Nitrate outrage

Question
hi chris,
my name is John, i have 55 gallon tank, i'm a beginner, though my tank is somewhere 5months old i think, here's my concern. i don't have any water test kits or anything to test my water since my tank was set up. these were my five first fish in my tank (1 bala shark, 1 columbian catfish, 1 knife fish, 1 pleco). later i put in 4 black skirt tetras. based on my observation "myself", i think my fishes are doing great! although my knife fish, pleco,and catfish hides everyday. i haven't performed any gravel vacuum since i set up my tank cuz i don't know how to syphon or do something about it. then one day i went to the nearest PETCO and have my water checked, they told my nitrate is way off the scale! Having said that, they told me to do a 50% water change quick, and put ammonia and nitrite or nitrate remover after the syphoning and 50% water change. After doing all of that, i began to refill the water in my tank from the sink. then i put freshwater salt, and water conditioners, and even PH balance. just this day (10/4/06). did i do the right thing? did the petco customer service say the right thing to do? my fish are doing same thing, same routine, nothing has changed although i change the ornaments where they were placed. so do u think i did the right thing? do u have any advice for me? haven't checked what my nitrate level yet cuz i don't have a kit.

tnx advance for the reply
                 john

Answer
Hi John;

High nitrates are not an emergency, but they should be corrected as soon as possible. It is best to do smaller water changes very frequently at first to get the nitrates down. Large changes of anything more than 25% in one day can really shock the fish.

I usually recommend cutting back on fish food by 50% and making a 25% water change every day for 4 or 5 days in a row. Vacuum the gravel once during that 4 or 5 days. Check the nitrates. If they are still over 40 ppm, do the 25% water changes daily again, for 4 or 5 more days with one gravel vacuuming and measure the nitrate again. You don't need any chemicals or additives other than a regular water conditioner that helps with stress and removes chlorine and chloramine. Keep doing the changes and a gravel vacuuming once a week until the nitrates are down to a more tolerable level.

You can buy your own test kit to do the tests. There are some called a "Master Test Kit" that has several different ones in it. They usually have pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. They are easy to do, just follow the instructions.

Once the crisis is over, do a weekly water change and vacuum the gravel every weke to 2 weeks. You have some pretty big and messy fish in there so a weekly vacuuming would not be too much.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins