Nitrate Remover

andywg · Oct 19, 2006

A quick addition here.

40-50 ppm is more than acceptable for all fish, even FW rays.

The only scientific research I have seen indicates that fish do not show any signs of ill effects until nitrates are in excess of 100ppm. This includes marine fish awho are more succeptible to nitrates due to the way they osmo-regulate.

Anita · Oct 19, 2006

andywg said:
A quick addition here.

40-50 ppm is more than acceptable for all fish, even FW rays.

The only scientific research I have seen indicates that fish do not show any signs of ill effects until nitrates are in excess of 100ppm. This includes marine fish awho are more succeptible to nitrates due to the way they osmo-regulate.

A Fresh water ray link for you........

Ammonia and nitrite must both be nil and nitrate must be kept below 25 ppm at all times

http

/www.fishtanksandponds.net/live-stoc...l/stingrays.htm

40-50 ppm is more than acceptable for all fish

Why acceptable?
Surely you should strive to keep your fish in the best conditions possible.

A word of caution...never try to keep discus in these 'acceptable' nitrate levels, as they would be flashing around trying to get out of the tank!

Anita

andywg · Oct 19, 2006

I say acceptable as it will cause no long term harm.

The only research I have found on the effects of nitrates on fish is Nitrate toxicity to five species of marine fish by Pierce, RH; Weeks, JM; and Prappas, JM reported in Journal of the World Aquaculture Society. Vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 105-107. 1993 in which it is pointed out that earlier tests have shown that prolonged exposure to nitrates over 100 ppm may be detrimental to fish.

Now as far as I understand, marine fish are more succeptible to higher nitrates due to their method of osmo-regulation. There may be other factors that increase in a tank which are not tested for, but I am not aware of them.

If you have any peer reviewed scientific papers to prove the above wrong, I will gladly hear it, but until then I will continue to say that 100ppm is the level at which you need to worry about doing things. I am currently hoping to find some more on the effects of nitrates on fish, nut again, I can only quote the science I am aware of.

A number of ray keepers get jittery over levels. Talk to CFC who has them and has noticed they aren't as fragile as a number of sites would have you believe.

It's like SW, everyone says 20ppm is tha absolute max when there is no scientific evidence at all to suggest that and a number of fish live perfectly happy at lfs with nitrates of 80ppm.

Anita · Oct 19, 2006

A number of ray keepers get jittery over levels. Talk to CFC who has them and has noticed they aren't as fragile as a number of sites would have you believe.

CFC was looking at the thread earlier, I would love to hear his comments.

I have been interested in getting a FW ray for my discus tank, as they suite similar conditions a lot of people keep them together.
A local well known discus breeder in Plymouth occasionally has them for sale.

Perhaps I could pm CFC about his water conditions as I'm not often on this forum (far to fast moving for me

)

Anita

CFC · Oct 19, 2006

As Andy has said i have found rays are not the fragile beings many will have you believe, at least not the 2 species i keep.

When i got my first ray i litterally had sleapless nights, would it be alive in the morning, am i changing enough water, should i test it again. I damn near killed myself lugging 25 litre barrels of R/O water up the stairs to the flat for 30% water changes on a 200 gallon tank in my efforts to keep nitrates below that golden 25ppm. After a while i became more confident and bought a second ray and cut out the R/O water which was killing me financially as well as physically, my tapwater comes out at 40ppm on average to the levels in the tank rose to 50ppm.

Then something terrible happened, a bad batch of mussels caused the fish to vomit their stomach contents into the tank and knocked out the biological filter, the ammonia levels went up to 2ppm!! I was sure i would lose the rays but they remained ok throughout both the ammonia and nitrite spikes, (although i was doing 50% water changes every 12 hours which helped no doubt).

I rarely test any of my tanks for nitrate these days, the fish let me know if anything is wrong and a quick water change soon rectifies things, but the last time i did a nitrate test for curiosity reasons the ray tank tested at around 60ppm just before a water change was to be done. I currently have 5 rays, 3 motoros and 2 orbyginis and all are thriving growing strongly and in good health.