Acceptable Nitrate Levels

[Dmoney]

I am fairly new to the African Cichlid's world. I know that the ammonia and Nitrite levels should always read 0 ppm. I know that Nitrates are least toxic of the three. What is an acceptable reading for Nitrates? I have been searching for threads on this topic, but mostly found threads on ammonia and nitrite. I have seen everything from 20 to 100 ppm are acceptable depending on what kind of fish you are keeping. Right now my tank is reading 20 ppm. Where is the line from safe to to unafe?

 

[k.o.d]

I have several stingrays, a red tailed gold arowana and a couple of other exotic supposed 'sensitive' fish and do 2 x 40% water changes a week in my large tank, can never keep below 100 ppm NO3 and the fish are still thriving.

I used to be worried that I was harming in the long term, but my oldest Leopoldi ray is coming up to 6 years now so I think my regime is doing OK.

As you said, I would be more worried about elevated NH3 and NO2 levels

Not an excuse to skimp on the water change routines though

 

[funkyhoney]

There aren't a great deal of overly sensitive African Cichlid's commonly available to my knowledge; nitrates really don't do a whole lot of harm until they get over 100-120, and even then it's not exactly fatal. At my work we have a 6x2x2 tank in which the nitrates are generally over 140, the fish, normal tropicals and even discus are fine

 

[Ferris]

Nitrate in all my tanks is usually around 10 - 20ppm and they are all well/over stocked. With over-filtration and regular water changes, i have found this to be easily achievable.

IME, most of the test kits on the market are rubbish and give wildly varying results. I have found the Seachem kits to be pretty good although they are a little expensive.

 

[k.o.d]

I agree with the regular water changes to dilute the nitrates but over filtering has no bearing on nitrate levels unless you have a nitrate filter on your system.

 

[Ferris]

I do use nitrate sponges in at least 1 filter on each tank, although i've never been convinced of their effectiveness.

 

[k.o.d]

The juwel type nitrate sponges have a biological cartridge that releases bacteria and enzymes to biologically remove nitrate, there used to be an ad on e-bay by the british firm that makes them for Juwel ( could find them on there though when I looked ) The additives work the same way
Best way to remove nitrates is dilution by water changes, but the freshwater denitration resin that can be rechrged works well too

Steve

 

[Ferris]

Best way to remove nitrates is dilution by water changes

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Dmoney]

Thanks for your replies. That what I was generally thinking, just couldn't find anything to back it up on African Cichlids Forum.