should i do a water change or leave as is?

[Celbrise]

so i tested my tank today after having it run for about a year and a half now and my nitrates are at 80ppm i assumed it was high to begin with. however i also bought some bacteria in the bottle and added as directed on the tank to help cycle it because when setting up the tank it was not cycled before adding in all the fish and what not. i was wondering if it would be wise to do a water change preferably 20% to try and lower the nitrates after i just added the bacteria in. i would do the water change tomorrow of course. or should i just wait until when my next water change is due and see how my parameters fair. my next water change is due on sunday.

my salinity is also very high for a FOWLR tank it's well over 1.025 i think it is 1.03.

if i do a water change tomorrow should i also do it again on sunday or would it be okay to skip sundays one.

 

[Diesel]

Are you sure your No3 is 80ppm?
I would check again and ask a second opinion from some one who can test your water too for No3.
With that much No3 you should have lots of GHA.
If you really have that high in No3 do a 50% WC and do one again the next day, mean while keep testing your No3 and Po4.
I wonder too what your Ammonia and Nitrite is.

 

[Celbrise]

i haven't done a water change in about 2-3 weeks only been topping the tank off with tap water and i didn't clean my filter or change out the media for a year it was much neglected. the paramters i got were Ph - 8.0 Ammonia -0.25 Nitrite - 0 ppm Nitrate - pretty sure it is 80 ppm it was a dark orange color and i used the api liquid salt water test kit. it wasn't red which is what the 160ppm looks like but it definetly wasn't 40ppm either i mean it was dark orange. i just recently changed out my filter media, added phosguard, cleaned filter media, added a protein skimmer, added more rock, reduced feeding. i also checked the experation date of the kit before buying it was 2020. followed instructions percisely on the directions and matched colors as best i could. i also had a lot of dead spots in my tank just added another power head to the bottom of the tank to get rid of it.

 

[melypr1985]

Wait. this tank is over a year old? and it has 8.0 ammonia in it? You said you reduced feeding.... are there living fish in this tank right now? I would suggest exactly what diesel said.... 50% water change over and over, or until the ammonia and nitrite are zero if that's the case. ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish and will do damage to their internal organs and gills to the point of death.

 

[Diesel]

When did you purchased the API test kit?

 

[Celbrise]

no the ammonia is 0.25 the Ph is 8.0. the nitrite is 0 wasn't hard to check that one as it was bright blue as suggested by the card. only the nitrate is very high at 80ppm.

 

[Celbrise]

i purchased it today at the petstore got home and did the tests

 

[Diesel]

Wait. this tank is over a year old? and it has 8.0 ammonia in it? You said you reduced feeding.... are there living fish in this tank right now? I would suggest exactly what diesel said.... 50% water change over and over, or until the ammonia and nitrite are zero if that's the case. ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish and will do damage to their internal organs and gills to the point of death.

Not sure if he's spot on with the tests or test kit as he uses API.
If fish is still alive I doubt that the # are that high.

 

[melypr1985]

no the ammonia is 0.25 the Ph is 8.0. the nitrite is 0 wasn't hard to check that one as it was bright blue as suggested by the card. only the nitrate is very high at 80ppm.

Oh man the nyquil is kicking in again and I read that wrong lol... Still any ammonia in your tank is bad for your fish. It's capable of internal damage even at low concentrations. Definitely do the water changes as Diesel outlined above and keep testing to be sure your efforts are helping keep those numbers at zero. Nitrates wont hurt the fish unless they are very very high, but will cause lots of algae issues. Water changes are the way to export those as well, so it's a win-win for you in this case.
boy oh boy I sure am glad I read that wrong!! I was like Holly COW! lol

 

[Celbrise]

yes i have fish in the tank right now. i tried purchasing a kit online but they said they dont ship to my state for some reason and the stores here only carry API or test kits for corals i believe/reef stuff. this is just a fowlr tank

 

[Diesel]

Ahh, I think it was a readers error on our hand @melypr1985 and me ( I knew we had something in common )
Still 80 ppm on the No3 is high and I suspect your test kit might be bad.

 

[Celbrise]

okay thanks i will do a 50% water change tomorrow and test water maybe an hour or two after to let things settle down. will come back with results and pics so you guys can probably see and make sure my numbers are right. yea i am trying to get the ammonia down to 0 i think that is because of the filter issue though because before when i last cleaned the filter it had a very ammonia like smell it was bad.

 

[Dtackett]

never hurts to do a water change, but bring that salinity down. I suggest around 1.023 for a fowlr, before you do the water change. give the fish a chance to adjust back down to normal salinity levels.

 

[Celbrise]

yea i dont like these api test kits last one i had was the strip one and it was crap it didn't read right but i expected the liquid one to be better. i will post pics of tomorrows numbers though and compare with todays hopefully it isn't bad i mean it was pricey -.-" $50 because i couldn't get it online due unable to ship on the planes to hawaii

 

[Celbrise]

never hurts to do a water change, but bring that salinity down. I suggest around 1.023 for a fowlr, before you do the water change. give the fish a chance to adjust back down to normal salinity levels.

yea i figured i am trying to drop it down slowly. been topping off with fresh water tomorrow i will do a 50% water change doubt it will drop heavily

 

[Dtackett]

id return it and say its faulty. its pretty well junk is saltwater.

 

[Diesel]

okay thanks i will do a 50% water change tomorrow and test water maybe an hour or two after to let things settle down. will come back with results and pics so you guys can probably see and make sure my numbers are right. yea i am trying to get the ammonia down to 0 i think that is because of the filter issue though because before when i last cleaned the filter it had a very ammonia like smell it was bad.

Do you mix your own salt water?
I so what salt are you using and what kind of water?
Did you ever test your fresh water before you add salt in it, that is if you mix yourself.
If you buy your salt water pre-mixed, I suggest to test it for No3 as you adding only to it and don't do anything for your system.
Not the first time that ppl think they have perfectly fine water and they really don't as the LFS where they buy it just won't change their filters in their RODI equipment.

 

[Dtackett]

Do you mix your own salt water?
I so what salt are you using and what kind of water?
Did you ever test your fresh water before you add salt in it, that is if you mix yourself.
If you buy your salt water pre-mixed, I suggest to test it for No3 as you adding only to it and don't do anything for your system.
Not the first time that ppl think they have perfectly fine water and they really don't as the LFS where they buy it just won't change their filters in their RODI equipment.

exactly. I learned my lesson on this one and just bought a RODI filter.

 

[Celbrise]

i mix my own i use instant ocean aquarium salt the purple and white one i dont believe it's the reef one. i also use i believe a 3 stage ro/di unit it is barely used and no i never tested the ro/di water i rarely use it thats why i used to just use tap water. my parents are really anal about running the ro/di unit because the waste water -.-" the stores here dont carry pre mixed water and i never bought ro/di water from them.

 

[Dtackett]

tell them to use the waste water to water the grass and gardens. its really good for that. also tell them if they want you to have a successful saltwater tank it may be a good idea to let you run it. water is cheap. reefs are not.