Panic or no?

[ScorpiosWife]

Hi everybody. Doing my weekly water tests & ran across a nitrate spike. Probably caused it on my own adding 9 more fish to the 55g community and overfeeding to compensate but just wanted to make sure & get yall's opinions before I start panicing, dipping fish and doing a gravel cleaning. 40 is safe but it's too close to not safe. Filters were changed 30 days ago in both filters on this tank as well.

Here were the results:

pH 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Ntirate 40

Nitrates in this tank are usually 10-20. No one is sick, everyone seems peachy. I did 2 water changes this week approximately 15g each time, that's the only thing I did different than normal, aside from add 9 fish.

[moganman]

Are you still feeding? I would cut down on feeding.

[ScorpiosWife]

After the testing, I don't plan to feed again until tomorrow. Usually I feed twice a day, 12 hours apart. For the last 3 days I've fed 3 times a day since I added the fish. I have this mental thing where I don't think they eat enough at the store & it's apparently my mission to fatten the masses. I'm gonna cut back to my regular 2 times a day, wait it out & test again next Saturday, as long as everyone stays healthy till then. If something changes, I think I should probably start scoopin fish & cleaning gravel.

[moganman]

Twice a day twelve hours apart? That's pretty far apart. I wouldn't feed my fish less than two hours before lights out. Either u do or u leave the lights on far too long.

[ScorpiosWife]

I feed them about 6a-7a and then again about 6p-7p. They don't really have a rigid light schedule since I work at home & stalk/check on them all day long when I'm here. I turn the lights on when I feed them and off when I leave, on again when I get home. I don't usually go to bed till midnight, so the lights are usually always on from 6p-7p to midnight. Been that way since September & the parameters have never been off till this week when I started the 3x feeding. I did the 2x water change due to the increase in feeding. Wanted to stay on top of it as much as possible.

[troy tucker]

No panic. next time you do a water change. Vac. the gravel. every time you do a water change. it will help.

[mistahoo]

Twice a day twelve hours apart? That's pretty far apart. I wouldn't feed my fish less than two hours before lights out. Either u do or u leave the lights on far too long.

I feed my fish a few hours before lights out but as I turn off the lights, I chunk more food in for my nocturnal/more shy fish (bichirs, catfish, plecos) and I usually have no problems with the fish.

[supadave]

I personally would do larger water changes and vacuum after every water change . I wouldn't perform any water changes under 50% . In my opinion...anything less than 50% is a waste of time .That's the one thing that made me switch to sand was the fact that so much poop and uneaten food gets trapped in gravel .

[ScorpiosWife]

Everyone is still fine this morning. I'll go back to my normal routine and test again next Saturday. If it's still high then, I'm just gonna dip out the fish and give the whole thing a good cleaning. I'm seriously considering removing all of the substrate. Hasn't caused me an issue till now, but the more I imagine all the poop & debris that can gather in it, the more I think it would be easier just to have a glass bottom.

On another, more happy note, the Creamsicle Lyretail Molly I bought on Wednesday gave birth last night in that tank. No telling how many she had before I found them, but we put 36 into the fry tank. I wonder what these babies are mixed with cuz a lot of them are half black. I've never owned a Creamsicle but I can't imagine they start out black. Will be interesting to see how they develop!

[sunkenmetal]

If you are worried add another dose of water conditioner and only feed once a day...

[ScorpiosWife]

I'm 99% positive that I did this myself with the 3x feeding for 3 days but the fish in there are pretty tough little monkeys & don't seem phased. I dosed it twice this week when I did the water changes, but I'll add another dose, Sunny. Can't hurt. With 50+ fish in there, you think feeding once a day is enough?

[sunkenmetal]

how much filtration do you have on there?

[SunnyHouTX]

They're fine. I also recommend larger water changes. My nitrates usually reach about 60ppm when it comes time to do a WC every weekend and I feed heavily, 4 - 6 times a day. But then again, must have the filtration to back it up.

[ScorpiosWife]

It was set up as brackish for our GSPs from September 2011 till May of this year. Tank has been running with the current filtration for 2 months with FW. In those 2 months the parameters have never fluctuated and I've kept the same routine with the water changes and feedings which is why I say I'm pretty certain this is a self inflicted wound. Not really super bad, but could be if I don't stay on top of it.

It's got a Fluval 305 and a HOB of some brand which I can't remember right now cuz Crown and I were really good friends last night, probably Marineland. It's got more than it needs, but I planned on having a big bio-load in the tank so I wanted to be prepared for it.

[SunnyHouTX]

I wouldn't call it a wound just yet simply because nitrates went higher than what your comfort zone can handle. As long as the fish are going about their business normally, then I don't see much to get bothered about.

Adding more filtration will definitely help. Also, like Dave said, put sand substrate rather than gravel which can trap a lot of detritus which can get missed when vacuuming. But do these only if you have to as it seems that it's still a no panic situation.