Lower The Nitrate!

[mr williams]

I just bough some nitrate minus to bury in my substrate, anyone else used this? Does it work? Plus whats the bet way to store it in the substrate?

My birchirs like to test the substrate to see if its food before they spit it out again and my oscars tend to take huge mouthfulls of gravel in an attempt to eat the plecos food.I don't want my fish to mistake this for a snack.

 

[Vicky99]

I've used Nitrate Minus - haven't noticed if it actually works or not - my nitrates are always on the high side - I struggle constantly with them as it's high in my tap water. I only saw noticeable reduction by increasing the planting in my tank. If the nitrates are still high, I always stick some in incase it does help!

Re eating the stuff, my cories always have a taste when I put it in and no deaths yet!!

 

[mr williams]

Upsetting that I have to add something with no idea if it works but hey I have already bought it.........

 

[Darkstar]

Do you have a nitrate problem then?

 

[mr williams]

Do you have a nitrate problem then?

around 40ppm but I have to do large water changes due to nature of food eaten. I have excellent filtration and the water quality in general is good.

I have decided to try to constantly improve the water quality rather than wait for a problem to occur before I act. If their is a product available that will constantly act to stop a nitrate buil up, then why not?

 

[CFC]

40ppm is nothing to worry about, if you can keep it at a level below 50ppm in between water changes then you are one of the lucky few (not including those who like to keep living salad in their tanks rather than fish).

As for the nitrate minus, i tried that and didnt see any difference, the only product i found did work was KENT nitrate sponge granules but they only worked for a limited period and were expensive to replace. These days i worry about nitrates much less and openly admit that my larger tanks all have nitrates of between 50 and 60ppm by the time it is water change day again. All the fish are healthy active and well coloured so it obviously doesnt bother them so i dont let it bother me.

 

[mr williams]

could I ask you a quick question that may help me shed my newbie status?

Fish colouration... If my fish lose colour and turn whiteish I'm assuming this indicates they are stressed out. Is this correct?

 

[Themuleous]

I agree with CFC, two of my tanks have high NO3 and there is no apparent problem with the fish. Tom Barr says hes tried levels up to 160ppm even on fish like discus, with no losses or health issues.

Sam

 

[CFC]

Yes, faded colouring is a sign of fish stress, though the causes could be many factors including environmental influence (poor water quality etc) bullying from tank mates or interference from the outside world (kids banging on glass, you doing water changes etc).

 

[mr williams]

Well they are clearly stressed during water changes but I'm changing my techinque so that should fix it. its only really the oscars that ever become stessed so I guess that rules out bullying (they own the place). I think I may return the Bala sharks to the lfs to free up some space. Maybe that will help.