jtfishman
Member
I have a 150 gallon saltwater aquarium that recently had extremely high nitrates, like off the chart nitrates. I added Amquel Plus to remove the nitrates. Instead of doing anything to the nitrates it actually made my Nitrites spike which killed my entire tanks inhabitants! I was so shocked when I came out and seen off of my fish dead in the tank, as well as the worms in the limerick coming out hanging there. I removed all the fish and drained out 90 gallons of water and replaced it with RO water. I then let that sit for a few days did tests and the Nitrites went back to zero again, Ammonia was at 0ppm and PH. was at 8.3 but the Nitrates were still off the charts at over 160 ppm.
After the 90 gallon water change, we did a 75 gallon water change which would have been a 50% water change. after that I tested and had the water Ammonia level up to 2.4. P.H. was at 7.8, Nitrites were at 0ppm, and the Nitrates were still bright red. We now did a 50 gallon water change and have tested it with PH coming out at 8.1, nitrite is at 0, Nitrates are still red but seem to maybe be on the last color on the chart at 160 ppm, ammonia is at 2.0 however which is really high.
When the water was tested right after the fish died the nitrate test water would turn from bright yellow to bright red after the first 3 seconds of shaking the test tube. Now after the water changes it takes it about 30 seconds of shaking the test tube and it turns into orange and then bright red, so it is still turning out bright red, however its taking longer while shaking the tube to turn red. Still very high but seems to be slightly better, sadly.
It is so hard because the water changes are not easy on this large of a tank and having to go to the grocery store with 5 gallon water jugs to fill with RO water at the machine.
Would I be able to put Ammo Lock in the tank to get the Ammonia level down, or just give it a few days to settle down and let it cycle more. Do I just have to keep doing water changes to get the Nitrates down? It just seems like all this RO water going in the tank is not doing anything for the Nitrates as they are still at 160 ppm or higher. Its crazy.
Anyones input here would be nice on what I should do to get these nitrates settled down and drop the ammonia back down to 0 like it was.
After the 90 gallon water change, we did a 75 gallon water change which would have been a 50% water change. after that I tested and had the water Ammonia level up to 2.4. P.H. was at 7.8, Nitrites were at 0ppm, and the Nitrates were still bright red. We now did a 50 gallon water change and have tested it with PH coming out at 8.1, nitrite is at 0, Nitrates are still red but seem to maybe be on the last color on the chart at 160 ppm, ammonia is at 2.0 however which is really high.
When the water was tested right after the fish died the nitrate test water would turn from bright yellow to bright red after the first 3 seconds of shaking the test tube. Now after the water changes it takes it about 30 seconds of shaking the test tube and it turns into orange and then bright red, so it is still turning out bright red, however its taking longer while shaking the tube to turn red. Still very high but seems to be slightly better, sadly.
It is so hard because the water changes are not easy on this large of a tank and having to go to the grocery store with 5 gallon water jugs to fill with RO water at the machine.
Would I be able to put Ammo Lock in the tank to get the Ammonia level down, or just give it a few days to settle down and let it cycle more. Do I just have to keep doing water changes to get the Nitrates down? It just seems like all this RO water going in the tank is not doing anything for the Nitrates as they are still at 160 ppm or higher. Its crazy.
Anyones input here would be nice on what I should do to get these nitrates settled down and drop the ammonia back down to 0 like it was.
