Water Changes to Lower Nitrates

[bettacarl]

I currently have a 29 gallon tank I am cycling. I was able to use water from a pre-established tank, so it is in pretty good condition. My ammonia level is 0, nitrite level 0, but my nitrates are at 20ppm.

I did the 10% water change today and retested to see if that changed it at all. Water is still at 20ppm which makes sense since it was only a 10% change. Just wondering how much water can I change at once to try to lower the nitrates or how often can I do the 10% change to lower them? I tested my tap water and that comes out at 5ppm and I also have distilled water.

 

[KevinZ]

I'd say Increase it to 20-25% and see if there's Any change

 

[Essjay]

You can change as much water as you want since the bacteria we want to grow live bound to surfaces not in the water. I would do no less than 50%.

 

[bettacarl]

I'd say Increase it to 20-25% and see if there's Any change

Since I just did a 10% change today do I need to wait to do a 20-25% water change?

 

[bettacarl]

You can change as much water as you want since the bacteria we want to grow live bound to surfaces not in the water. I would do no less than 50%.

Awesome thank you!

 

[Essjay]

Multiple water changes/large water changes are no problem as long as you make sure you add water conditioner to the new water.

 

[Jintoh50]

As already noted, there is no reason to use water from an established tank, it doesn't have anything good in it. Substrate and filter pads do though so put used media from old tank into the new one.

Distilled water, I wouldn't think that'd be good, fish need iron too (they need the minerals like we do). Also, the old water has nitrate assuming, aren't u just adding nitrate filled water to new tank??

 

[seangee]

As a general rule I change 75% per week in one go. This is far better than a lot of small changes. When you change 10% it means you are leaving 90% of the bad stuff in the tank.