New Tank

[SunnyHouTX]

How long has it been set up now?

[Chris.d514]

Trying to give away the painted glass tetras as feeders to free up some room.

[SunnyHouTX]

Nitrates should be around 80 when it comes time to do a WC. If nitrates are higher than that sooner, then you might have too many fish for that tank or an excessive food/nutrient situation.

[Chris.d514]

yes the 14.

[Chris.d514]

Ok the reason I was worried about it is that i had a ram died when they first spiked. It swelled up was swimming slow and died in 30 min or so.

[SunnyHouTX]

Is this still a 14 gallon tank we're talking about?

[SunnyHouTX]

80 is on the high-ish side but 40 is not bad.

[Chris.d514]

40-80 with 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites

[SunnyHouTX]

What is the reading you're getting for nitrates?

[Chris.d514]

Water changes have not helped went so far as to do them daily and 50-75% at a time. Thought of posting a pic of one I did using ek's method I did about 80% had 2" of water left in tank.

[SunnyHouTX]

No sir. Water changes are the easiest way to battle high nitrates

[Chris.d514]

Would switching my carbon for purigen help with the high nitrates?

[eklikewhoa]

De-nitrate, matrix etc. needs a good length of time for aerobic bacteria to form and the amount you use will be in direct control of the results you get.

If you are running it in a canister or reactor reduce or block out any light you can and the limited about of water flow through them would also provide to be more useful to create an oxygen deprived environment.

[Bedlamer]

Which test kit are you using? Is it the API one? I just started a thread down in the chemistry section looking for an alternative. You could look around for someone with a different test kit from yours to cross reference the results.

Like Ek said its probably your source, because it seems you covered all the bases.

If nothing else works you could try adding some Seachem De*Nitrate if you can run it in 50 gph or less flow. I just started playing around with it this week--too soon to see anything, but the on-line reviews are mostly that it works well.

[eklikewhoa]

your water source probably.