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sudden high nitrate spike


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hi guys...

 

would like to ask for some help and advice as to how to control my nitrates inside my tank... this tank has been working fine then just at random i checked my nitrates and it was reading around 60 to 80 ppm.... i did a partial water change of 35% and added purigen to my tank and some water lettuce and Gota kula floating plants to suck up most of the nitrates... but this morning after a 35% WC my nitrates are still reading high about 40 to 60 ppm...

 

i have a couple of questions:

 

1) should i do another major water change in the next day or so... im hesistant as this sudden major water changes might further stress my shrimp...

 

2) how long would it take for purigen to suck up the nitrates in the water... mind you im using only sponge filters and i placed the purigen on top of the air outflow of the sponge filters to there is sufficient water movement that is hitting the purigen... ( i noticed that the purigen is starting to turn brown...) how long before i need to recharge the purigen.... ( its running inside a 20gal tank for about 2 days now)

 

3) should i add more plants? if so what other plants are nitrate hogs?

 

4) would bacteria additives work? such as mosura de nitro? what other alternatives are there to mosura denitro?

 

Many Thanks

 

 

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How would you rate your shrimp health prior to your knowledge of high-nitrate levels?  If they were doing OK, it may be better to slowly lower the nitrates rather than take drastic actions and start adding a bunch of things (changes) to the tank.  

 

Purigen should last several months.  From the Seachem website:  "Typically, the Purigen should last anywhere from 3-6 months, depending on the organic load.  The Purigen turning brown almost black is indicative of the media being exhausted and ready for regeneration"

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1) If nothing bad is happening such as death, don't do so many water changes.

 

2) Purigen does NOT absorb nitrates. What Purigen does is absorb organic matter BEFORE it goes through the nitrogen cycle.

 

3) You can if you want. Guppy Grass is one of my favorite Nitrate absorbers as well as Dwarf Water Lettuce.

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How would you rate your shrimp health prior to your knowledge of high-nitrate levels?  If they were doing OK, it may be better to slowly lower the nitrates rather than take drastic actions and start adding a bunch of things (changes) to the tank.  

 

Purigen should last several months.  From the Seachem website:  "Typically, the Purigen should last anywhere from 3-6 months, depending on the organic load.  The Purigen turning brown almost black is indicative of the media being exhausted and ready for regeneration"

 

 

Hi shrimp minded...

 

its just weird because the shrimp were all active eating well... then i would just see the next morning one random death... (consecutively...) they were not lethargic or hiding... they just died randomly which prompted me to do a spot test on the nitrates...

 

i tested nitrates again this morning a very slight or barely a difference in terms of the API color charts from the original initial reading... added some water lettuce and gota kula hope that would help suck up the nitrates... i added some duckweed but still waiting for it to do its thing... hehehehe...

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How old is the tank?

 

Have you cleaned your filter or vacuumed your substrate? Perhaps the source the nitrate is there.

the tank is about 5 months old... filters are sponge filters... havent cleaned them yet... havent also been able to do a gravel vac. yet so far... am planing to do one on my next water change

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1) If nothing bad is happening such as death, don't do so many water changes.

 

2) Purigen does NOT absorb nitrates. What Purigen does is absorb organic matter BEFORE it goes through the nitrogen cycle.

 

3) You can if you want. Guppy Grass is one of my favorite Nitrate absorbers as well as Dwarf Water Lettuce.

 

poopians...

 

i got some random deaths thats what prompted me to do water changes...

 

will add some guppy grass to my tank... i got some lying around... hopefully that would help

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poopians...

 

i got some random deaths thats what prompted me to do water changes...

 

will add some guppy grass to my tank... i got some lying around... hopefully that would help

" this tank has been working fine then just at random i checked my nitrates and it was reading around 60 to 80 ppm"

 

Are nitrates still increasing or is it decreasing daily?

 

If it's increasing, then your new water probably has nitrates.

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poopians,

 

the nitrates are not increasing since yest... havent dont a follow up test but so far i havent seen any more deaths... i also noticed that my ph was at 6.2 so added some baking soda to increase it back to 6.8...

 

2 things could possibly be killing my shrimp the low ph or the nitrates...

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From the "Inverts you keep", you are keeping neos?

 

What remineralizer are you using?

 

How are you testing pH?

 

If you added baking soda and it went up to 6.8 in a matter of seconds/minutes, you are stressing out your shrimp.

 

Have you added something new to tank lately?

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the tank is about 5 months old... filters are sponge filters... havent cleaned them yet... havent also been able to do a gravel vac. yet so far... am planing to do one on my next water change

5 month it sounds like its time to clean your sponges. They should be clogged by now and water flow must be reduced. I cleaning sponges like once a couple of months and after two months they fill hard and got a lot of dirt in them, but don't clean them all at once - one sponge every week or so.

Poopians has probably more experience and will try to find an issue. I just want to add a couple of questions to his list:

When did you last time checked your nitrates before this time and what was the reading?

How is your feeding schedule like, are you sure you not over feeding? Over feeding is the main issue when we talking about high nitrate

Do you remove uneaten food after 2-3 hours if you feeding with food pellets?

How big is the tank and how many shrimps and what kind?

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From the "Inverts you keep", you are keeping neos?

 

What remineralizer are you using?

 

How are you testing pH?

 

If you added baking soda and it went up to 6.8 in a matter of seconds/minutes, you are stressing out your shrimp.

 

Have you added something new to tank lately?

 

hi poopians.

 

good news so far... no more deaths today... ph still at 6.8... but the weird thing is the nitrates still at 40 ppm plus...

 

here the answers to your questions asked...

 

Shrimp kept... neos

 

remineralizer used Salty shrimp GH+

 

when i added the baking soda... i first mixed a small amount to a gallon of RO water... allow it to settle and gradually add it to my tank... the whole process took about 2 hours... so far... with regard to the deaths they have just been 1 or 2 daily... for two days straight then stopped today... hopefully this trend would continue on towards a positive note...

 

my ph i test with an API test kit

 

added nothing to my tank... just simply added some guppy grass to suck up the nitrates but this was only after the deaths occured.

 

the deaths only seem to happen in my tank that was sitting at ph 6.2 which i dunno why neos would die at that ph... as i have once kept neos with CRS at ph 6.0 and they were fine...

 

with regard with what i feed... i feed my colony of 100 plus neos 2 hikari mini algae wafers daily in my 20 gal tank.

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When did you add the plants? Just a day or two ago?

 

When adding new plants to a new environment, it may take 1-4 weeks for the plants to fully adjust and being doing their job. (This is from what I experienced)

 

Sounds crazy right? If the plants were growing in your old tank and you move it to a new tank with different parameters, the growth usually stops for 1-4 weeks before it starts any growing again. (This is from what I experienced)

 

Purigen usually turns brown quick in an established tank because there is so much organic matter already present, it's like absorbing 5 months of organic matter. After most of the organic matter is absorbed, it will turn brown a lot slower.

 

I have no clue how big your mini algae wafers are but I only feed 0.5-1.0 cm of food 3-5 times a day.

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Instead of baking soda add potassium bicarbonate KHCO3, you dont want Na+ ions in your tank wich contant in baking soda NaHCO3. Potassium is micro element which is good for shrimps and plants. Potasim bicarbonate is one of the salt including in salty shrimp GH/KG+ formula and it's only increasing KH pretty much like baking soda but without adding Na in your water. I'm using it in my blue rili tank to increase ph to 7.5.

You can buy it online but make sure its premium food grade.

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Thanks for your inputs. Funny thing right now happening in my tank is after adding the azolla to suck up the nitrates in my tank. The nitrate did not increase in dact it kinda kept it in check but found 2 dead ones ... if this still continues iight just consider a complete tear down and restart

Sent from my SHV-E300K using Tapatalk

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To be honest, I think it's most likely that nitrates have been building up gradually over time. I think you should clean the sponges and look for areas where waste might accumulate unseen. Shrimp are easily overfed and plants can only do so much, especially if potassium is not being supplemented.

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chibikaie... i plan to do a tank reset... i have a big feeling that nitrates might have been trapped in the sand in the tank... with the mulm accumulating beneath it it might be a chore to do gravel vacs with the sand substrate... might do a reset and change the substrate...

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