New Tank

[Chris.d514]

So we went out of town this past weekend and I used the Omega One vacation feeders to keep the fish fed. When we got back I noticed that one of our fish that had been staying the corner not eating was not at the top in its corner. I searched the entire tank but was unable to find any sign of it. Also my nitrates are still staying 40-60 mark. I have done water changes everyday for a week i have stirred the sand to release anything caught in it and still nothing. I even rinsed out my filter media in some of the water I removed at a water change(turned a 5 gallon bucket of water black). I have no clue why my nitrates are so high. In the tank I have 2 dwarf gouramis, a german blue ram, 7 formerly painted glass(a few still have specs of the dye but clear for the most part and maybe offered as feeders here soon), 7 zebras/glofish, and 5-10 ghost shrimp. Using an AC30 with sponge pre-filter(added last week). Any other thoughts on my jacked up nitrates?

[aquabee]

Lowered amount of food they get, changed water every third day and found/removed a dead shrimp from filter. Back down to 20 nitrates.

Awesome. Hopefully they'll slowly come down to even lower than that.

[Chris.d514]

Lowered amount of food they get, changed water every third day and found/removed a dead shrimp from filter. Back down to 20 nitrates.

[aquabee]

Got 10 more ghost shrimp. Gotta love 5 for a dollar.

Awesome. Hope things settle out soon. Just barely feed your fish a touch of food, enough for them to finish in 2 minutes, every 2-3 days only til your nitrates come down.

[Chris.d514]

Got 10 more ghost shrimp. Gotta love 5 for a dollar.

[Chris.d514]

I may stop at the lfs over here and grab 5-10 later.

[aquabee]

Weird. Try another water change and space your feedings to every 2-3 days.

I think many snails don't do much about uneaten food but I don't know much about mystery snails. Try more shrimp, perhaps?

[Chris.d514]

Ammonia .25 nitrite 0 and nitrate 40. I added 2 mystery snails to help with uneaten food.

[aquabee]

Heya Chris, how's it lookin today? Params any better?

[Chris.d514]

A dwarf grass, dwarf baby tears or maybe some moss for my rock and driftwood.

[sunkenmetal]

what kind of bottom plant?

[Chris.d514]

Or til I can afford another bottom plant or get some clippings from someone.

[eklikewhoa]

I thought mondo grass wasn't a true aquatic plant...

It's not but chris insist he leaves it in the tank till it dies...

[sunkenmetal]

I thought mondo grass wasn't a true aquatic plant...

[aquabee]

That's weird. The plants should be using up most of your nitrates, so there must be a source of some crazy nitrates. I can't imagine what but let's hope that clogged filter theory works!