Tank Tests

Rorie · Jun 23, 2011

I just tested and tabultated all my 7 tanks. Most results make sense - matching PH in bare tanks, matching PH in planted tanks etc etc

BUT, my Nitrate does not quite add up.

A tank only 3 days old, with 15 fish in (dont worry, filter was seeded and doing daily water changes) has Nitrate of 80
My bare tanks have Nitrate of between 5 and 10
My heavily planted mature tank has 10
My heavily planted, mature, high tech tank has Nitrate of 40

So why would the new tank have a high nitrate, yet no traces of ammonia or nitrate?
Why is the planted tank such high nitrate....i thought plants reduced this?

Thanks

StandbySetting · Jun 23, 2011

Maximum uptake for plants is about 3PPM a day in the best of set ups (6WPG + 45PPM of CO2), I'd question the precision of the test kit also, are you not dosing fertilisers on your planted set ups? If you're dosing TPN+ on the high tech set up and not low that could explain the elevated nitrate levels.

In all honesty there's no need to test for nitrate in planted set ups, as long as you're doing your weekly water changes you will encounter no problems.

StandbySetting · Jun 23, 2011

Maximum uptake for plants is about 3PPM a day in the best of set ups (6WPG + 45PPM of CO2), I'd question the precision of the test kit also, are you not dosing fertilisers on your planted set ups? If you're dosing TPN+ on the high tech set up and not low that could explain the elevated nitrate levels.

In all honesty there's no need to test for nitrate in planted set ups, as long as you're doing your weekly water changes you will encounter no problems.