Nitrates,stocking,filter,feeding,algae questions.

[fullpampers]

Hi i have a 20 gallons planted tank that has been running for about 4 months. Everything is going fine but i have a couple question.

The tank is stocked with 3 agassizi corydoras, 5 dwarf loaches, and 1 germen blue ram. I am waiting for the pet store to get females so i can put one in. My ph isn't perfect for the ram, but when i gave my parameters to the guy at the store and told him what fish i was considering he told me the ram was the best choice... He is doing fine and is pretty active do i guess it's ok.

Filter is Aquaclear 50, supra/sand substrate, with driftwood and rocks in in. Water is at ph : 7.8, ammonia : 0, nitrites : 0, nitrates : between 5 and 10. I do water changes about every 5 days or every week

Now the questions, the nitrates are going up, i used to stay at 5 and since i put in the ram they wen up a bit. i want to bring them down. i cut down on feeding a little, but i'm not sure if it could be algae bringing the nitrates up...

For feeding i do once a day near the end of the day, and i give them 4 of either nutrafin max sinking or hikari sinking pellets and the ram gets 6-7 little floating hikari balls. and every now and then they get bloodworms. Is this enough? or too much? i never see leftovers, but the ram seems to eat the sinking pellets more than the floating ones (I've seen him go up to eat some though)

As for algae, on the driftwood i see some brown stuff, and it builds up on the walls a little. I scraped it off during water changes, and once a month i take out all wood and rocks and scrub them in tank water from the water change. Could algae be the cause of the nitrates going up?

As for stocking the last fish i was going to add is a female ram when the store gets some. Would my tank be over stocked if i added a couple (4 maybe) of small shrimp to eat the algae? i was thinking cherry shrimps maybe. Would the loaches eat them?

As for filtering, i always had pretty clear water, now i have a lot of particles floating around. In my filter i have at the bottom the white sponge, on top of that a thinner white pad to get out junk (added yesterday, to get rid of the particles, i hope), on top of that i have a seachem purigen pad, then i have a biomax pouch. i clean the sponge maybe 2 times a month during water changes and it has been used for a little over 2 months. How can i get rid of the particles, this morning the water wasn't really clearer. I'll see how the little pad goes, maybe i'll but a second layer if it isn't enough. The guy at the store told me to put the purigen pad over the biomax as it might be too dense and water would go around it in the filter. If the white pad doesn'T work i'll try that, but i didn't want to change everything at once as to know what the problem with the filter really is.

there it is, i hope someone can help, thanks in advance.

J-S

[rich311k]

Nitrate levels of 5-10 are nothing to worry about, they are perfect. Algae if anything would lower nitrates as the algae would use the nitrates for growth.

Your feeding sounds fine to me.

Maybe try some filter floss in the filter for a finer grade of mechanical filtration.

[fullpampers]

thanks! I'll try that. i put poly pad over the white sponge and it's been 2 days and there is little to no improvement on particles. I might just take the purigen pad out and put a charcoal bag i have left over just to see if that's what's causing the particles.

[Cermet]

When you say you change your water, how much? The amount is critical to remove nitrates and keep the tank clean. A 50% will lower a 10 ppm nitrate to a still significant 5 ppm nitrate. Also, you indicate you are going to add another fish - so, keep a eye on your nitrite levels as well.

[fullpampers]

i usually do a 16-20% change weekly (more like every 5-6 days) i might try to do a bigger change next time.

I'll just add a female blue ram when the store gets one, and they tell me it's pretty rare that they have some so it might be a while. Nitrites are always at 0, but I'll keep an eye out. i did a water change yesterday, I'll test the water to see how things are going tomorrow.

Other that the particles in the water, things are going pretty well. the corys are pretty much hiding all day long thought... the ram is swimming a lot more in the tank, using more and more space. He comes out to see me whenever i come to look at the tank. I don't see him eating the floating pellets thought... they disappear so someone must eat them. Maybe it's the loaches, they are just some crazy little buggers always playing around. but the ram eats the sinking pellets and i see him looking around for food and eating stuff from the ground. I'll get him slow sinking pellets so he can grab them in mid fall.

[Lady Hobbs]

Nothing wrong at all with those nitrates. The brown you see on the wood and glass is simply diatoms which is normal in new tanks and eventally goes away on it's own. The purigen should help with that, as well. I have the feeling that your filter is probably keeping your substrate stirred up a bit. Those AC have quite a water fall effect and your tank is not very deep. I would try to add a piece of foam onto the stem of your filter tube around the stem to slow that flow down a bit.

I used just a piece of square foam and cored out a hole to slide it over the strainer.

[Lady Hobbs]

Move that slide on top of your filter, as well, to see if the flow will slow down.