high nitrate levels in my tropical tank?

Question

i have a tropical tank with 2 clown loach 1 barb mollies platys 1 plec 2 bottom feeders 4 penguin tetras i have 2 mollies with mouth rot which im treating with aquriam treatment 8
my question is the nitrate levels are sky high i did a water test and the test kit went dark purple ,never had that before.
i did a water change as i was worried and have treated again with aquriam treatment 8
i had to take the carbon stones which i have in my external filter out could this be the cause of this,i cant do a water change again for 7 days ,and the mouth rot seems to be getting worse than better where am i going wrong please help

the treatment im using is interppet 8 anti fungus and finrot it says it cures fish of fungus mouth rot and finrot.
i did a water change every week 10 percent and the nitrate test i did was always clear ive tested the tap water and its clear
i just treated again with no 8 should i cahnge the medication tommorow and do a ater change ,can taking out to much water like i did today cause the water test to go purple
how do i know if my fish is getting better they are silver mollies and they had both lost part of there top lip its not red still white but i just dont know what to look for it getting better
thanks john v and magic man i hope i spelt it right great info

magic man 116 got it right this time

Answer 1

I'm not familiar with aquarium treatment 8, but for mouth rot you need to be treating with a good antibiotic. If you mean Interpet No. 8 Antifungus, it's not what you need for your problem. Mouth rot can be from a fungus or can be from a bacterial infection. If you are treating with Inperpet No. 8 and not seeing an improvement you need to switch to an antibiotic.


If what you have is an antibiotic and you aren't seeing any improvement after 3-4 days, you will want to change the trreatment and use a different antibiotic. I suggest Maracyn 2 or Maracyn TC (tetracycline) for mouth rot. If your medicaiton isnt working try one of those.

As for as the nitrates, that could be due to the medication or a lack of recent water change or even nitrates in your tap water. Check your tap water to be sure you have no significant amount of nitrate there. If you do then a water change won't help much unless you buy water from another source.

Assuming you have been treating for more than 2 days, I would suggest a large waterchange (50%) today and one tomorrow to clear most of the meds out of the tank. Putting the carbon back in the filter for these days will also help. Then start treatment with a new medication.

MM

Answer 2

Hi,

Nitrate levels being high are not the best thing in the world, but when considering that against ammonia or nitrite, you're in a much more controllable situation. I see you are giving medications and that really would not be the cause of high nitrate. If anything, certain medications which are anti biotics would kill off your nitrifying bacteria and cause a rise in your ammonia and nitrite, but that certainly wouldn't cause nitrate to rise, if anything it should get lower because the nitrite is going to slow down in oxidation.

Have you been doing your regular water changes up till now? Do yourself a big favor here, and run that nitrate test on your tap water. It's more likely there is a nitrate source either in your tap water or well water, whichever you are using to do your water changes with. Rule that out first. Then do a good sized water change until you drop the levels down to under 40 ppm, IF there is no nitrate in your water source. Keep checking on your ammonia and nitrite as well given you are medicating that tank. Ok just reread. You could do smaller water changes. That pretty much is what's going to get your nitrates down. Plants do consume them yes, but not enough to employ them only as a measure to keep them under acceptable levels. You could try adding some plants, but this alone is not going to solve the problem. Use some smaller water changes for now.

JV

Answer 3

what aquarium treatment are you using for mouth rot? are you talking about columnaris that makes white fuzzy stuff around the mouth? i haven't had a lot of success in curing columnaris unless it is caught very early.

with the mollies i would do a heavy salt bath -- use about a tablespoon of aquarium salt (kosher or canning salt will work too) in a gallon of water. leave them in for about 20 minutes unless they start weirding out or stop moving. mollies actually prefer to be in brackish water and are more succeptable to bacteria that salt would eliminate.

i would still do about 10% water changes every other day even while you are doing treatments. the high nitrates will seriously damage the other fish too -- don't try to save the mollies at the expense of everyone else.

Answer 4

According to my book....your tank is done with cycling! Ammonia is the first...then build up of Nitrite....then Nitrate is the end of cycling. If you have a sick fish, but the others are healthy...it is only one fish sick. I can tell you that your fish are loving you for the water changes because that is the only way to add more H20. You might want to remove the one with mouth rot...it could infect the others.

Answer 5

im with magic