Water Change Help And Test

[menacer]

Ok i have been advised to change my water due to high Nitrates, i have also been told to test my tap waters nitrates... i understand that when we do water changes we need to match the water temperature in the tank as well as we can.

So i take it that means mixing cold and hot water.. does that mean i have to test nitrates in my hot and cold taps?

Thanks

{}---{MeNaCeR}

 

[waterdrop]

I guess you could do it once out of interest. WD

 

[menacer]

Ok thanks Water Drop

 

[waterdrop]

You're welcome. Is it showing signs of getting cycled? I forget your status but also interested in how you feel about it. WD

 

[menacer]

Ok water change done.... both taps Nitrates showing at 20ppm for both.

 

[brian2708]

How high is "high nitrates" ?

 

[waterdrop]

How high is "high nitrates" ?

Whether fish die, are bothered by or are unaffected by nitrate and how much varies greatly by species. Some fish really don't do well even in fairly light amounts of nitrate below 50ppm but they are the exception. Most fish will tolerate it even though it is not good. Some species will tolerate lots of nitrate. There are reports of some river catfish not being bothered by 1000ppm.

Still, keeping nitrates under control is a way to be checking on the effectiveness of tank maintenance. We hope that our weekly substrate-clean-water-change and our periodic filter maintenance will not allow nitrates to build up. The guideline we aim for is between 15 and 20 ppm -above- whatever the tap nitrate level is and usually people can do better than that. Noticing what is happening to nitrate is an important indicator of how frequently to do filter maintenance.

Nitrate(NO3) is orders of magnitude less dangerous to fish than ammonia or nitrite(NO2.)

~~waterdrop~~