Nitrate Levels

[mmcrew]

hi guys just a quick one really

iv got a well established malaw tank with only 3 females and one ice blue red top mbuna male and a catfish yet my nitrate levels seem to be quite high,

nitrite is practically zero,
ph is quite low, its only 6.5- 7 (so iv brought some media bags and crushed coral to raise that)
and the hardness`s of my water are ok too,

yet i do water changes regualr and it still seems to be high, any ideas guys


I have a sand substrate and its just got ocean rock in, thats it,

i use a external filter which iv just changed one of the media bags to the bio max one to reduce nitrate, and a bio sponge filter with the air feed,
and the tank is 4 foot, by 2 foot high and 1 foot thick,

any help would be great guys

 

[ZoddyZod]

hi guys just a quick one really

iv got a well established malaw tank with only 3 females and one ice blue red top mbuna male and a catfish yet my nitrate levels seem to be quite high,

nitrite is practically zero,
ph is quite low, its only 6.5- 7 (so iv brought some media bags and crushed coral to raise that)
and the hardness`s of my water are ok too,

yet i do water changes regualr and it still seems to be high, any ideas guys


I have a sand substrate and its just got ocean rock in, thats it,

i use a external filter which iv just changed one of the media bags to the bio max one to reduce nitrate, and a bio sponge filter with the air feed,
and the tank is 4 foot, by 2 foot high and 1 foot thick,

any help would be great guys

What's the actual Nitrate level? Have you checked your tap water? My tap water can sometimes give a reading of 20-40ppm

 

[mmcrew]

cheers for the reply

i use a tap water treatment and i check that and the nitrite and nitrate is always zero,


i dont no the exact figure i use the test strips and the colour is nearly a dark orange,

i just hope the bio max helps, and the crushed coral,

Im getting 2 more wild caught fish this weekend so i need to make sure im sorting it out

 

[ZoddyZod]

cheers for the reply

i use a tap water treatment and i check that and the nitrite and nitrate is always zero,


i dont no the exact figure i use the test strips and the colour is nearly a dark orange,

i just hope the bio max helps, and the crushed coral,

Im getting 2 more wild caught fish this weekend so i need to make sure im sorting it out

I used the test strips to begin with, but after reading advice on here and comparing them with liquid testers, the strips seem to be very innacurate (reading was always higher using the strips).

 

[mmcrew]

i might try th liquid way again then to see if there is a difference,

my fish all are acting normal, the red top chasing the females and dancing about,

but if my water was that bad the females wouldnt want to breed would they ??