Hi i have african cichlids and a bad problem with high nitrat levels. Il start by tellin u want iv done so far.

iv done 5 day course of water changes along with good bacteria put in the filters im using A.B.A. But only a little change well from 200 down 2 100 doin that. Now i took out all the ocean rock and jet washed them and cleaned marine sand other water levels all fine and dandy. still the nitrat is showing at just below 75 after 3 days for cleaning everything.

plz can anyone help with wat i can do next really dont want 2 loose my babys thanks

nitrate or nitrite?

Jet washing the rocks and sand is likely to have the opposite effect to what you want...

Darwengray: if your tank has 200, 100 or even 75 nitrite, I would be worried (assuming ppm)

What is the level in the tap water? Assuming you use tapwater for water changes. If its the same... that'll be why its not going down.

Are you over stocked? Do you overfeed?

You might need to do 50% weekly water changes forever if you have a heavily stocked tank.

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having worked in an aquatic shop i ahve seen this problem many a time.

if we could reduce the nitrate enough i would ask for a sample of there tap water to test, it maybe that your tapwater is naturally high in nitrate and its nothing your doing wrong.

obviously if its not that. you may need to try different things. cut down on feeding, more and bigger water changes.

what filteration system are you using. with all this ocean rock is there enough circulation or have you got any power heads???

daniel

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it is nitrat no worrys there. Water levels in tap are below 25 or even lower some days

I have 22 fish all different sizes in a 240 ltr jewel tank running 3 filters 2 internal and a external ehiem i only feed twice a day with hikara cichlid exel and feed them once a week with frozen brime

Im not an expert but have had the tank running for 2 years but its 1st time this has happened

Ah ok, weird. Sounds pretty good.

What water changes do you normally do? (amount and frequency?)

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i prob sound really dumb now but wat is a power head and wat would b the best product to go for maybe that could be the problem. Im using the jewel filter and a fluval 4 plus And a eheim ecco model2236 comfort.

A powerhead is just a pump that moves water around. Its the power part of the filters. It sounds like thats enough circulation with those ones. Again:

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i nomaly do a 25% change every week but have trouble cleaning the marine sand all the time as i like 2 let the fish breed as some of them lay eggs under the rocks on the floor of my tank at the same i have lost a few fish cause of the nitrat

I would step it up to 50% weekly then, if possible. Use a gravel cleaner to get the sand clean, but definitely do NOT take the sand out and wash it... that destroys the bacteria which are essential for the tank (which, yes, are producing the nitrate... but you need them there anyways!!).

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