2nd shrimp died; nitrates through the roof

[jdircksen]

sorry the search function is down right now...

My question is:
If I suddenly lower the nitrates and other water balances, will the fish survive?

Background:
I just had my 2nd shrimp die in a month. First was a pepermint that lived for ~5 months. 2nd was a camelback that lived for ~1 month. I think my water quality is to blame, so I need suggestions on the best way to fix the problem.

I bought a cheap test kit, and it says my nitrates are 200+ppm. From my research, I think the best way to lower them is to do a mass water change. I thought buying more LR would help, but 9.86lbs later the nitrates remain unchanged.

I'm worried about doing a mass water change because I fear the fish won't be able to take it. over the past 9 months they have slowly adjusted to the rising nitrates.

Setup:
24g JBJ nanocube
~20 lbs LR
4 hermit crabs
4 turbo snails
1 pink tip anenome
1 diamond spotted goby
2 false percula clownfish

THanks for the input

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

what are you doing now for water changes? what type of water you using? we need to find out why they are so high and also help lower them but yes doing good size water changes will be fine for the fish.

 

[theop]

Do the water changes. While your fish may have slowly acclimated to the high nitrates, lowering them will not hurt the fish. I doubt any of your inverts will survive for long with nitrates that elevated.

You need to figure out why they got so elevated. With 20# of LR in your tank, you should have little to no nitrates present. Are you overfeeding? Have you been doing regular water changes? Do you have bio-balls in your tank or something else which will trap detritus? Are you sure your test kit is correct?

 

[WaterKeeper]

By all means do the big water changes. That is a big bioload for that size tank. You should be doing at least 10-20% water changes each week on a small tank like that to maintain water quality. Right now I'd do a 25% immediately and about a 25% change every other day for the next week. After that fall back to the smaller amounts.

 

[jdircksen]

I do 20% bi-weekly water changes. And just top off in between. The water I use is de-ionized tap water. The only fiter media I have are the sponges and the charcol. The sponges were very very dirty last time I cleaned them (a month or so ago). I'll take another look at them. I probably do over feed. I feed the fish once daily...usually one cube of frozen formula one or some flake food. They don't eat it all on the way down so some does land on the bottom. The food disappears after a little while though. My sand looks pretty clean though, atleast it doesn't have any algae or clumps of food on it.

 

[WaterKeeper]

More care is needed for that mechanical filter. Clean the sponges and carbon when doing those water changes. You want to rely on the LR for the bulk of you bio-filtration. The mechanical filters should be kept free of biological growth. Unless you get those nitrates under control the anemone will be following the path of your shrimp.