General Interest And Questions

[rwmjd007]

hey

i'm a noob too this website and am curious about a few things that ppl use in there fish tanks.

i currently have a 2 ft and a 4 ft tank. the 2 ft has 4 bristlenose, 5 neons and 3 plattys. My 4 ft has 2 ghost knives, 2 plecos and a feather fin catfish. both my tanks atm have a nitrate problem of being 40ppm. i am currently doing water changes twice a day to reduce this.

So my questions are:

1. will plants help reduce the nitrate level once i get it to a reasonably stable level.
2. what sort of filters are ppl using as i have power heads in both my tanks and air stones.

any advise would be helpful or just what you are running as i am interested to learn as much as possable.

cheers

robert

 

[schooly20]

A lot of people use either HOB (hang on back) power filters or they have a canister filter which is a canister that you usually keep below the tank with two hoses one being the intake and the other being the return.

 

[Arfie]

A lot of people use either HOB (hang on back) power filters

Not in the UK they don't, they don't seem to have caught on over here

Plants could help with the nitrate, I'd always suggest getting something like Elodea which takes nutrients from the water, can survive low light and is harder to kill than to grow. Floating plants like duckweed can reduce nitrate too, but they can be a bugger to get rid of if you change your mind and no longer want them.

As for filters, I have internal power filters, external power filters, undergravel filters and sponge filters in my tanks at the moment, I also use an air driven box filter when I have my betta tank running, but none of them will remove nitrates

Arfie

 

[Miss Wiggle]

have you tested your tap water for nitrates, some people in the UK have tap water with nitrates of 40%. If that's what your working with you'll never get it any lower, it's not really a problem tbh, fish can adapt to nitrates quite well and unless they are upwards of 100ppm it shouldn't do any harm to all but the most sensitive species.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

my nitrate is 5, so in alot of my tanks it shows 0!

 

[rwmjd007]

i haven't as yet tested the tap water but will do that.

 

[loachman]

Just a quite correction

have you tested your tap water for nitrates, some people in the UK have tap water with nitrates of 40%. If that's what your working with you'll never get it any lower without plants or excessive algae, it's not really a problem tbh, fish can adapt to nitrates quite well and unless they are upwards of 100ppm it shouldn't do any harm to all but the most sensitive species.

40ppm isn't an issue though for fish. They'll be fine.

 

[rwmjd007]

test the tap water here in australia it is 0ppm for nitrate. i tested my tank at the same time and found it to be droping as well.