How Long For Nitrates To Drop

[Jane47324]

I have a new tank 3 days fishless (with water treatment and bacterial liquid then 2 weeks with fish.
pH 8, Ammonia less than 0.1 Nitrite less than 0.1 Nitrate at each test = 40-50 brought down to 10-20 by daily 25-30% water changes.
I am using tablet tsting - not dip stick.
I have 4 danios, 4 glow tetras, 10 very small cardinals (less than 1cm)
I originally had all artificial plants but have added moss balls to help mop up the nitrates.
The fish are all doing well, I am feeding flakes (about 2-3mm diam pinch) once a day.
Should I be doing anything else? Should I be doing larger water changes? say 30-50%

 

[ZoddyZod]

your tank is not cycled at all and you are now in a fish-in cycle (hence you have ammonia and nitrite readings otherwise these would be completely zero).

Nitrates should never drop, although they can be kept under control if you have LOTS of plants and few fish. Water changes are the way we deal with nitrates.

 

[Fawah40]

Fish create ammonia, excrete it, poop it, food creates it.
colony of bacteria (Nirosomonas) eat the ammonia and give off nitrites.

Another group of bacteria (Nitrobacter) that will grow and “eat” the harmful nitrites.

The nitrites will create nitrate.

Eventually both ammonia and nitrites will drop to zero and we will see the buildup of yet another chemical called nitrate. Nitrate is much less toxic than ammonia and nitrite, and is easily controlled with a regular water change maintenance routine.
#
Can't remember where I copied that from but if you have nitrate than your cycle has started at least because you have the bacteria to get rid of the nitrite turning it into the trate. The plants will use SOME of it (trate) but unless you have a heavily planted tank or very few fish/per gallon than not all, water changes will only get rid of it then.
#
It's the ammonia/nitrite to worry about as it will damage fish. Fully cycled not over stocked tank will have a 0 reading of both.

 

[phocoena]

Some people have nitrate in their tap water though, so you really need to test you tap water and see what there is present in that regarding ammonia (again some people have it in their water) and nitrite

 

[Jane47324]

My tap water has 20 mg/l nitrate.
At the moment I use cold tap water and warm it by adding boiling water from the kettle to bring it up to temp in the watering can before adding it back. Can I use hot water from the hot water tap? I have an emmersion tank, and I was concerned that this might add copper or other toxins that might harm the fish. But it would be a lot easier to balance the temp by adding a little warm water from the tap.
I bought a liquid nitrate tester (I had been using tablets) and the reading dropped by 10 mg/l. So now I'm a little confused. Is there a specific make of test that is considered truly accurate?

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

For this hobby there is no need to pay huge amounts of money for a fully accurate test kit. Nitrate is probably the least accurate along with PH tests.

Unless you want to spend silly money on something you don't actually need to be that accurate, go ahead, but it is unnecessary.

The kits that we use are good enough for the purpose we need them.

What nitrate/ammonia/nititre tests are you using?

 

[Jane47324]

Salifert for nitrates and nitrites and API for ammonia (the shop had sold out of Salifert ammonia test)

 

[Prime Ordeal]

To answer your original question Jane, you're doing everything right. Just continue the water changes to keep your readings below about 0.2ppm for ammonia and nitrite and when they both go to zero and your nitrates start to rise a bit you are then cycled. That could be a long time though and with the amount of fish you have will probably require the 30% daily water changes you have already been doing. Just keep doing what you've been doing.

Oh, and make sure your tank is well aerated by having your filter output positioned to agitate the water surface as much as possible and/or using an air stone.

 

[Jane47324]

I have an external filter and a 6" airstone working off a separate pump. I realise that a tall tank doesn't have much surface area, so opted for extra oxygenation. No algae so far. The shop suggested I buy a RO unit, but reading all the comments I think I'm happy to keep to simple water changes. The cardinals are a beautiful blue and my dans are getting frisky, so I have assumed that they seem reasonably healthy.