Can dead fish spike up nitrate from 0 to 5 ppm?

[DarkSephiroth]

I got a friend whos copperband just died. He was out of town for a week so he couldn't take it out, he came home and found the remaining of the fish, all skeletons and only a bit of flesh left. He tested his water and nitrate went from 0 to 5ppm in a week, the fish is a good size, not the tiny one that you get from the fish place. So my question is, would it cause nitrate to go up that high from the dead fish in there roughly about a week or is it something else?

Here are some parameters from his tank

CA - 360
ALK - 11.6
Salinity - 1.025
P.H - 7.8
NO3 - 5PPM
PO4 - 0 (or 0.01)
MAG - 1260

He just did a large water change so he's waiting on the tank to settle down before retaking the new measurement, the above is prior to the water change.

[Jeremy Blaze]

Dead fish= ammonia. Ammonia+good filtration=nitrite which then converts to nitrates, so yes. A dead fish will give an ammonia spike which can then be converted down to nitrates.

[snorvich]

Dead fish= ammonia. Ammonia+good filtration=nitrite which then converts to nitrates, so yes. A dead fish will give an ammonia spike which can then be converted down to nitrates.

Exactly. Be glad it was a mature tank with much bio capacity.

[lordofthereef]

The answer has certainly been covered.

Tell your friend to drop by and get to know the site. Don't let him go through you! ;)