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Well, today I've decided that I wanted to do a pH, Hardness, Alkalinity, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate test.
Here are the Test results:

Nitrate: 160 or 200 ppm
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Hardness: 150(Hard)
Alkalinity: 0 or 40(Low)
pH: Wasn't even listed. I think 6.2(Acidic)

The thing is that Nitrates are WAY HIGH! They're unsafe levels and I'm worried about my fish

PLEASE HELP!

Thanks!

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

For nitrates, you should just do a lot of water changes, and add some live plants. The faster growing plants will absorb some or most of the nitrates, and a water change will dilute the nitrate levels. What is your stocking? If they like acidic, then just leave it. If youre that concerned, just use distilled or RO water, and slowly it will get to 7.0, an all round pH level, If you hadnt had any fish deaths, then your fish have been acclimated to toxic levels of nitrates.

Other than that, im not so sure if you have anything else wrong. pH isnt at all too bad, unless there is something like a rift lake african cichlid. Nitrates are easier to remove, as if you add some aponogeton bulbs, or anything fast growing, like high-light plants. The only problem is if you have enough light.

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Nope, the only fish deaths I've had is the Ghost Shrimps I added last night So I guess they have acclimated to it. I'll do a small water change right now..

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

Okay, I think I did a 10 to 15% water change.

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

Hi,
The readings you describe are nearly word for word of
the description of what is called Old Tank Syndrome.
High nitrates and acidic water.

Here is a site that will tell you what causes OTS and
how to eliminate it:

http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html

In a nutshell...
OTS is caused by neglect, over feeding, over stocking,
and lack of through maintenance.

To resolve the situation, you will need to do several
things.
First, mentally divide the non-planted area of the
tank into four sections. Then do a 20% water change and
at the same time vacuum the gravel, clear down to the glass
bottom of the tank in ONE section, doing a different
section with each water change.

Cut back on the food that you are feeding the fish.
Remember, a fish's' stomach is about as big as its eye!

If you are over stocked, cut back on the number of fish
in the tank.

The way this happens is the excess waste products from the
fish, decaying food, and decaying plant material, turns
into nitrates and organic acids. In time the pH drops
as the organic acids accumulate, and the nitrate climbs
as the waste decays.

Now, THE PROBLEM IS, that the water is very acidic and
the nitrates sky high. The fish have acclimated to the
worsening conditions as the problem developed. If you
immediately jump into this tank and try to correct every
thing at once, you will stress the fish and could easily
kill them all. You have to do things SLOWLY so you don't
stress the fish but provide a continually improving tank.
Slowly, will allow them to adjust with the changing
conditions.

Once you get things back to normal in about a month, you
have to force yourself to do weekly maintenance. That is,
change out 10-20% of the water, vacuum a different section
with each water change, and cut back on the food.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Wow, very thorough. Thank you Frank...And actually, I think I should stop feeding them so much I'll do it. I did a small 10 to 15% water change earlier. I think I'm going to re-arrange the tank because basically all the plants are on one side and there's just a cave and rock in the corners on the other. I also need to wash --rinse off-- the plants.

Thank you Frank, it helped

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

Listen to Frank, Frank is good

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

Yep, I did...

I did a 10 to 15% water change last night. I did a 25% water change about 20 minutes ago and I'm wondering if I can feed my fish every 2 to 3 days to cut back on the food debris. oh and last night I also cleaned the filter intake thingy and I put a new cartridge in.

Think it'll help?

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

Their is also a nitrate removing rechargeable pillow available from most aquarium stor.es

GOOD NEWS!

Tests results from Last Night:
Nitrate: 200 ppm
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Hardness: 150(Hard)
Alkalinity: 40
pH: Wasn't even listed

Test results from TONIGHT:
Nitrate: 80 I know 80 is still unsafe but from 200 to 80
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Hardness: 150(Hard)
Alkalinity: 40(Low)
pH: 6.2(Acidic)

YAY! The Nitrate lowered a LOT!

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

Their is also a nitrate removing rechargeable pillow available from most aquarium stor.es

I look into those.

One other problem, I think the cause of my Ammonia level is because there's no nitrite to "eat it" Anyone know how I could get them colonized?

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

They colonize naturally, as long as there is enough ammonia in the tank, and a current to oxygenate them. If you have nitrAtes, than you must have nitrItes. After all, how did the nitrAtes get there anyway? I wouldnt suggest the nitrate pillows, because a reading of 0.25ppm is i guess natural, and the bacterial colonies will adjust to "eat" the ammonia. Then the nitrites will be turned into nitrates. Nitrates are removed easiest by water change and plants. If you have enough lights, i really suggest you look into plants. They are natural and look good, while at the same time, they oxygenate water and filter it.

Now patientence is the key, and with it, you can unlock a healthy tank once again. To try to keep it off your mind, plan your stocking, arrangement, and equipment for you 72 gallon tank. Be sure to include somewhere about plants, possibly even Aponogetons if you are willing. Those are nice and fast growing plants.

Good luck!

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I thank you quite much Goby. About the pillows, I only go to chemicals if REALLY needed because usually they cause more problems then they solve. As I said with the 10% water change I did last night and the 25 or 30% water change I did about 5 horus ago the Nitrates went down from 200+ ppm from last night to 80 ppm tonight so I think that's pretty good although I'll never be able to get back those dead Ghost Shrimp. Oh well I guess, They were only $0.49 each and I only had them for like maybe 3 hours before they died.

I know, the nitrIte is puzzling me because I have 0.25 ppm ammonia and 80 ppm nitrAte but no nitrite. I'm sure there is some in the tank somewhere, just not read able because the pad wasn't 100% white but it was pretty close so if I can find one, I'll buy a more accurate testing kit.

Thanks again Goby/:'

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

Hi there fishrockmysox,
As a recent sufferer of high nitrates 160+ppm in our 180 gallon tank, we can tell you that you don't need the nitrate pillow thingys, we were able to bring ours back under control (back to 30ppm now) in a few weeks by doing more frequent water changes of approximatly 30%-50% every third day, and vacuming about 50%-60% of the gravel at the first WC and then about 1/3 of the gravel in sections at every second WC after that, the balance of the water removed after the 1/3 gravel vacuming was finished was water only.

I suggest that you also test the parameters of the new water that you are adding to the tank as a benchmark, so you will have an idea of just how much you are about to change the parameters of the tank, the main things to test for in the new water is the temperature, pH, Hardness, and Ammonia, allthough it wouldn't hurt to test all the parameters as it will give you a more complete picture of the changes you are about to affect in the tank.

The more parameters you are going to affect when changing the water, the slower you need to add the new water to the tank to help reduce the stress inflicted upon the fish, fish wont always show visible signs of stress but if they do start showing signs of stress then you have probably changed the more than one of the parameters too quickly for them to adjust to, particularly the temperature, pH and Hardness.

One other problem, I think the cause of my Ammonia level is because there's no nitrite to "eat it" Anyone know how I could get them colonized?

This statement leads me to believe that you don't yet fully understand the Nitrification process, but don't worry there is a good explaination in the FAQ's here on FP, take some time to read it, it will explain how it works for you.

the nitrIte is puzzling me because I have 0.25 ppm ammonia and 80 ppm nitrAte but no nitrite.

I wouldn't worry about this at all, it just means that your filter has a healthy colony of the bacteria that converts nitrIte to nitrAte, we have never been able to get a reading on nitrItes in our 180gallon tank even when the nitrAtes were 160+ppm.
The ammonia could be a little bit of a worry if it continues to rise and gets above 1ppm-2ppm, but I think it is fine for now, I think you may have overdone it a little with the gravel vacs and removed some of the bacteria population that converts ammonia to nitrIte, but it is also possible that it is coming from your water supply, if you are following Franks advice then it is more likley that it is in your water supply as your first reading was 0 ammonia and the bacteria in the filter will soon convert it to nitrIte and then nitrAte.

Congratulations on your latest test results I know how good it feels to see those numbers drop.

A final note, you should only vacume 1/4 to 1/3 every week to give the bacteria a chance to do what they do. If you are vacuming every day you will likley cause a mini-cycle in your tank. Keep up the good work.
BTW you might want to mention which tank is affected, if you have already I missed it.

GT

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

It's my 10gal. I did the 1st water change on Tuesday but I didn't vacuum. Then last night I did a vacuum and water change. I think I should've made that more apparent.

Anyways, Thanks a lot Gone!! =]

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

Fishrock you asked if there was a way to boost the bacterial colonies in your tank. The first thing is you can't clean the tank so much at one time. When you vacuum the gravel you are vacuuming this bacterial colonies up with all the organic materials. So you should vacuum areas of the tank gravel and rotate it with weekly WC. Second watch how you clean you filter don't remove everything any restart with a completely clean filter. the filter is one the best areas were the bacterial colonies can grow. You can try and get some mature plants they will have a good boost in the bacterial colonies. The other thing you can do is add a product called cycle or biosphere they will have one of these at you LFS. This is the bacterial colonies in a bottle. You can add this to the water and seed the tank. You can/should add when you add additional fish to the tank as it will help in shorting a mini-cycling which happens when the bio load is increased. I add some directly to my filter system this way it into the filter before being discharged into the tank and then spread out through the gravel. With OTS is best to take your time when trying to clean this up, do the your WC when the levels get to high (DON"T VACUME THE GRAVEL EVERYTIME JUST REMOVE THE WATER FROM THE LOWER PART OF THE TANK)

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

Sox,

The ammonia reading may be a false reading. If you use a de-chlorinating agent when you do a water change, then the de-chlorinating agent may give you a false positive reading for ammonia. The use of Prime, Amquel, Amquel Plus, AmmoLock or similar products give a false reading from a test kit that uses Nessler reagents that read in shades of amber or yellow.

If you are using one of the above de-chlorinating products or your ammonia test reads in the amber or yellow hues, try a Kordon test kit #35980 for fresh water to get a true reading.



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

I use the Jungle Ammonia test kit for the ammonia. It does read in Hues of yellow. I use the plant fertilizer I have(I know cheap but it helps the platns as well). The name of it is Plant Care Solutions; Fertilizer 0-0-5 & Water Conditionerwith allantion

If that helps in any way to give you more info, there ya go

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions