[New tank - high nitrates]

Thank you so much, very helpful. I didn’t think about fertilizers as a source. I will try this out!

[New tank - high nitrates]

Yes I am using easy green…. I didn’t know that could be the source of nitrates. What kind of fertilizers should I look for that won’t cause high nitrates? 

[New tank - high nitrates]

Thank you so much for your answers - I have tested my municipality’s water, it has 0 nitrates and nitrites and is fairly hard. As for the test strips, I use the same test strips on my other two tanks and don’t get the same result as my newly set-up tank referenced in my original question. 
 

A little history behind this new tank: I had a 5 gallon, heavily planted tank with snails and a couple of ghost shrimp. A few months into it my nitrates spiked really high and eventually killed my shrimp. I changed the water every other day, no food was going in and I removed any dead leaves immediately; but still my nitrates were high. After a year I took it apart, thoroughly washed the tank and equipment, added new gravel and added the same plants back in. This is now the tank where 3 days after doing this my nitrates are high again. Maybe it’s in the plants, since that’s the only factor that has remained the same? I don’t know, but I appreciate everyone’s suggestions. Thank you!

[New tank - high nitrates]

I just set up a new tank 3 days ago with established sponges from another healthy tank. The only stock are a handful of rams horn snails and live plants. My nitrites are 0 but my nitrates are 100 or more. What is the reason for this and what can I do about it?

[Can anyone identify?]

Can anyone identify these microscopic white things covering my glass? They’re too small for me to tell if they’re worms or bugs. 

[Too many Platy fry]

5 hours ago, Fish Folk said:

We have done this multiple times: start out with one or two pairs of Livebearers, and end up with a large colony! They’ll eventually find a limit. Once first generation fry grow large enough, they’ll  eat 2nd generation fry. Then you can do what @Kirsten suggests, and sell off grown stock to your LFS for credit, etc. 

Here’s a 10-gal tank we did this with. Started with one male and one female...

 

That is good to know! I think it’s beautiful, Platys are a wonderful fish. I just didn’t expect that they’d be so prolific 😆 It’s a little more reassuring to know the population will plateau in time. Thanks for your input!

[Too many Platy fry]

Good to know! If my 6yo isn’t creeped out by frogs, I’ll definitely get some of those 😄 And I like the dwarf gourami suggestion, they’re very pretty! Hopefully I can get this Platy population under control 😬

[Too many Platy fry]

Thank you! That is very helpful. I’ve been interested in African dwarf frogs, but do you know if they’ll bother the ghost shrimp? 

[Too many Platy fry]

My 6yo daughter has a 10 gallon tank with a few ghost shrimp. I bought her 4 Platys to add to it, however they had multiplied out of control. I have at least 20 platys now in this 10 gallon and I need to control the population. Are there fish out there that I could add to the tank that would help control the fry population? I’m not sure what to do with all of these fish.