nitrate

[Newguy122]

hi my nitrate in my tank look like 10 ppm or 20 ppm is this ok for a betta

 

[Essjay]

Can you give us a bit more detail please.

What is the nitrate level in your tap water?
Is the tank nitrate after fishless cycling, or is there a betta in there now?

 

[Newguy122]

there is no fish in there now and it is cycling

 

[Essjay]

A fishless cycle using ammonia from a bottle? Nitrate can get quite high during cycling, that's why we do a big water change at the end of the cycle, to remove the nitrate made from the ammonia.


When there are fish in the tank, the lowest nitrate can be by doing water changes is the same level as the tap water. If that's low enough, we should keep tank nitrate below 20 ppm. Live plants can also help keep nitrates from rising between water changes as they take up ammonia and they don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate.

 

[Colin_T]

When the tank has fish in, try to keep the nitrate as close to 0ppm as possible, and under 20ppm at all times. You do this by changing 75% of the tank water each week.