Nitrates

[Enna]

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
PH 6.3

Tank: Aqua one 850 (165liters) filter in hood, I've been doing a small water change each week

My LFS have some Blue Rams in stock and I was looking forward to getting some tommorrow. However after testing my water this morning I'm concerned about the nitrates in my tank.

I know that low levels are not as toxic to fish as ammonia or nitrites but I'd still like to get them down to 0. I'm confused as to how they are removed, is it just by water changes? How can I get them down, a large water change or lots of small over a few days?

And do I have to give up on the idea of buying blue rams this weekend, I know they are fussy over the water quality.
Any help appreciated, thanks!

 

[chrisbassist]

Don't worry too much about nitrate.

The only way to get rid of them is usually water changes. And since I have 10ppm in my tap water, mine will never get below that. It's only dangerous once it starts hitting the hundreds.

The other way is lots and lots of plants.

Assuming the tank is cycled you should be fine to have the rams.

 

[roadmaster]

If the tank is less than six months old, I would let it age before considering the German blue ram. In my expierience they do much better in mature aquariums.
Agree that water changes, along with reduced feedings can best lower nitrAtes.
50 percent water changes should knock down nitrAtes considerably. Maybe twice weekly would be my approach.
Do keep in mind that the rams will do best in temps between 82 and 84 degrees F and I might be inclined to drip acclimate the fish depending on what the pH of the water they came from is in relation to what you have.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I agree with roadmaster. Chris, if you'd not particularly run across the information before, you'd have no way of knowing that the GBR is perhaps one fish that can run against our more general recommendations in a few ways. Almost like neons/cards, GBRs seem to show a much higher rate of success when introduced later (six months plus from tank being new) and (unlike neons/cards IME) they do indeed get reported as being particularly sensitive to nitrates(NO3.) So you want to have increased gravel-clean-water-change maintenance in a GBR tank, just as roadmaster has outlined.

That said, I do think Enna has of course got it exaggerated. No one tries to get NO3 down to zero. Instead we usually try to make sure we don't neglect our maintenance enough to allow steady rises in NO3 values. The usual thing I often quote is to try and keep NO3 15 to 20ppm -above- whatever your tap level of NO3 is. However with GBRs you'd be trying for the lower end of this or whatever you could best achieve, I think. Taking nitrates out via water changes is the best and most effective way of dealing with them.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[chrisbassist]

I stand corrected.

Although of course I was only trying to say not to worry about nitrate like you would with ammonia.

And not knowing how old the tank is, I took the nitrate there to be a sign that it has been running with fish... But don't know how long for.

Oh, and aren't there 2 blue rams? The german and another which is less sensitive to stats?

 

[Enna]

Thanks for all your replys, I'm pleased to hear that nitrates are not to much of an issue, I'd assumed you need to get them down to 0 like ammonia and nitrites. I'll continue with water changes once a week but just up them a little.

 

[waterdrop]

"The usual thing I often quote is to try and keep NO3 15 to 20ppm -above- whatever your tap level of NO3 is."

Re-reading my own advice I realize I left something out. The above sentence could be read as saying the numbers are something you should "try for." But that's not what I meant. I only meant them as an estimated "maximum," meaning lower is better but that these should be perfectly "OK" numbers as long as they are staying stable and not creeping upward.

So, just to be perfectly clear, a household with zero ppm ammonia in the tap water would hope to maintain tank water at maybe 15 to 20ppm. A household where the tap water was 10ppm would hope to maintain tank water at maybe 25 to 30ppm. And in both cases, if the nitrate number stays basically the same week after week then the aquarist should feel satisified.

Chris, I don't know about the other blue rams. Even though I've kept various cichlids and Jack Dempseys and various things back years ago, I'm not very cichlid knowledgeable, so I'd probably be as interested as you in hearing about them.

~~waterdrop~~