Help! Levels out of control!

atlfish

atlfish

Member
For some reason my nitrates are shooting through the roof!
I have a 35gal which I just did a major water change and cleaning last weekend, only to find my fish had died two day later. I just did another water change today but the levels are not going down. The amonia is a little elevated between .25 and.50 but the other are fine. What do I do to keep from losing anymore fish! I have added nitrate remover to the water as well but that has not seem to help!
 
T

tizzo

Guest
What did your "major cleaning" consist of??
When did you set up your tank?
What fish were in your tank before they died?
 
atlfish

atlfish

Member
tanks been set up about a year, year and 1/2. I just had a scotter benny who is fine but my 2triger and a lion. All small fish
 
atlfish

atlfish

Member
Im freaking out some my typing is off. right now i only have one niger and my lion but i do not want to lose them.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Well, one thing to know is that ammonia is never "a little" elevated. Any ammonia is very bad.
There is a reason we do not add fish to new tanks, and that reason is ammonia. Your tank, although old, had it and it's toxic and your more sensitive fish died as a result.
Another thing to consider is chlorine? Was your water change done as it usually is or is there a chance there was chlorine in the water (tap)?
But, I am willing to bet it was the ammonia.
 
camanuch

camanuch

Member
how deep was your sand bed????
thats the only thing i can think of. by disturbing the sand bed you could have released toxins into the water. but thats really from a DSB anyhting over 4inches
 
U

usirchchris

Guest
hmm, I would be more concerned about the amonia being at .25 to .50. That will kill the fish faster than high nitrates. Nitrates generally have to be "high" for quite some time to have an effect on the fish, as it will slowly stress them out. Just keep doing small water changes...nothing too drastic and they should level out, but find out why that amonia is up.
 
atlfish

atlfish

Member
No tap! Never, I go to walmart and get ro water. I did disturb the sand quit a bit. so that could be the problem. As for the Amonia. Im not really sure about the amoina. I could be fine and I just freaking out. I never had a problem out of it before. Yes I did test it, but the greens just seem to run together whenI look at them.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
If your ammonia test is showing green then that's positive for ammonia. First, has anything died in the tank that you may not be aware of? Any rotting corpses? How much do you feed? Are they eating it all or does some stay in the tank?
Have you added any fish or anything else to the tank recently? A sudden increase of ammonia is an indication that your bioload is getting too great for your tank. What does your filter system consist of? Do you have a sump or a wet/dry filter?
What does your clean up crew consist of? You need some hermit crabs and other scavengers to eat the food that the fish miss.
Please post all your parameters. pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, SG, temp. and alkalinity.
 
michaeltx

michaeltx

Moderator
something else that I can see is that you have a 35 gallon tank with very messy eaters that really need a larger tank with a lot of filtration. what do you feed the lion and trigger. If they didnt eat the food that you gave them it could have started to decay and then jacked the ammonia up that then caused the problems in other fish.
The sand bed depth really isnt a concern because its not deep enough to cause that problem IMO.
Mike
 
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