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Hi, For some unexplained reason I've had a nitrate spike in my tank. I'm doing daily water changes to try to fix the problem. Can someone suggest a reason this may have happened all of a sudden. In the meantime one of my fish seems to be reacting very badly to this (my panda dwarf cichlid). He isn't eating much and is hiding at the bottom of the tank. He's usually pretty active. This behaviour has only started today. I figure it must be to do with the nitrate spike. Suggestions??

Nitrate spikes can be caused by a bunch of things, including but not limited to: overfeeding, heavy feedings of live foods, lapse in tank maintenance/muck-filled substrate, too much fish waste/tank overstocking, addition of heavy-waste-producing fish, fish or invertebrate carcasses left in the water, and even dead pieces of plants. Without knowing your tank as well as you do, I can't help you with the exact cause. Nitrates are an indication of some kind of tank pollution, so cleaning up whatever needs to be cleaned up often takes care of the problem.

As for your fish, it sounds like the nitrates are the cause of its stress (and it does sound like your fish is more stressed than ill). Your fish is Apistogramma nijsseni, correct? They like clean tanks, and will be upset if their home suddenly gets dirty or polluted. Take care of the nitrates, and the little thing will probably return to good health. Sounds like it is just a little peeved at the spike.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Thanks for the reply. I'm honestly not sure what caused the spike. I am really on top of water changes and cleaning. I rarely leave it more than 7 days. I do have one plant that drops a lot of leaves. I try to remove them as soon as I see them but who knows maybe thats it. I'm doing small daily water changes to help the nitrate level. Is the best approach? All my other levels are normal. I really hope my little guy is just stressed and will return to normal (fingers crossed)

How about some of the obvious questions:
How big is the tank?
How often do you Gravel Vacuum?
What is the fish stock in the tank?
How much water are you changing when you do a water change?
How long has the tank been set up?
What are the other tank parameters? (Ammonia, Nitrite, kH, pH)

As already suggested, not removing waste is the biggest offender for Nitrate spikes. Just changing water doesn't remove waste... you need to gravel vac as well, if you aren't already.

He died. My poor little guy died. I am sooooooooooooooooo sad. I can't figure out what happened. I am very depressed.

I know that daily water changes can be a hassle. I have used NitraZorb to absorb nitrates in my tank with success. This does not correct problem as you will have to find out what is making the spike in the first place. Prime also detoxifies nitrates.

mesonic,
Sorry you lost him . We really need a bit more info on the tank before we can help pinpoint the problem, unfortunatly since we cant see the tank we dont know.
What type of filtration are you running. You mentioned that you have a plant that drops a lot of leaves, I've had that happen before and end up clogging the filter thereby reducing the flow of the filter and the filtration rate.
Also if you're not doing a proper gravel vac (there's a great discussion on how to do it [link=here]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Getting%20Started/61456.html" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]) no matter how frequently you do water changes you wont be getting all the waste from the bottom where it will quickly build up. I've seen this happen before on a tank I purchased second hand. Believe me, it wasn't pretty when I went to pick it up !.

My philosophy on nitrAtes is that it's best to keep them low than to let them build on you. I know that once they're high it's hard to bring it down (above tank is a perfect example). If you can get some hornwort and the water flow isn't too fast in your tank a few handfuls of that should bring the nitrAtes down almost overnight. And moreover you wont be dumping chems in your tank . The biggest issue as was said is to address where they're coming from and go from there.

^_^[hr width='40%'] Only 13 dives and they're already calling [link=me]http://babelfish.qwertydigital.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] a
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I know this isn't going to help my poor little guy that I lost but I'll post up the parameters and all the required stuff and see if you guys have any ideas. My nitrate is still pretty high. Everyone else seems to be doing okay and I'm now doing twice weekly water changes. I don't really have time to do changes every day.

Ph 7.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate between 25 - 50
Temperature 80
Tank size is 20 gal. I have in total 14 fish in the tank. I have three blue rams, two serpae tetras, four white skirted tetras, two crested dwarf cichlids, one lone little harlequin rabora (his friends died) and an otto cat and a bottom feeder. I've had the tank operating for almost two years now and most of the fish with the exception of hte cichlids and pleco are the original fish I stocked with. Is there too many fish??
Usually I do water changes of 25-30% every week. I am very good about always doing it and only miss if I'm really sick or something. I always gravel vaccum when I clean the tank but I don't always remove the driftwood I have in there so sometimes it does a get a bit of build up under there. I take that out every couple of months or so. Maybe I should be taking that out more often? I don't know what else I can tell you. I have a Penguin bio-wheel filter. I change the filter pack every week to two weeks. I treat the water to remove cholrine etc. and I soemtimes test the new water just ot make sure its not a ridiculous change in Ph or anything. There are a number of live plants in the tank. As I said one drops a lot of leaves. I try my best to remove them. I can't think of what else to tell you.

Anyway, thats that...I am still very sad that my poor little guy died. I feel awful like its my fault he died. :#(:#(

Oh, one other thing....what is hornwort and where would I get such a thing???

Last edited by mesonic at 17-Jul-2005 14:48

Last edited by mesonic at 17-Jul-2005 15:20

I think you're over stocked... but thats just my opinion. It might also be something to think about that you added 2 new fish (??) and then you had these extra problems. So, yes... stocking here is an issue.

With my 70G (US) Tank, which has 2 Oscars (11" each) and a Moorii (about 7", i do a 25% gravel vacuum TWICE a week. With each Vacuum, ALL of the drift wood is either removed from the tank totally, or pushed out of the way so i can get the Vacuum under it. Not vacuuming under the drift wood will be one of your bigger problems. It need's to be done EVERY gravel vacuum. Cichlids are known to find nitrates ABOVE 40ppm FATAL. In the best cases, it will make them sick. It may also cause HITH.

Second, i have a 20G with smaller stock than yours (including some growing Clown Loaches), at it gets a 33% (1/3) gravel vacuum and water change TWICE a week. This is the only way i have found, without using a sump between tanks, to keep the Nitrates below 15ppm on the smaller tank.

Filtration does not remove nitrates. Nitrates are the end product of your tank cycle, and as such, you need to handle them manually - WATER CHANGES. Trying to match your pH is a very good idea... so keep doing that.

If you want your other fish to stay healthy... then you have no option - start doing daily 10% water changes until the nitrates are back under 20ppm and under control. I would then switch to 2 changes at 15-20% per week, and monitor your nitrates. If they stay stable, then you could try daily monitoring of your parameters to determine how long you can actually push it between changes... but i'd just do it bi-weekly. If you don't have time for that... then perhaps you don't have time to keep fish.

"Tank size is 20 gal. I have in total 14 fish in the tank. I have three blue rams, two serpae tetras, four white skirted tetras, two crested dwarf cichlids, one lone little harlequin rabora (his friends died) and an otto cat and a bottom feeder."

Your pretty overstocked. Id recommend removing some fish to help reduce your waste production.

How about something like this:

6 harlies
1 pair of rams or dwarf crested
3 ottos
And maybe a dwarf gourami or a second school of *small* tetras
1 Apple snail(P. Bridgesi) = The apple snail will help with dead leaves.

Tetras need schools of at least 6 and you cant give every species you have a proper school unfortunatly


Hornwart is a plant that helps reduce nitrates.


Last edited by katieb at 17-Jul-2005 21:49

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

Yikes, sounds from the replies I got all my fish should have been dead ages ago! Okay well I'll start with the daily water changes. Removing fish isn't really an option as I have nowhere to put them. My other tank has goldfish in it. I'll look for the hornwart also and make sure I vaccum under the driftwood everytime I change the water. Thanks for the advice.

"Removing fish isn't really an option as I have nowhere to put them."

I strongly recommend you take some of your fish to the lfs, a friends tank, or get a new tank. Not only are you overstocked, but you have some compatibility issues. For example, Serpaes are fin-nippers and when kept in small numbers and in small quarters can pose a threat to other fish. Your rasboras and tetras need schools of at least 6 to feel safe. Also, some of your fish are rather fragile and an overstocked tank can mean certain death for them. Another thing im worried about is the goldfish. Fancy goldfish get grapefruit size and need a 55 gal to start out with, and may need a 90 later. If your gold fish is being kept in a small tank, a good idea would be to move some of your tropical fish in there and the goldfish out.

Last edited by katieb at 18-Jul-2005 13:47

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

Thanks for all your advice. I'll see what I can do about the 20 gal being overstocked.

I'm pretty sure my goldfish are doing fire. They are three years old and seem in very good health. I take good care of them.