Ideal water parameters for sick fish?

janakaybravo

New member
Okay, I know ammonia should be 0, nitrite should be 0, but is 20-30 nitrate okay? The fish is in hypo at 1.009 refractrometer, 80 temp, last five weeks. I'm just wondering when to do a water change. I do them once to twice a week, depending on nitrates. Should I wait till nitrate reaches 20, 30, 40? The fish is eating and appears healthy and nonstressed and no ich.
 
If the fish was recently sick you should pay extra close attention to water parameters. The less stress on the fish the better at this point. I would definitely do a few water changes over the next few days. I would try to shoot for at most 15 ppm, but less would be better. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks. I'm starting to make my water now. One more time.
My husband said I spend so much time with my fish I'm going to turn into one!
 
If the fish is in a bare bottom qt tank it should not be too hard to achieve these levels. However, a large fish in a qt tank is not all that easy to keep. For example, I had a large tang in a 30 gallon qt tank and was having to do a 20% water change 3-4 times a week just to keep things barley adequate. If it is a large fish just keep up with the water changes and feed no more than necessary. Good luck.
 
You should do water changes every other day if you detect ammonia and should try to lower nitrate as low as possible because the lower, the better, the less stress s/he has to suffer.

Fish can tolerate a bit of nitrate, but ammonia and nitrite are killers.
 
Back
Top