I ran into a problem with my tank. I have a 38 Gallon tank and it has been running for about 8 months. In the tank is 2-acci chiclids (1-3" 1-2") , 2 electric yellow chilids(1-3" 1-2"), 2 tiger barbs(1 1/2"), a red tail shark(3-1/2"), an albino barb (1 1/2") , and a green barb (1 1/2"), and a chinese algae eater that is 6" long. All of these have been in the tank for months. I change the water every week at a 25% water change. The fish get feed twice a day and feed them only what they can eat in 2 mins. My nitrate level is at 110 and other then that my water is green. I had all my other levels and everything is normal with the exception of my phosphate level which is high as well. I am running a Penguin Emperor 400. I did a water change as usually last Friday and then I woke up on Saturday morning and the water was green. I brought my water to be tested and found my nitrate was high. I got told to change the water twice a week at 25% water change at each time and reduce the feedings to once a day and feed them half their usual amount. I also got told to turn the light off for a week. The chemicals I got told to use was Perfect Balance and Algone. There seems to be no sight for the nitrate level even lower. If I can get any suggestions on whether this helping or is there a better solution. I really don't want to lose my fish.

I forgot that we had just changed the food from frozen to flake food this last week.

These links may help Useful Info About The Nitrogen Cycle and Aquarium chemistry 101 It might help to add some nitrate loving plants.

Try to preform more water changes (every three days or so...) untill you get the nirtate levels under control. Have any fish died recently and were never recovered? What type of flake food have you been feeding them? Do they eat it?

If shit hits the fan...add a large clump of hornwort and/or giant duckweed. Hard to kill plants and they help with nitrate. :)

None of my fish have died. My nitrate levels are still excessively high. I got told to add filter floss to my filter and change it everyday to descrease the nitrate levels. I have been done water changes 2X a week since this started. I am using Big Al's Staple Food. They have been eating it. I took my zuchini out that my Algae Eater eats to see if that helped but so far nothing. The odd part is the hard I am trying to lower it the worse it is getting. I have been testing with a Nutrafin Nitrate test kit and the water is now testing as beyond the darkest colour on the chart. I am going to pick up some duckweed this weekend and hopefully that helps.

Frustration is raining on this one. My nitrate levels have not come down at all and now my ammonia level has creeped up a little. My levels are as follows:
PH - 7.6
ammonia - 0.25
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 110
Could this have anything to do with my phosphates? I have not tested for that but I know at this time of year our water does go up in phosphate levels. My ammonia was at zero and now it has creeped up to 0.25. Instead of green water my water is now cloudy. Chemical wise I am using algone, clarity, and bio-clean is what I got told to use to reduce the nitrates by the LFS. I am still doing what was in the previous areas. :banghead: I am going to try changing back to the other food tomorrow and see if that helps.

Bio-clean is known to cause ammonia and nitrIte spikes and can be used in conjunction with Bio-support to help control the spikes. Algone in theory should be doing this too but you way want to look into bio-support. The side effect of killing off the green water is that you will end up with dead algae spores polluting the water so it isn't unusual to see what you are seeing. The now cloudy (I assume it is milky) is the bacterial bloom brought on by the spikes. The elevated phosphate levels will undoubtedly of contributed to the algae bloom. Might be worth looking into some phosphate absorbing products to use during these periods of high phosphates. Have you had your tap water tested? It could be that you have high nitrAtes out of the tap in which case there is only so far you can get even with more water changes. Again, this could be helped with nitrAte absorbing pads if need be (if tap levels are high). Otherwise, just keep up with the water changes and once down enough, guage your water changes from there.