Constantly High Nitrates

[Honey Badger 1]

I will leave the stocking advice that you undoubtedly have coming to someone else.

That's my cue.
You are not necessarily overstocked in terms of bio-load, as the others have pointed out, 20ppm nitrate between weekly water changes is fine. But, you have too many territorial fish who will want to claim most of the tank for their territory. Once that angelfish starts to mature it will get more and more aggressive towards the gourami, and vise versa.

[jgranata13]

I took a chance when I got two gourami, but I've had them for about a year an a half now and they're actually very amicable towards each other. As for the tetras, I'm working on that. I was actually planning to bring back my two black tetras and get some more serpae tetras instead.

Can you suggest any fish that will clean the gravel like corys but that don't need to be in schools?

[ryann]

I can't think of any that don't need to be in schools. You could go for 7 or 8 loaches instead if you wanted but other than that I can't think of anything. Maybe someone else could help.

[Greentoads41]

Heres a link that I'm pretty sure is linked somewhere else on this site that will determine whether you are overstocked or not. It's really helpful lol.
aqadvisor.com/

[Goes to 11!]

Heres a link that I'm pretty sure is linked somewhere else on this site that will determine whether you are overstocked or not. It's really helpful lol.
aqadvisor.com/

Keeping in mind ---> It's a sketchpad & not a final draft.

[Greentoads41]

Keeping in mind ---> It's a sketchpad & not a final draft.

Good point 850R

[koaladarshana]

I.A. 100% with dane and 850R, you would benefit from increasing the filtration in your tank.

A good rule of thumb is to run about double the rated filtration capacity on the filter packages.

EX: I run a AC50 on my 20 gallon (and a 20 gallon sponge filter, just to be safe...)

The upside to having greater filtration capacity is that the more filtration you have, the clearer your water will be and the more room you will have for beneficial nitrifying bacteria to flourish.

[KevinVA]

How about a carnivorous snail or shrimp as bottom feeders/scavengers?

[mermaidwannabe]

Unless there is a lot of cover in your tank, as in massive floating plants or caves, etc. any shrimp you put in might become between-meal snacks for your fish.

I agree you need more filtration.

I would rinse out your biomedia in a bucket of siphoned tank water when you do your water changes. It will already be dechlorinated, and I believe it will better preserve your beneficial bacteria.

The sponge, as was pointed out to you, can be rinsed under running water than dunked into dechlorinated water before returning it to your filter.

It's good you have no nitrates in your tap water. Is it private well water? If so, and you know that nobody has added any chlorine or chloramines to it, you won't need dechlor.

Your trates are within the safe range. Whatever source said they shouldn't get any higher than 5 ppm is misleading. The lower the better, but you can have 10 to 15 and still be okay. When they approach 20, time to WC.

Do clean your filter -- that could make a real difference. In addition to rinsing the media, if your tubing is real cruddy inside, you should brush it out then rinse it in siphoned tank water. Most LFSs sell filter brushes, or you can order some from an aquarium catalog. A Q-Tip or impeller brush will work well for cleaning out the impeller chamber. Then take a paper towel to the inside of the media box, and also clean off any gunk from the holding basket. Accumulated gunk in your filter's hardware can increase the trates.

Finally, if you will put a prefilter sponge on the end of your intake tube, it will help keep your filter cleaner longer. It should be rinsed out regularly, too.

--mermaidwannabe

[Honey Badger 1]

Nice post mermaid, it's like the Readers Digest condensed version of the entire Thread.