high nitrates

[donna]

we are having a hard time controlling the nitrates, aquariam store tells us different things to do depending on who you talk to. what do you recommend doing? we do water changes and filter changes in hopes to get it under control. any help would be greatly appreciated.

[William]

Did you cycle the tank before adding fish?

don't clean your filter to foten unless it get clogged, How often to you clean it now.

How often do you change water and could you tell me a little more about your aquarium.

[donna]

cycled the tank then added 4 zebra danios to help the cycling, let them get used to tank, took water to be tested, all was fine, added fish 2 at a time checking water in between. we lost a few fish, high nitrates were the problem. they told us do a 10% water change every other day for a week, did that, didnt work, bought a different filter, we were told to now do a 25% water change weekly, did that, lost more fish, so we decided maybe we were changing and stressing to much, so we stopped for a week and then did a 10% change every 10 days or so. went back to the store, they said all was perfect, so we stuck to the same schedule, brought water in for testing again all was ok, bought 2 balloon mollies and they were dead within a day, along with both our swordtails, due to high nitrates. we change filter every 4 weeks and water at least weekly if not more since the problem, it is a 10 gallon tank. everyone at the fish store always gives us different solutions and its really frustrating trying to get it right. any help would be appreciated.

[DemonShark]

Wouldnt a bio wheel help or thoese specail tablets to netulize the nitrateS?

[William]

I can understand that it is frustrating.

10% every day might be good to get the nitrate down but shouldn't be necessary all the time. 20% a week sshould be enough in the long run. It sounds like the cycling somehow have been unsuccefull since the nitrate levels raises as soon as you add fish.

How much do you feed.

Changing the filter that often does however seem like to often. it prevents the filter from having a good bacteria culture. I will however have to ask what kind of filter you are using.

Do you have gravel in the tank?

[donna]

we feed the fish in the morning and at night. the filter is a aqua tech power filter. yes there is gravel in the tank. what do i do about my snail since i only have one big one in the tank and i now have 12 babies in one week.

[rollie]

WITH THAT MANY FISH , YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO GO 8 WEEK, BEFORE CHANGING THE FILTER. HOW HIGH IS YOUR AMMONIA, IN YOUR TANK? PUTTING SOME AMMO LOCK IN MIGHT HELP. IT DETOXIFIES AMMONIA. THE FEW DROPS OF METHYBLU WILL DETOXIFIES NITRATE. THAT MEAN YOUR WATER SHOUD THEN BE SAFE FOR THEM.

[William]

Rollie is right when he says you shouldn't change the filter that often. It should be able to go atleast 8 weeks and once you get your aquarium more stable it might very well be 6 months or even a couple of years between each time you need to change the filter.

Do you make sure not to feed more than they can eat in a few minutes?

What type of snail are we talking about?

[donna]

not talking about the whole filter just the cartridges. they are mystery snails.

[rollie]

depending on the number of fish, you should be able to go at least 8 weeks before replaing the cartridges.

[donna]

there are 12 fish in the tank and about 15 snails. is there anything i could do to rocks i find outside to make them safe to put in my fish tank?

[rollie]

that not to many fish. as far as rocks from outside goes ,i do not used them., may or may not cause trouble. it would depend on what was in the rock. what if while the rock was outside , it got oil, gas or hard to say what elc on it. but the lot of peoples do used them with no trouble. you would have to boil it. clean it good.,before you put in your tank.

[DemonShark]

also be careful it may countain limestone which can harden the water and other minerals in the rock

[donna]

thank you for all of the help. the nitrates have been so far so good. have a question about a mystery snail, are they egg layers? we have found many baby snails over the last week. also, we found a egg sack attached to the underside of a rock in our tank, i do not know which of our fish are egg layers and which are live bearers..we have zebra danios, balloon mollies, plateas, and sword tails. any info would be appreciated again...thanks

[rollie]

live beaer are your swordtails ,platy, bolloon mollies. the zebra danios and mystery snail are egg layers.

[William]

Zebra danios does not lay their eggs in a cluster so those eggs should be from you mystery snails which belons to one of the mystery snail genera that lay their eggs below the surface. Other types lay their eggs above the water line.

Mystery snails eggs are also much larger than Danio eggs.

applesnail.net (http://www.applesnail.net/) is a very good website if you want to learn more about apple aka mystery snails.