High Nitrates

[Peter C]

could it just be a nitrate spike?

saw a tetra acting wierd when i got in from work and couldnt see any fry so did a water test

ammonia 0
ph 7.8
nitrite 0
nitrate was either 10 or 20 ppm

what causes nitrate again?

i think its probably a spike but want to be sure

anyway once the lights had been on a while the fry appeared from amongst the plants and the tetras perked up, must av been half asleep lol

but yeah, nitrate

cheers

 

[MBOU]

That nitrate level is fine dont want to let it creep up much more than that if you can help it though!

Nitrate is the last product of the Nitrogen Cycle, so any food source for ammonia will end up causeing a rise in nitrate. So feeding your fish, if you had fed your fish any time in about 2 hours before testing the water, i would assume thats what it was. But also leftover food in the tank... or if the fish have been fed and pooped loads, would also cause nitrates to rise...

Loads of things can... rotting plants can rise nitrates as can mucky gravel...

And to be completely honest, i have seen tapwater come out at 80-100ppm (its horrendous where we are during this 'drought' we just had! though Thames Water denies all responsibility of course!) but on a good day, tap water comes out with between 10-20ppm of nitrates more often than not.

A small water change will bring down the level assuming the tap water level is lower, or you can use RO water.

 

[Peter C]

iv always had zero tho so jus got a bit worried incase it was bad for the fish,

jus introduced about 20 new fish to the tank so thought it was maybe because of those

going by what you said id say its the sheer increase in fish poo!

yeah my waters zero across the board, the joys of being in the lake district!

and drought?? what is this drought you speak of?? weve had nothing but rain since about september last year haha