# nitrates



## BIGSSS (Dec 18, 2007)

ok weekly water changes of 40 to 50 %. and a new test tube test kit. It seems like no matter what I do I can't get my nitrates below 40. I feed once a day (NLS) . pLENTY OF FILTRATION. Fish are healthy. Can I still be feeding to much ??


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

What is the Nitrate of your TAP water. Tank size? You could easily be feeding too much. My NLS sinks quick, so I feed small bits a few times a day so I don't have to deal with it.


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

Plenty of filtration, what ever that means, is not going to remove Nitrate but make it. Test your water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Your source water may be keeping your Nitrates up. If this is the case you can switch to RO, but you must replace the minerals and buffer with additives. The second thing to look at is your stocking level. You may have so many fish that they are keeping the nitrate levels up. All you can do in this situation is reduce the numver of fish or increase the frequency/size of your water changes.


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## BIGSSS (Dec 18, 2007)

I have a 75 gal. tank with 17 2 inch fish. No I haven't tested my spigot water for nitrate levels but I will now. Will a nitrate level constant at 40 be harmful to fish ? when you say replace minerals and buffer water with an RO do you mean rift salts/ buffers because I already add those! Oh and plenty of filtration means. ....a fairly high rate of water( about660 GPH) passing through filtering media. And yes i'm aware that nitrates can build up in filtering material I was simply trying to give a visual of my set up. Sorry if I wasn't presice with my information ! [/img][/code][/quote]


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

I'm in same boat. I have a really hard time trying to keep it below 40. If it makes you feel any better and it does me lol, on my bottle of paper dip test strips it says 0-40 is safe. I know that it shouldn't be over 20 but maybe that's ideal and 40 isn't really so awful bad just not perfect. I hope anyway. Let us know what your tap water tests at. I think you're suppose to let it sit out 24hrs. before testing.


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## barbarian206 (Apr 2, 2008)

i have the same problem but *** tested the nitrates in my tap water and it was zero i only have 8 fish in my 55 gallon tank and change the filter material a week ago and still it is at 40ppm *** added phos-x to the material i will be testing it this weekend i hope it goes well :thumb:


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

barbarian206 said:


> i have the same problem but I've tested the nitrates in my tap water and it was zero i only have 8 fish in my 55 gallon tank and change the filter material a week ago and still it is at 40ppm I've added phos-x to the material i will be testing it this weekend i hope it goes well :thumb:


water changes water changes water changes water changes water changes


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## barbarian206 (Apr 2, 2008)

i do water changes every week 25-30 percent :fish:


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## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

If you have a 40ppm nitrate reading, remember that a 25-30 percent water change is only going to bring down your nitrates 25-30 percent. You need to do larger changes to bring down your levels.


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## jaync (Oct 19, 2007)

sounds like your filters and tank is too clean, you need to get a very healthy colony of bacteria in there to keep control of the nitrates. I used to clean my tank and filter more often and do water changes on a weekly basis but the nitrates never seemed to go down. When I started just doing water changes and keep the filters dirty it kept the nitrate very low. Works for me.


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

jaync said:


> sounds like your filters and tank is too clean, you need to get a very healthy colony of bacteria in there to keep control of the nitrates. I used to clean my tank and filter more often and do water changes on a weekly basis but the nitrates never seemed to go down. When I started just doing water changes and keep the filters dirty it kept the nitrate very low. Works for me.


What? NO.

Do you have magic bacteria that get rid of nitrates? No. You are so wrong it's not even funny.

The bacteria colonies PRODUCE nitrates. That is the end result.


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

I was doing 50% or a little more weekly and it wasn't bringing it down good so I started doing 50% weekly and 25-30% mid week and that brought it down under 40. Two water changes a week was getting old quick (sorry) so I tried this stuff called EasyBalance with Nitraban by Tetra. It's suppose to be good for 6months (yeah right). I can go 2 weeks now before it reaches 40 but I've heard that it makes your fish sterile (unable to reproduce). I don't know if that's true or if it's permanet. I have a thread about it under equipment and supplies. Sounds like the stuff has some nasty ingredients in it.

I know I'm to heavily stocked and don't understand the technical stuff to well so let me ask this. Would it be ok to do a HUGE water change weekly (like 75-80%)? Or would that kill off to much of the good bacteria and throw me into a mini cycle? I was told that one time but now I'm hearing that the good bacteria isn't really in the water soooooo it might be ok? I'd really rather do a huge one weekly than have to do 2.


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## Alex0607 (Jul 26, 2003)

As long as the fresh water parameters are the same as or close to the tank water, I doubt the bacteria will be killed. I learned from this forum lots of water changes are good for the fish, but it's a lot of hard work. The good bacteria should be inside the filter media, i.e your cannister filter. Unless I am wrong, some expert may chime in.


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## barbarian206 (Apr 2, 2008)

hi all i just recently did a test on my tank wich had really high nitrates above 40ppm a freind of mine who deals with salt water tanks told me to do this: 70% drain, fill it ,50% drain, fill it 20% drain fill it after 24 hrs check all , ph 8.2 , ammonia 0, nitrites0,nitrates5-10 ,gh 12,kh 12 i could not beleive it but it works i waited two weeks before the next water change it was up too 20ppm just did 25 % water change and it is niw at 5ppm hope this helps :fish: :fish: :fish:


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