Nitrates

[Fantazia]

How do you keep Nitrates, down in the aquarium? Plants need nitrates to grow, dont they, can nitrates be toxic if its to high,
I always check my watere quality ammonia, and nitrites, are always 0 but nitrates, can sometimes be a little high not over the board but up sometimes, how can i avoid the nitrates to get to high.

 

[wetwetwet]

Hi Fantazia,

As far as I'm aware high nitrates in themselves do not cause a direct problem unless there is a sudden change - nitrate shock - but I'm inclined to believe (from personnal experience) that long exposure to high levels may cause the fishes immune system to be reduced and make them susceptable to other diseases.

I say this because I went through several months with good water readings except for nitrAte which was usually in the 80-90 range (it comes out the tap at 60), and was subjected to several problems every few weeks and seemed to be regularly putting medications into the tank - not good and expensive!

Regular water changes will remove nitrate - depending on what it comes out the tap at - try testing it, it can also vary on different days and at different times.

Amore expensive option is to use a mix of tap and RO if your lfs does it (or your own unit)

Some people don't rate it but I use NitraZorb which is a pouch that goes in the filter which is rechargeable in a salt solution, and this now keeps my nitrates arround the 25 mark and (touch wood) no more mystery illnesses

There are some plants that are very good at feeding on nitrates can't remember what they are of the top of my head - maybe Rose can help out here.

Anyway hope that helps

 

[William]

Plants need nitrates to grow

Correct, the faster growing the plants the better, perhaps ones like "elodea densa" . Like WWW said rose i am sure can give more help on this one They use the nitrates to make proteins inside them so obviously more growth = more nitrates used!

Plants will not cure your problem they may help a little, it is hard to stop your nitrate increasing unless you have an almost completely planted tank, the best way to keep them down is by doing frequent water changes

 

[gadazobe]

Wills right - my community tank is a jungle and the nitrates are always very low, but my cichlid tank with very few plants - just some java ferns growing from the rocks is always quite high in nitrates. The high levels don't seem to affect the fish, but I always try to do a large water change at least once a week.