Your Nitrates

[Meds081603]

Well I was helping someone with some questions about his water changes and it got me thinking. What nitrate levels do you try to maintain for your different tanks?


The levels I try to stay under are

Oscars <10ppm
Goldfish pond<40ppm but the reality is a bit higher
Community tanks with huge variety of fish <20-25
Angel/ram tank <15-20
breeding tank <10ppm
livebearer tanks <25

I am fortunate that our tap water while quite hard has almost 0 nitrates. I know some people may think my numbers are too high or low but I'm just curious what you all shoot for.

 

[backtotropical]

Some fish are quite sensitive to nitrate, but most will tolerate nitrates up to about 100ppm without a problem.

I am not saying no need to do water changes as often by any means. My tap water has 5ppm nitrate and my tanks do also.

 

[CFC]

Here in london 40ppm from the tap is the norm and during peak usage times (summer) this rises as high as 70ppm so i consider that anywhere in the 40s is good and generally dont worry unless they go over 60ppm

 

[flash22]

I am on the kent-london borders tap water is around 20ppm but the nitrate levels in my tanks are around 30-40 ppm what are fine. tap water ph here is around 7.2-7.6ppm

 

[Meds081603]

I'd sure like to here from some more people, in particular people who successfully breed. I've had issues with breeding several fish when nitrates start creeping up.