Nitrate?

[jbroadway]

My fish tank has been set up for about 3 months. The problem is when i took a reading two weeks ago i got a very high nitrate reading the readings were ammonia 0ppm nitrite 0ppm nitrate 50ppm and my ph is 7.8 so i tested my tap water and that is between 20ppm and 40ppm i spoke with my lfs and they said that i should use RO water with 5-10% tap water for the good nutrients i am just wondering is there anything else i can do as i have done one 25% water change and one 15% water change with RO water and at first the reading for nitrate was at 10ppm n i thought it worked then i tested it again after it settled and it was at 40ppm should i keep using Ro water to do a 10-25% water change weekly or is there another way

o to add the fish i have in there are:
4 female & 2 male guppies
1 male lyretail molly & 1 female molly
6 neon tetras
3 copper tetras
1 dwarf gourami
1 bristlenose pleco
1 pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides
4 baby mollies
1 assasain snail
And 1 bamboo shrimp (who i cant find)

Also my fish tank is a 90l and it has some sort of root i cant remember name something like redwood? Java moss java ferns and a few other plants.

My filtration is an ugf with power head and an eheim classic 2213. And the tank has plenty of oxygen

Thanks in advance

jak


EDIT: if anyone has any ideas about the bamboo shrimp it would be appreciated thanks

 

[ian]

get some nice stem plants like Hypgrophila, most LFS sell these, or Ergeria densa. Theses will soak you nitrates up nicely, it can be a pain doing the RO thing. Personally anything around 40ppm with plants in your tank won't harm the fish, this is what i keep my planted tank at. Weekly water changes and the plants will soon sort your nitrates.

It's been shown under testing fish can survive with very high nitrate levels in the tank, when we talk high, i mean in the hundreds.

 

[ZoddyZod]

as Ian states, 40-50ppm nitrate in the tank is nothing to be concerned about.

Very nice of your LFS to suggest RO water to help. I assume they also sold RO water and RO units??? How very handy!

 

[jbroadway]

how did you guess!!! so are you saying to stop using RO water and just use tap water is there anything i can put in the tap water to get rid of the nitrate and also this plant you are talking about do you have any pictures of this?

 

[ian]

I wouldn't go putting things in the water to lower the nitrate. You could also buy some Seachem Prime, its a very good De-chlor, that also neutralises a lot of tap water nitrate.

http/www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/catalog/seachem-prime-concentrated-conditioner-100ml-p-102.html

as you'll see it's also great value for money.

as for the plants...

http/www.tropica.com/plants/plantdescription.aspx?pid=050

and

http/www.tropica.com/plants/plantdescription.aspx?pid=058

 

[jbroadway]

thanks for the quick reply i might have to get some seachem prime as for the plants i have something that looks similar to the 1st one so will have to buy some more thank you