nitrate

[lougotzz]

how high should the nitrate level be in a 29 gallon tank thanks

 

[corrosive]

Sorry its nothing to do with your topic, but i would just like to say:
"You lucky git you have so many tanks and there all so BIG! where do you keep them all?"

You must have a huge house lmao.

 

[CFC]

Nitrate should be as low as possible and prefferably 0, but since this is a near impossibilty in all but the most heavily planted set ups just maintaing the nitrate levels below 50ppm is enough unless you keep nitrate sensative species like Discus, Appistogramma species and rays etc.

 

[corrosive]

Nitrate should be as low as possible and prefferably 0, but since this is a near impossibilty in all but the most heavily planted set ups just maintaing the nitrate levels below 50ppm is enough unless you keep nitrate sensative species like Discus, Appistogramma species and rays etc.

How do you get it down? Mine is 100, i tested it today.

 

[CFC]

100ppm is dangerously high, you must already be experiencing algea problems?

The fastest way to get nitrates down is water changes, a reading of 100 suggests that either your tank is over stocked or you havent been doing tank maintainance on a regular enough basis, or both. I recomend starting with daily 10% water changes every day until you get the nitrates down to the same level as those in your tapwater, depending on where you live this will vary so you need to test your tapwater first but around 40ppm is normal. Once you have the nitrates down keep them down by changing 25% of the water weekly, this can be done in two small water changes through the week or one big water change at the weekend.

Other ways to keep nitrates down are to add more live plants to the tank but you will need to provide enough light and prehaps co2 injection to get them to use large enough ammounts of nitrate, another is to use one of the many nitrate scavenger medias like Nitrazorb from AP or Clearwater, or you could try one of the newer types of medias which encourage and promote anerobic bacteria to remove nitrate like KENT Nitrate Sponge which i have had very good results with.

 

[mike45]

Nitrates are a very beneficial and important factor in maintaining the home aquarium. Personally, I like to have mine between 30-40 ppm. Anything higher than that, and I do some minor 10% water changes.

 

[CFC]

How are nitrates benefitial to aquariums? The only time you actually want nitrates is if you have a heavilly planted tank and you need the nitrates for the plants to grow. In fish only or lightly planted tanks 0 is the optimum level for nitrates.

 

[corrosive]

I have been doing daily water changes for nearly a week, due to nitrite levels, but now my fish are being treated for something i am going to have to do it every other day.

My local fish shop told me to put in 18spoon fulls of aquarium salt in my tank, but they never told me how often... Should i do it every other day?

 

[CFC]

Is it a brackish or marine aquarium? If not than why would you want to add that much salt? A very small ammount of salt can be benefitial when dealing with high nitrItes as is improves gill function but 18 spoon fulls sounds more like you are trying to preserve the fish in brine not keep them alive!

 

[Tropjunky]

don't u mean how low u shouldn't want nitrates in a tank. unless it's planted

 

[Ed4567]

A quick way of getting the nitrate down would be to get hold of some reverse osmosis water from a fish shop and use this for water changes. This water is completly pure, so contains no nitrate and is therefore more effective at lowering nitrate levels in your tank than ordinary tap water.
Ed