High Nitrate, new fish arriving in two days

[Plazuk]

Hi there it is my first post here and unfortunately I need to start with a problem...

I have a 165 litre tank with 3 Angel fish and 5 neon tetras, 5x2.5inch discus arriving in two days are going to be there for a few weeks only until my new 300 litre tank arrives.

There was quite a lot of plants in that tank until almost all died recently when I added EasyCarbo and ProFito for a week. After a week I had 10% plants left.

Now I noticed my nitrates are 40-60ppm ( I can never tell with this API liquid test, it's "red" but not "dark red") my tap water is 20ppm (ammonia 0 nitrite 0). I have been doing 40% water changes everyday for the past week and I'm still getting the same reading.
I even stuck a pothos in there to maybe get some of it out but I guess I would have to put like a hundred more to make a difference. From what I've red of other people dealing with the same problem, even a 100% water change would not make a difference but I never found anybody actually making out of it.

And here I am.
Is there any quick remedy for this situation? I don't want my new baby discus to die from it or something...

[White Worm]

If you truly have high nitrates in your tap water, you are going to have to use an RO unit/RO Right.

[Plazuk]

I was thinking more of a nitrate filter but still, why are aquarium nitrates after water change higher than the ones in tap water...

I don't want to go RO since these babies were born and raised in tap water for few generations, they live in hard water with rather high ph and I would like to keep them like so as well

[White Worm]

Nitrate occurs naturally in your aquarium as a byproduct of the breakdown of waste, be it feces, uneaten food or decaying organic matter. Large water changes, removing substrate, cleaning tank/filters and plants usually reduce nitrates.

[Hart24601]

Where I live we have poor water from agriculture, high phosphates and nitrates. I was doing he standard discus thing with large W/C and had nothing but problems. I switched to RO/DI water and have not lost a discus since. My current group of 18 in my 180 I grew from 2.5" and doing at least 100% daily w/c with RO/DI water and they hit almost 6" in well under a year. I reminerlize with seachem equilibrium. At 4" I backed it down to around 20% daily drip automatic water change system.

Just my experience with poor tap water and RO with discus.

[Adam S]

You mentioned plants; does the tank have a deep bed of substrate?

[Plazuk]

You mentioned plants; does the tank have a deep bed of substrate?

It did until most plants died so I figured, no plants no need for dsb so I removed some thinking I would go bb until babies grow up. I did not go as deep as "black sand" just yet but will eventually I guess.

[Filip]

Doing 100 % WC with aged water will reset the nitrates to the original tap water nitrate level .
If that level is low , there is your solution . If you have nasty tapwater full of nitrates or phosphates you will have to use RO water for a water change as Hart suggested .

Puting newly arived baby discus in an already established planted tank with different fish in it its a big mistake because they can easily get cross contaminated right from the start .
Its better to put them in a brand new BB 20-30 gallon tank if you have one , untill you transfer them in their intended 300 liter tank .

[Plazuk]

oh I'm so far across that bridge makes me want to go back a jump..
out of 8 discus only 3 seem OK rest is really dark in colour with white faeces and general sings of Hex about which I only learned after I saw Your comment about cross contamination that I also never heard of.

Years ago I kept discus in species only tank and I had a group of 6 with no additions over the years so I never had any "cross contamination" which is probably why I never heard of it.

After many long hours of googling I now know what an idiot I am for just tossing discus in same tank with angels and that there is always going to be something you don't know about until it's to late.

Today I got eSHa hexamita, dosed the tank, made my biggest angel act like he was high for about 20minutes or so. Hope this stuff helps. I've read some people had to repeat the treatment to cure fish.

[Adam S]

Is the active ingredient metronidazole? Metro needs to be dosed daily for 7-10 days.

[Filip]

oh I'm so far across that bridge makes me want to go back a jump..
out of 8 discus only 3 seem OK rest is really dark in colour with white faeces and general sings of Hex about which I only learned after I saw Your comment about cross contamination that I also never heard of.

Years ago I kept discus in species only tank and I had a group of 6 with no additions over the years so I never had any "cross contamination" which is probably why I never heard of it.

After many long hours of googling I now know what an idiot I am for just tossing discus in same tank with angels and that there is always going to be something you don't know about until it's to late.

Today I got eSHa hexamita, dosed the tank, made my biggest angel act like he was high for about 20minutes or so. Hope this stuff helps. I've read some people had to repeat the treatment to cure fish.

Im sorry I didn't manage to post this info. a couple of days earlier and save you from the troubles Marta.
Anyway , what's done is done .Now let's just hope for the best .

Try the Esha Hex. med according to the instructions for a course of two , and see if it helps . If that doesn't resolve the white poop problem the next thing you can try is Metronidazole along with an elevated temps above 90F and daily WCs .
But whatever you treat with , keep in mind that you got much better odds of success if you treat your discus alone , in a Barebottom tank and you perform daily maintenance and WCs .
Wish you luck Marta .

[Plazuk]

eSha did something for the most of the fish. 6 are now looking quite awesome and getting hungry, even thought they still wont eat and I tried flakes, tetra prima, mosquito larvae., mussel mix and pleco tabs, just for kicks. Made my water dirty and I actually saw some ammonia in there for the first time in ages lol all the 6 discus seem much better after a water change so I'm going to chill with the feeding even though it make my angels suuuuper happy...

7th discus, the smallest one, looks happier but developed these small black patches on one side of the body, he is the one of the group that got hit hard by the shipping, looked sickly from day one.

8th discus, when I got him he was so bloated he was swimming belly up! I thought he was dead and was about to bin him when I noticed he is still breathing. Epsom salt fixed him up quickly but now he has clamped fins, not swimming with the group much only moves out of the way of others when they are close.

Tank is bare bottom with two bonsai plastic trees with live java fern on them ( I have nowhere to put them and I don't want them to die ). I do not have a QT and am not able to get one.
I will try another course of eSHa the day after tomorrow.
My new nitrate removal filter is here just need to get a hose to get it going. On the way are water containers to age water as I have noticed recently ph and tds are a bit off.
Tap water is 7.4 ph and 125 tds my tank is 7.8 ph and 180-200 tds.
I put in some peat in my filter in hopes of getting it down but it made no difference. Ageing water should do the trick.

For now I'm only doing 20-30% water changes daily but will increase to 50% once everything is set up, in a couple of days I think.

And Filip, thanks for enlightening me on cross contamination and all that mess, I'm a wiser woman now and will be much more careful in the future

[Filip]

eSha did something for the most of the fish. 6 are now looking quite awesome and getting hungry, even thought they still wont eat and I tried flakes, tetra prima, mosquito larvae., mussel mix and pleco tabs, just for kicks. Made my water dirty and I actually saw some ammonia in there for the first time in ages lol all the 6 discus seem much better after a water change so I'm going to chill with the feeding even though it make my angels suuuuper happy...

7th discus, the smallest one, looks happier but developed these small black patches on one side of the body, he is the one of the group that got hit hard by the shipping, looked sickly from day one.

8th discus, when I got him he was so bloated he was swimming belly up! I thought he was dead and was about to bin him when I noticed he is still breathing. Epsom salt fixed him up quickly but now he has clamped fins, not swimming with the group much only moves out of the way of others when they are close.

Tank is bare bottom with two bonsai plastic trees with live java fern on them ( I have nowhere to put them and I don't want them to die ). I do not have a QT and am not able to get one.
I will try another course of eSHa the day after tomorrow.
My new nitrate removal filter is here just need to get a hose to get it going. On the way are water containers to age water as I have noticed recently ph and tds are a bit off.
Tap water is 7.4 ph and 125 tds my tank is 7.8 ph and 180-200 tds.
I put in some peat in my filter in hopes of getting it down but it made no difference. Ageing water should do the trick.

For now I'm only doing 20-30% water changes daily but will increase to 50% once everything is set up, in a couple of days I think.

And Filip, thanks for enlightening me on cross contamination and all that mess, I'm a wiser woman now and will be much more careful in the future

You are welcomed Marta.
Quarantine tank procedure is the safest way to go with any new additions . I'm glad that your discus act responsive to the medicine and they are getting better .
Good luck with your baby discus and don't hesitate to ask for advices whenever you are in doubt .