help please

[pitchblack]

Hey ppl Ive come home to a disaster. I did my regular water chage as usual. All the tests as well initially.

ph 6.7
ammonia 0
nitrate 0
iron .25
gh 7
kh 2

Ive come home to a cloudy fishtank. All fish were gasping for air at the top of the tank.
paramteres as folows

ammonia 0
nitrate 160
gh 7
kh 2
iron .25

Should I empty the tank. and start again with fresh water. My filter is aged but now im worried that its not going to keep the levels constant.

Ned advice on what to do.

Immdeiately as im in the process now

[Ben]

i have never had this happened to me, but if it was me i would do a 80% water change.


but the most important thing is "prevention is better than caure"

so what you have to look at is what made this happen so it does not happen again.

hope this helps a little

[leanne31]

I'd have to agree a big water change as nitrate 160 wow thats high you have to find the problem and quick i suggest.

Leanne

[pitchblack]

think its the filter Ive just pulled it apart and it looks pretty blocked up,
mabey its the problem??????

[Aurora]

You would think that if the system in the filter wasnt working, then you would get a build up of ammonia not nitrate. If its nitrate, the system is working fine, or you are getting the nitrate directly from somewhere else, like the tap water.

Did you do the water change this morning and come home to this? Jumping from 0 to 160 nitrate in one day is pretty extreme. In my big tank (no discus) I left it 4 weeks without doing a water change and the nitrate only got to 10 ppm.

[Merrilyn]

Gently rinse your filter media in a bucket of tank water, but it's not usually the cause of high nitrate readings. Please just confirm for me that you are actually testing for NITRATE and not nitrite. They are two different things.

High nitrate suggests an accumulation of uneaten food or a dead fish somewhere in the tank, or sometimes rotting plant matter.

Test your tap water first (there should be no nitrate levels) and if it is clear, do several big water changes. That should help.

[pitchblack]

yes aurora at 4pm did the wate change eveything ok. Added the usual chemicals to the water like plant fertilizer, bio black for trace elements and all clear. At nine pm arrived home reading 160ppm. Nicholas76 thinks the filter just packed it in and that why i got the reading. Im baffled to know why????

[pitchblack]

thnaks ladyred just did the water change and tap water clear no nitrate. And i am testing for nitrate not nitrite. Its a hige reading 160ppm rise in 4 to five hrs????

[Merrilyn]

Bet your plant fertilizer is the culprit. I hate using plant fertilizers of any sort with discus. It's like pouring pure nitrate into your tank. Don't add any more for at least a month, and then dose at less than half the recommended ammount.

It's not your filter, or you would have had high ammonia readings.

[Aurora]

Do you use carbon? Im not sure if it absorbs nitrate, but I know that if you dont replace carbon often enough it will start to release the things it has absorbed back into the water. It is possible it has been absorbing nitrate and has just suddenly released it all back into the water again. Feel free to gun me down if Im just talking crap :)

[pitchblack]

Ive never had a problem with the fertilizer but thanks for the tip. but some ppl have has a different opinion they say its the filter???? too late if its was ok bacause ive changed it back to a mechanical medium

[Merrilyn]

Thanks for the input Aurora. We've discovered the culprit. It's a combination of diy Co2 and plant fertilizer. Both add nitrate to the water, in this case too much, poisoning the water.