High nitrate and low ph? How to fix?

Question

Ok well, just took the water into the pet store today, they told me just to vaccum the rocks and change 10% of the water everyday for 5 days then bring the water back.. Will this work? The fish in the tank are : 1 small plecustomus, 1 parrot fish, 1 kissing fish, 1 small spotted catfish, 1 im not sure what he is, he has a black spot on his side and a red belly, and 5 small fish im not sure what they are at all. So do i just do like they said or what?

Answer 1

How about the size of the tank too?

Ok high nitrates aren't as bad as high ammonia and nitrite.  Water changes are the way to control nitrates, but I'm confused why you're asking about PH?  Nothing in your input said anything about PH.

What could happen is if you don't clean your gravel out for too long, the excess waste will continue to break down past becomming ammonia and begin to form carbonic and nitric acid's which, if you have no hardness in your water, will begin to impact your PH by lowering it.

You additionally want to be vaccuming out your gravel as excess waste lying around is a harbor for pathogens to take hold in your tank.  Out of all the input too, you didn't list what your tank size is, what is your PH reading and hardness, along with the nitrate reading too.

The short of it is, yes doing consecutive water changes will bring down your nitrate levels, but you should at least be doing weekly changes already.  If you have a very high reading in nitrates and you are doing regular weekly  changes, then either your water source is already high in nitrates, or you're over populated in your tank and the nitrates are building back up too fast.

Answer 2

Ya I would do what they said, that's what I would do.

Answer 3

I would vacuum 1/3 of the tank everyday for 3 days trying not to stir it up too much.  You can remove more than 10% of the water, up to 50% will still be fine.  

You should be doing vacuuming on at least a month basis and changing out 20% of your water weekly just as general maintenance.  You don't mention the size of your tank but overcrowding will cause more waste and make your water bad faster.  Live plants will help with nitrate levels.  Hornwort is an easy plant that sucks up nitrate because it grows quickly.

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Answer 4

If you haven't cleaned your tank in awhile, then yes you really need to. See when your fish are in the tank and they p**p it builds up on the bottom and raises the nitrates which can actually kill your fish if it becomes too high. I would do exactly what they say.