Best Way To Keep Nitrates Down?

[rolltide101x]

Is there anything I can add to my aquarium that will aid in keeping nitrates low? I dont like worrying about nitrates because its a silent killer if you forget to test your water for a few days it could end up leading to fishes dying. I just want something to help control nitrates not to lower it once it does get to high. Thanks!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Nitrates take weeks and weeks to build up to levels that it kills most fish. There are some more delicate fish, but the best way to keep nitrates down is good routine maintenance (aka water changes) and not overfeeding or overstocking. IMO, good practice beats adding "something" to my tank to deal with what is really the aquarists job. If it is a really a concern, get a lot of fast growing plants, these will use nitrates and extend your time for nitrates building up and keep your stocking very low.

 

[fluttermoth]

Nitrate only kills fish at extremely high levels. If you're doing regular partial water changes, your nitrate will probably never get high enough to cause any damage to your fish.

 

[rolltide101x]

I lost a fish to high nitrate (or either a big coincidence) and I dont over feed and do 10-15% water changes once a week? I have a 10 gallon tank with

3 Red Wags http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3955280
2 Skirt Tetra http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3954144
2 http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3954148 (1 died)
and 1 algae eater http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3954163 (was a fish noob when I bought him and was misled by an associate) Im seeking a new home for him now. I dont want him to get to cramped inside the tank

 

[three-fingers]

Similarly: .

Nitrates can generally be regarded as non-toxic, though not a good in high levels for some sensitive species and high levels can relate to other problems in an aquarium .

In fact you can buy rather expensive bottles of nitrate at any good lfs - as aquatic plant fertiliser.

As such, the best nitrate remedy I could recommend is using live plants. Floating plants are the fasted working and easiest to grow for this purpose .

Edit:

Just saw your last reply, how old is your tank and what were all the test results? (Including ammonia and nitrite).

Petsmart has unfortunately sold you unsuitable fish for your 10g in the wrong numbers, you are wise to rehome the plec, but you may need to rethink the danios and tetras too, unless you are thinking of upgrading to a larger tank in the near future.

The danios are rally far to active and prefer larger groups and the tetras will get very large and also prefer larger groups, they may become aggressive when older because you only have two.

But for the immediate future, you have an over stocked tank so larger water changes (try 50%) twice a week until the stocking is sorted out should prevent further losses.

Floating plants would still help you a lot with water quality too .

 

[fluttermoth]

Ah, well that explains why your nitrate climbs so quickly; you're very, very overstocked. Up your water changes (I do 50 or 50% a week on my tanks, and they're nowhere near as heavily stocked as yours!) until you can rehome the plec, and you shouldn't have a problem with nitrates.

I still think it's quite unlikely that it was nitrate that killed your fish though. How long has your tank been set up, and how was it cycled?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Do you mean ammonia or nitrite instead of nitrate?


As fluttermoth stated, your tank is VERY stocked and your water changes are VERY small. Generally, those are opposites on the spectrum which lead to disaster. More fish in the tank means you need to either increase your water change frequency or volume (or BOTH!).


I'm not one to wag the finger and say someone is overstocked very often, but ultimately your water change regimen needs to match your stocking level. Heavy stocking needs heavy water changes. Light stocking can get away with light water changes. I do 30% water changes weekly in a much larger volume of water with live plants. I also do a 50-75% water change monthly.

 

[rolltide101x]

What percentage should I remove every week? From what Ive read you should allow 1 gallon per inch of fish and im within that without the plec which im gonna send somewhere reasonably soon. I hope to be buying a much bigger aquarium before long but I want to become very knowledgeable about owning an aquarium 1st and I am slowly getting there. The tank has been set up about a month (it had been done about before than 3 months before the nitrate issue. I thought it best to start over than to risk another fish dying even though it isnt reccommended to start over) Ammonia wasnt very high when i had it tested but Nitrate was very high. It should be noted the fish seem much happier after I redid the tank

 

[eaglesaquarium]

How high was the ammonia? If the ammonia is even as high as 0.25ppm it is too high. On the other end, Nitrates can be about 200ppm or higher before it becomes a problem for many fish.


They probably were happier because the ammonia went down. Do you have your own test kit? That is Fishkeeping 101. You need your own kit for testing ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. The first two are HIGHLY LETHAL to your fish. Nitrate is just a general rule of thumb thing for the most part. One of the reasons to keep nitrates low, is just to keep up with the water changes to replenish other minerals in the water and remove other things that we don't test for.


I would say that 30% weekly water change is generally a good rule of thumb. The real goal is to change sufficient water to keep the nitrates at about 20-40ppm above your tap reading. That helps to keep your tank water as close to your tap conditions as possible, because when ever catastrophe hits the tank, the easiest/best thing to start with is a massive water change (sometimes up to 90+%).



Was the tank cycled at all, either time? I understand you wanting to do things right. Have you had a read through the Beginner's Resource Center? Lots of good information in there... much more than you can get in a book.

 

[raptorrex]

Is there anything I can add to my aquarium that will aid in keeping nitrates low? I dont like worrying about nitrates because its a silent killer if you forget to test your water for a few days it could end up leading to fishes dying. I just want something to help control nitrates not to lower it once it does get to high. Thanks!

short answer? WATER CHANGES. Oh, and in your case. get rid of some fish.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

agree water changes are they way to go, plant wise a small pothos cutting will absorb more nitate then any plant i have seen so far

 

[Brett_dale]

direct answer to the question as the rest have already commented on stocking and regular water changes....

Plants, The faster they grow the more they remove, The best ones would be ones that have access to air above the tank for CO2 use without injection systems, even seen window style box's hung on the inside edge of a tank with fast growing regular plants, not 100% sure how that would work out but the writer claimed it kept nitrates down.

 

[Tizer]

I use a very fine net and swish it throught the water netting the nitrates and chuck them in the bin.

 

[raptorrex]

I use a very fine net and swish it throught the water netting the nitrates and chuck them in the bin.

I should stay off of the Egg Nog Tizer. lol.

 

[Tizer]

I use a very fine net and swish it throught the water netting the nitrates and chuck them in the bin.

I should stay off of the Egg Nog Tizer. lol.