Nitrate In The Water

[Aqua Tom]

I recently got my first small stock of fish after a epic fishless cycle. what was worrying me was the Nitrate readings. My tapwater is 40ppm so trying to keep about the same after the major change at the end of my cycle was a big problem. Because as soon as i added small amounts of amonout the Nitrate jumped again

Anyhoo after three 100% water changes trying to fix this I had enough so did a 100% tempreture matched water change. Dosed with 2x prime & hit the lfs.

When i got the fish home I decided to test the lfs water whilst aclimatising the fish.

Results are as follows

lfs

ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
PH 8.2
NITRATE 80+ppm


My Tank

ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
PH 7.5 this will rise to 8.2 later as the water companys co2 gasses off
NITRATE 40ppm



From these results it is clear that I was worrying needlessly about the Nitrates & could of stocked a week ago.

Oh well we live & learn

The Moral is not to stress over Nitrates unless they are off the scale.




Edit. 2 days later my PH has risen to 8.2 with no disernable effects on the fish.

 

[ian]

I personally wouldn't worry about Nitrates @ 40ppm if you have live plants Tom, in fact i like to keep mine around that mark, you rather have some than none in a planted tank. Also just be aware if you are dosing ferts, your nitrate reading can often vary. This is one reason planted tank keepers don't test for nitrates.

 

[anon02]

Hi Tom,
Nice to see you past the cycling mad house.
When cycling you are potentially adding about 20 odd ppm nitrate with each ammonia dosing but when you have fish in the ammonia produced is miniscule in comparison so the nitrate production also reduces correspondingly

 

[waterdrop]

agree with ian and anon

 

[OldMan47]

As Ianho said, nitrates in a planted tank can be too low and will need your help if you go high tech with plants. I run a NPT, Natural Planted Tank, one that does not add fertilizers at all. It has less than 10 ppm of nitrates months after a water change. Those plants are simply nitrogen sponges. When I do a water change on that tank it is not to remove nitrates, it is to replenish trace elements the plants need to grow properly. I have other tanks that do not have plants because of the fish I keep in them. Those tanks get water changes based on keeping my water no more than 20 ppm above my tap water. The idea is not that nitrates are harmful in such low concentrations but that the nitrates are our "canary" for judging the level of contaminants in the water. Other than nitrates, things that tend to build up in an unplanted tank can be hard to measure so we judge that build by the build of nitrates.