Nitrate Level

[wpgfishgirl]

Hi there, we had been having problems with our fish tank. We have finally gotten our ammonia down to almost nothing, however our Nitrate levels are through the roof. We have been doing 20-30% water changes every 2nd day but our levels are still so high. We are starting to get concerned for our fish. What can we do to lower the Nitrates asap?

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

I would try a 50% water change. As long as you try to get the temp of the new water somewhat close to the tank water you shouldn't have a problem. As long as your not adding ice cold or boiling hot water to the tank then you don't have to worry about that. Just remember the dechlorinator!

Also consider adding live plants, they will help keep the nitrates down in the long run.

 

[wpgfishgirl]

I would try a 50% water change. As long as you try to get the temp of the new water somewhat close to the tank water you shouldn't have a problem. As long as your not adding ice cold or boiling hot water to the tank then you don't have to worry about that. Just remember the dechlorinator!

Also consider adding live plants, they will help keep the nitrates down in the long run.

We have done a 50% water change, and the nitrate levels haven't changed. We added the Cycle and Prime like we were told to do, and we also have 2 live plants. How long after we do the water change does it take for the levels to lower? We are very glad that the Prime has helped with the ammonia problem, but now we are just dealing with the nitrate levels.........

 

[InaneCathode]

I would try a 50% water change. As long as you try to get the temp of the new water somewhat close to the tank water you shouldn't have a problem. As long as your not adding ice cold or boiling hot water to the tank then you don't have to worry about that. Just remember the dechlorinator!

Also consider adding live plants, they will help keep the nitrates down in the long run.

We have done a 50% water change, and the nitrate levels haven't changed. We added the Cycle and Prime like we were told to do, and we also have 2 live plants. How long after we do the water change does it take for the levels to lower? We are very glad that the Prime has helped with the ammonia problem, but now we are just dealing with the nitrate levels.........

Uuuuuuuuuuh, if you take away 50% of the water, and replace it with conditioned tap water your readings should go to half of what they were before.

PROVIDED! Your tap water isnt sky high in nitrates. Test your tap water for nitrates and tell us what it says.

 

[CFC]

What kind of test kit are you using?

Nitrate is notoriously difficult to test for outside of a laboratory and even with the better test kits results can vary hugely even when two samples are taken at the same moment.

Also how high is sky high? Unless you have nitrate sensative fish such as discus, stingrays etc then nitrates under 100 will do little apart from cause some extra algea growth, even with more sensative fish nitrate levels maintained under 50ppm are acceptable. Keeping levels steady is a much more important task, if your nitrates are rising from say 40ppm to 100ppm over the course of a week then something is wrong in the tank and needs to be corrected, nitrates shouldnt rise by more than 25ppm between water changes.

 

[PrettyDiscus]

I have 0 nitrate all the time is this normal?

 

[CFC]

Not unless you have a sealed empty tank which was filled with distilled water or the tank is very heavily planted with a very low bioload of fish.

 

[PrettyDiscus]

I have a lot of fish. i use tapwater. tank only has 3 live plants. tank is nearly a year old.

 

[CFC]

Then your test kit is severely wrong, what kind of test are you using?

 

[Ginge]

He has nitrate taste buds. And has a nice chilled pint of tank water.

 

[CFC]

 

[PrettyDiscus]

i have a test tube kit.
it says freshwater master test kit

 

[andywg]

i have a test tube kit.
it says freshwater master test kit

Sounds like the API kits.

I have a couple of their nitrate test kits and wouldn't trust them further than my frogfish can spit them. I took two samples from my 6x2x2 FW and tested them both at the same time. One read 160ppm and one read 0ppm. Similarly, they tell me that I have 160ppm in my RO plus salt water (before putting it in my marine tanks) and that my water changes are adding nitrate to my systems that have less nitrate in them than pure water.

 

[PrettyDiscus]

oh god what now? first of all i was told not to buy the strips as they are not accurate. now im being told test tubes are not accurate. btw, the readings are the asme all the time so how can this be inaccurate?

i jsut found out its an API

 

[CFC]

The accuracy of the test depends on several factors, the age of the test is important as once opened they have a shelf life of just 6 months at most, where th test kit was kept can be a factor, if kept excessively warm the chemicals may be rendered useless, likewise for cold. How the test is done is also important, you must follow the instructions exactly with precisely 10 drops of each chemical into the 5ml sample and then shake vigorously for exactly one minute. Outside of a lab these tests can at best give you a rough idea of where abouts your levels are sitting. Like andy i have taken two sample from the same tank at the same time and had two different readings, one low and one sky high when using the API test kits. To be honest i never bother to test for nitrate any more and only do any tests at all if i have reason to believe something may be wrong.

One thing is for sure though, a tank that has been running several months with a full bio load of fish and is not heavily planted WILL have nitrate in it if the biological filter is doing its job, the only reason i could think there wouldnt be any is if you were filtering with zeolite or some other ammonia adsorbing compound which was removing the ammonia before the nitrogen cycle can take place.