Nitrate Question For A Friend...

[waterdrop]

No, the problem with heavy metals (and many of these things) is people "topping up" rather than water changing. The metals and other things don't evaporate, only the water, so the things you don't want only get more concentrated over time if water (and them) are not regularly removed.

I think we are guilty of being too subtle and going off on our pseudo-scientific lines of thought in discussing nitrate. Its bad. Its not a nice thing you want in your tank. Its just that over the years, in the hobby, you get tired of people freaking out over small gradations of it I guess. Just like there are fish that can tolerate it pretty well, there are plenty of our popular trops that don't tolerate it well at all. (GBRs German Blue Rams spring to mind and there are plenty of others I believe, in fact when people describe fish as "sensitive" they are often talking about nitrate tolerance I believe.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kelly528]

No, the problem with heavy metals (and many of these things) is people "topping up" rather than water changing. The metals and other things don't evaporate, only the water, so the things you don't want only get more concentrated over time if water (and them) are not regularly removed.

I think we are guilty of being too subtle and going off on our pseudo-scientific lines of thought in discussing nitrate. Its bad. Its not a nice thing you want in your tank. Its just that over the years, in the hobby, you get tired of people freaking out over small gradations of it I guess. Just like there are fish that can tolerate it pretty well, there are plenty of our popular trops that don't tolerate it well at all. (GBRs German Blue Rams spring to mind and there are plenty of others I believe, in fact when people describe fish as "sensitive" they are often talking about nitrate tolerance I believe.)

~~waterdrop~~

So for the sake of argument, what is the case for me? I am on Vancouver water, purportedly (actually proven I think) the purest water in the world.


I get that nitrate does not affect fish like, say ammonia does (symptoms develop very fast, and its a lot more toxic) but when you say fish will tolerate 200ppm just fine do you mean short term (which makes sense to me or that they will tolerate 200ppm long term (in which case I would imagine they would suffer nerve damage, ill health and shortened lifespans).

 

[Truck]

200ppm is fine long term, it's when you get past 250 that problems may arise with more sensitive fish, after 400, short term exposure could cause problems.

 

[kelly528]

200ppm is fine long term, it's when you get past 250 that problems may arise with more sensitive fish, after 400, short term exposure could cause problems.

So with the lack of heavy metals and additives in my Vancouver water you're telling me I could go 20 weeks without changing the water in my endler tank (It gets about 10ppm of nitrates per week).

 

[Truck]

Yes you could, I recommend buying Diana Walstads aquarium ecology book, some of it is a little outdated, but the low tech method which requires water changes every 6-12 months works, you might find a bit of info on wikipedia, but don't take it all as gospel because wikipedia is a crap source of information.

The trick is to have a well established tank, and a good substrate, the reason the walstad method can go so long without water changes is due to the substrate being soil, it slowly leaches minerals such as copper, iron etc into the water, which eliminates the need for water changes.

If you don't have a source such as soil, then adding trace elements every 2 weeks would be the other way around it.

 

[kelly528]

Yes you could, I recommend buying Diana Walstads aquarium ecology book, some of it is a little outdated, but the low tech method which requires water changes every 6-12 months works, you might find a bit of info on wikipedia, but don't take it all as gospel because wikipedia is a crap source of information.

The trick is to have a well established tank, and a good substrate, the reason the walstad method can go so long without water changes is due to the substrate being soil, it slowly leaches minerals such as copper, iron etc into the water, which eliminates the need for water changes.

If you don't have a source such as soil, then adding trace elements every 2 weeks would be the other way around it.

Cool to know... don't think I'll risk it til I know more. Do you have any idea how much I pay for pygmy cories?!

In theory could this be done with Eco-complete rather than soil? Because said 10g endler colony will soon be upgraded to a 20g high-light setup with eco-complete.

 

[Truck]

Any decent plant substrate, I've no experience with eco complete but I'm sure it'll be fine.