Hi, I am quite new to keeping fish but so far I am having a blast with it. I started a small planted tank in January and it was going well until about 2 weeks ago. The Nitrate levels got up to around 50 and so I started doing 20% water changes every other day trying to bring it down. It did not work after a week so I did a 50% change and have kept up with the 20% changes but it is still not working.
Background info: I think it started when I had a plant die. I did not notice it since was under a much bigger plant. When I did it was in full decay. I removed it completely and vacuumed the gravel with each water change.
The stocking of the tank might have been high as well since I had 2 fish that have spawned several times. So I started a nursery tank and got the fry out a week ago as well as one of the parents. So now I have 1 small pleco, 3 cories, 1 gourami, 6 shrimp and a couple of snails in the problem tank.
I talked to the local fish store and they suggested Flugal Nitrate Remover but it has not worked. I have lost one fish and I am worried about losing more if I cannot find away to keep the nitrate down. It seems to drop down to around zero when I do a water change but the next day it is back up again. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Oh yea, I have changed the filter media at the beginning of the water changes and again this last weekend.
Background info: I think it started when I had a plant die. I did not notice it since was under a much bigger plant. When I did it was in full decay. I removed it completely and vacuumed the gravel with each water change.
The stocking of the tank might have been high as well since I had 2 fish that have spawned several times. So I started a nursery tank and got the fry out a week ago as well as one of the parents. So now I have 1 small pleco, 3 cories, 1 gourami, 6 shrimp and a couple of snails in the problem tank.
I talked to the local fish store and they suggested Flugal Nitrate Remover but it has not worked. I have lost one fish and I am worried about losing more if I cannot find away to keep the nitrate down. It seems to drop down to around zero when I do a water change but the next day it is back up again. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Oh yea, I have changed the filter media at the beginning of the water changes and again this last weekend.