NITRATES!!!!!

[kenneth_kpe]

i cant keep my nitrates down !! its getting on my nerves haha i think its the reason that some of my shrimp suddenly turn white and die

im usin a sera nitrate test kit and its registering at around 40 mg/liter, thats a bit high ? i have fast growing plants and i dont think they can keep up with sucking the nitrate in : ( (rotala rotundifolia, riccia and vals, also bacopa monieri )

how frequent should i change my water ? or is there another solution ???


i change around 25% every saturday

 

[The Mohave Kid]

I don't know ...my local aquarium store has water that registers 160 ppm...

Good Day .... B)

 

[gale]

My 10 gallon tank registers 5 or less and my shrimp still turned white and died. I put some shrimp in my 20 gallon which registers 20-30 all the time and so far most are still fine.

 

[B75]

The smallest tank I have has nitrates of 50 mg/l, fish are happy and healthy, my other tank has nitrates of 25 mg/l. I don't think you have a mega problem with your nitrates.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

i see i see, hope thats good, but i want to keep the levels down to around 10 ppm ? so that algae wont take a really good hold ? is that true ?

 

[George Farmer]

Have you tested your tap water for nitrates? If it's low then just change more water. Is your Riccia floating, floating plants help suck up nitrates.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

i just tested, it registered yellow or 0... o well

hmm my riccia is tied to the wood but i have a few plantlets of duckweed floating around, haha they are not doing their job of sucking em nitrates up !

 

[lucky62]

Maybe you could try using something to remove the nitrates , or absorb them .

Seachem makes something [ nitra-sorb , I think ], don't know of other brands , I think it may have been reusable , though I'm not sure , I used a few years ago .

Or you could add an extra water change or 2 spread out over the week these are best


Do you have many fish in the tank ?

It's always best to find the source , if you can .

 

[gale]

i cant keep my nitrates down !! its getting on my nerves haha i think its the reason that some of my shrimp suddenly turn white and die

OK I'm trying to remember this correctly. I read on a few other boards that there are different types of ghost shrimp (are yours ghost shrimp? I should have asked that first I guess) and that the kind sold in pet stores are usually feeders that are more of a brackish type and not very hardy. According to the posts I read, they are pretty hard to keep alive. There is also another type of ghost shrimp that is hardier and freshwater, but it is not as easy to find since it costs more and pet stores don't buy them up like they do the feeders.

I might ask my lfs to get me some cherry shrimp and try those. I could order them but at $4.59 each I'm afraid to spend a lot on something that may not make the shipping trip.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

about the shrimps, i dont know if they are ghost shrimps but they sure do look like em, i just got em from a friend that bred them before. he got it from a friend and so and and so forth ( lfs around here dont sell shrimp), who knows they might actually be local species of ghost shrimp, i wouldn't know im gonna spend two weeks changing the water really ofter around 3 times a week and see what happens

i have 5 cories and 2 ottos and the shrimps and snails

is that heavily stocked ?

 

[kenneth_kpe]

about the shrimps, i dont know if they are ghost shrimps but they sure do look like em, i just got em from a friend that bred them before. he got it from a friend and so and and so forth ( lfs around here dont sell shrimp), who knows they might actually be local species of ghost shrimp, i wouldn't know im gonna spend two weeks changing the water really ofter around 3 times a week and see what happens

i have 5 cories and 2 ottos and the shrimps and snails

is that heavily stocked ?

 

[lucky62]

i have 5 cories and 2 ottos and the shrimps and snails

is that heavily stocked ?

no doesn't sound it , it is a small tank , sometimes it can be hard to stabilize smaller tanks .

How much do you feed them ? I only ask because over feeding can contribute to high nitrates .

If your tap water is good just do an extra water change or 2 a week [around 10% ]until levels come down .
With a small tank the use of a material to lower the nitrates may not be too expensive .


just a thought or 2

 

[kenneth_kpe]

i feed em around a hikari sinking wafer (1) twice a day and some days half a sinkin algae wafer and on saturdays bloodworm, oh and sometimes i use flakes that i forcible soak so that it will sink ( for the shrimps )


hmmmmm im on my 2nd water change for the week, hope the nitrate levels drop