Nitrate Removal

[Maxine-R]

The result still had the orange look but it was very dark so I do believe it has increased since yesterday but not to the 40ppm Mark.

So I can only estimate that it is between 20 ppm - 40ppm.

I was told that this method of testing was much more accurate than the dip sticks but to be honest so far I have never really had a clear reading as far as the NitrAte levels.

 

[Byron]

The result still had the orange look but it was very dark so I do believe it has increased since yesterday but not to the 40ppm Mark.

So I can only estimate that it is between 20 ppm - 40ppm.

I was told that this method of testing was much more accurate than the dip sticks but to be honest so far I have never really had a clear reading as far as the NitrAte levels.

 
The colours on these tests (API, presumably) are not always easy to differentiate.  The ammonia for the first two, and the mid 6 pH range are other examples.  One suggestion would be to take a tank water sample to a reliable local fish store and ask them to test.  Just make sure they use a liquid test, and get the exact number.  This would at least confirm what you are getting.

 

[Maxine-R]

Thankyou for your advice.

And although it has not been the topic of discussion I thought I would mention that both guppies that lost thier swimming ability died through the night. None were showing any signs of illness (apart from symptom described in earlier post) it has completely stumped me, I can not seem to think of anything that would have caused such a severe problem within a 24hr period.

I will continue with increased water testing and changing and see if I can get a sample to a store asap.

Again thankyou for your help.

 

[Byron]

Thankyou for your advice.

And although it has not been the topic of discussion I thought I would mention that both guppies that lost thier swimming ability died through the night. None were showing any signs of illness (apart from symptom described in earlier post) it has completely stumped me, I can not seem to think of anything that would have caused such a severe problem within a 24hr period.

I will continue with increased water testing and changing and see if I can get a sample to a store asap.

Again thankyou for your help.

 
Your very welcome.  I'll be interested in their results.
 
I can't diagnose the guppy issue, but in my 25+ years, I have had several fish just suddenly develop this or that and rarely do they survive long.  I really only worry if it is contagious and thus likely to spread.  Diagnosing such issues is extremely difficult, and guessing can often make things even worse.  Fish can have various internal problems, long before we get them, sometimes genetic, sometimes caused by stress, or whatever.  Guppies today are well known to be weakened significantly, due to so many decades of inbreeding.
 
Byron. 

 

[StevenF]

Live plants help not so much by taking up nitrates, but by taking up ammonia/ammonium in something of a competition with the nitrifying bacteria.  But when plants take up the ammonia/ammonium, nitrite is not produced, and thus no nitrate.  So with lots of plants, nitrates will usually be lower than without.
 

 
Bacteria convert nitrite to nitrate.  While plants prefer Ammonia, and nitrite, they will consume nitrate if that is all that is available.  if you fertilize your aquarium with all the elements a plant needs, except nitrogen.  It is possible to keep Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate at zero.  Provided the plants have enough light.  
 

Yes the PH & GH in the tap water doesnt much change after being added to the tank.
 

 
PH and GH AND KH are dependent on the mineral content of the water.  The mineral content of your tap water won't be the same as the water in the aquarium.  A mineral imbalance in the water could cause the GH and KH levels up. possibly to unsafe levels.  About a month ago in another post one person noticed problems with recently purchased shrimp and eventually everything in the aquarium died.  He brought a water sample to zoo and they tested it and found his KH levels were 3 to 4 times higher than normal.  He traced that to a rock he found and added to the aquarium.  
 
If you haven't tested GH and KH  I strongly recommend you check them.   If your test kit doesn't check those items I would recommend you buy one that does.  I use tetra easy strips which check GH, KH, PH, Nitrite, and Nitrate
 
Until you get this under control do daily water changes.  
 
As to the one plant in your tank.  Some plants do loose the lower leaves, Others don't.  Some will grow above the surface others will not.  So with the information provided I cannot say if your plant is healthy or not.  However if it is growing that is good news.  I have personally seen my plants stop growing and was able to trace that to high phosphate levels.  Once I got that down the plants started to grow again.  How did I determine my phosphate were out.  I purchases a test kit for phosphates.   I don't know if phosphate killed your fish but I wouldn't bet against it.

 

[Ch4rlie]

If you haven't tested GH and KH  I strongly recommend you check them.   If your test kit doesn't check those items I would recommend you buy one that does.  I use tetra easy strips which check GH, KH, PH, Nitrite, and Nitrate.

 
I do agree its usually worth checking these tests but with one caveat, I would not recommend strip test kits as sometimes these can be proven to be unreliable.
 
May be better getting a liquid based kit for those tests as more likely to get more reliable test readings provided the instructions are followed properly, especially for nitrate test which incidentially is the least accurate of all these tests.

 

[Ltygress]

Strip tests are also harder to read than liquid tests. Not to mention if the colors or chemicals JUST HAPPEN to run in to each other, the whole strip is trash and you'll have to retest.

As for lowering Nitrates, I HIGHLY recommend Java Moss. I had a fry grow-out tank completely flatline on nitrate after I added that stuff! I tried to make sure I had LOTS of java moss in there because I had two spawns in there at once, aged about a week apart. I didn't want to lose too many from either one, so I strapped a tiny bunch of Java moss to a little cave thing, sprinkled gravel over another bunch to weigh it down on the substrate without burying it, and left about half of the surface covered with some loose free floating java moss. The tank went from 20ppm to unreadable amounts in about a week with NO water change!