd still have high nitrates...and frankly I'm a little surprised that you haven't had more deaths before now.

I'd definitely suggest either a larger tank (much larger) and re-evaluating your stock. What type of fish do you really want to keep? I'd read up on some of the thread about stocking to get an idea of how much you can safely fit into a 20g tank. Something like a school of about 10 small fish (ie don't get larger than about two inches) and an algae eater is usually a good suggestion for that size tank....so you can see why we're astounded at how many fish are in the tank.

 

[Big Vine]

Taken from another thread in this section of the forum:

Flush Them!!!!!!!!

Hardly sound advice coming from someone with your supposed level of stocking and related issues. Not sure about the rest of you, but I smell something that rhymes with 'roll'...
Prove me wrong.

BV

 

[exhumed07]

ok after seeing how many fish are supposedly in that 20g I don't feel so bad about overstocking my 10g slightly. all I have to say is WOW if it is true. I would love to see a pic of the tank as BV said prove me wrong.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

With that many fish, you will not lower your nitrates. Just too many fish, and all are peeing and pooing all the time, giving off ammonia. I'm really suprised your filter system can keep up with it, lol. Way too many fish. And what are you going to do when the sharks start getting some size, as well as giving off a whole lot more ammonia??

 

[Mermaid20]

I know that i need a bigger tank. dont get me wrong, i know its a lot. I guess i just got over excited because i am also a begginer. I am planning soon on getting a 125 G tank so I can keep most of my fish, but i know that when my sharks get too big that i'll need to take them to my LFS. I just thought for now there was a way to keep down the nitrates, but with all the advice I now know the only way is to down size. And does anyone know a good place to get a good deal on a nice, big tank??

 

[JWright]

I would take the sharks back now. There is no way they'll ever be healthy in your tank.

Unless you're planing on that 125G next week, you need to get rid of a _lot_ of those fish. Those nitrates will never come down otherwise.

~JW

 

[seastaar88]

check craigslist.com for deals on tanks in your area. i often see some great deals.

 

[FroggyFox]

craigslist is awesome , I definitely agree with that suggestion. I just got a nice 29g with a stand and hood for $50 last week.

 

[seastaar88]

i had seen a 55g tank for sale in my area for $40 recently. wish i had jumped on it sooner. it obviuosly did not last long!

you can always find full setups w/ a stand and equipment which is kind of cool.