# High Nitrate Level



## apinto89 (Dec 15, 2016)

Hey all, 
I'm looking for some advice on how to lower my nitrate level. Some background information is as followed: 55 gallon African cichlid tank, Aqua clear filter and power head tanks been running well over a year now. My husband and I have had a very rough road when starting our aquarium "adventures", in hopes of getting a community tank someone at Petco sold us all community fish with 1 yellow lab cichlid. Needless to say all our community fish were eaten including a second batch before we found out what kind of fish we had. I noticed our large female yellow lab at the top of the tank earlier today appearing to be breathing heavily. At first I thought she was holding but upon research I found out it could be high ammonia levels. We ended up testing the tank water and found everything was normal except for the Nitrate level. We did a 50% water change and the same is coming up "high level of Nitrate".

Test Strip Readings (tetra 6 in 1 easystrips)
Nitrate-200; Nitrite-.5; GH-150; kh-300; Ph-8.4

Any advice as to what could be causing this and how to fix it before any other fish become affected by this?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Did the fish tolerate the water change well?

If yes I would do 50% daily until your nitrates are 10ppm.

Then 50% weekly should work as long as you are not overstocked.

I would get a freshwater test kit with the liquid regeants and the test tubes.

Fish waste causes it. You will want to clean your filters too (use tank water...keep the media).


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## apinto89 (Dec 15, 2016)

Yes the fish did fine with the water change. We did just purchase a new filter and powerhead recently and changed everything over about 2 weeks ago and got rid of 2 very large plecos and 1 catfish. Those are the only changes we've made to our tank. We just rinsed the powerhead filter but not sure how to do the new filter. It's an aquaclear power filter 70 do we rinse all parts or just foam piece?

Also, there are 19 cichlids in the tank is that overstocked?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Nitrate is not removed by filtration, but rather by partial water changes. What percent your been doing every week up until now?

Rinse all parts. Squeeze/rinse the sponge until water runs clean (use a bucket of tank water). Scrub the impeller and the housing for the impeller with a brush.

19 cichlids in a 55G is a little overstocked...but maybe not too bad.

When you installed the new filter and powerhead 2 weeks ago, did you keep all the established filter media?


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## apinto89 (Dec 15, 2016)

We do water changes only once a month and a quarter of the tank. A year ago we were doing it weekly and I was told it was way too much and that's why our fish died. They were growing like a fungus on the them and we lost over half our tank. That's when we decided to upgrade to a larger tank and focus on what is needed to make them "happy".

The old filter was thrown away, I assumed useless because we changed over from a marineland bio wheel to the aquaclear one. 
In regards to the overstock, what would make it bad or not too bad?


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## Biciclid (Jan 27, 2016)

As you had some nitrites as well as sky high nitrates probably when you swapped to the new filter a fair part of the beneficial bacteria were lost, hopefully now they will re-establish themselves. Now look afterthem as DJ told you to and get a decent liquid reagent test kit (if you get API remember to always shake vigorously the NO3 bottles). I think no fish has ever fallen ill because the water was too clean! Just make sure you inactivate the chlorine/chloramine in your tapwater by using a bioconditioner and change as much water as necessary to keep the water reasonable. Consider that discus (that are cichlids after all) breeders change 100% (just leave the fish flopping on their side in 1/2" water) every day! Ciao


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## apinto89 (Dec 15, 2016)

We use primarily Fluval Cycle "concentrated biological booster in our tank. I just bought Seachem prime but have not tried it yet. Most recently around the time we changed the filter we used Microbe-lift "special blend". Any suggestions on which is best?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I would not add chemicals except dechlorinator (like Prime). If your bacteria are established they need no booster. No need to lift microbes.

You may be having a mini cycle because the established filter media was lost as Biciclid mentioned. What are your test results for ammonia and nitrites?

Once/week 50% would be the minimum I would consider. A tank with too many fish has high nitrates and you need to do more and bigger water changes to keep the nitrates down.


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## apinto89 (Dec 15, 2016)

I'm not sure exactly I'll need to get the text tubes as I'm noticing my strips do not measure ammonia. Any brand will work for the tubes or is there one better than the other?


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## Aaron S (Apr 4, 2015)

I am pretty confident that you lost your beneficial bacteria (as the others have said) and will need to be hyper vigilant on keeping the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates down while you regrow the colony. Throwing away the old filter caused this and it took 2 weeks for the ammonia to catch up to the fish.

By the way, once you get the bacteria back in the tank you will be able to test the tanks water parameters and see just how often you need to change the tank water by testing it every week and deciding if you need to change it. After a while you should see a pattern and do not need to test as frequently. But right now you are in freak out mode to drop the toxins in your water!


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## apinto89 (Dec 15, 2016)

DJRansome,
Ammonia tested came in at .25 
Early in the AM I tested the Nitrate it went down to about 80-160ppm.
We checked it again right after the ammonia test and it was back up to 200ppm.
Just did our second 50% water change tonight, rinsing all the media, and only adding Prime.
How often should I check the water to see if it is "stabilizing"?

Aaron S,
Could you please educate me on testing the water once and week and what the signs are to change it?
Yes, on freak out mode, we lost so a handful to fungus before I found out what it was and ended up having to start fresh just about a year ago. So, I really don't want to lose any fish they are sooo much $$$$$. 
When I test the water I primarily just look for what's on the test strips and add ph booster or cichlid salt when they seem low. Any tips are appreciated.

Also, during this time should we be feeding them daily or slow down to every other day?

Thank you, all in advance


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Something is wrong with your nitrate test...it should not change from 80 to 200 in a couple of hours. Are you using the test tubes yet?

Any nitrate over 20ppm means you should change water. With an average stocked tank and good maintenance, you can start with 20ppm nitrate, remove/replace 50% of the water and thus also 50% of the nitrate and get an ideal 10ppm result. It should take about a week to get back up to 20ppm.


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## apinto89 (Dec 15, 2016)

No tubes yet, payday tomorrow and will be buying the freshwater tube test kit. Will add results afterwards. Would you recommend I do another water change prior to testing with the new kit or wait until after the test to see if needed?


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## Aaron S (Apr 4, 2015)

Just so everything is clear on what is an OK reading for the chemicals... ANY ammonia or nitrites means your tank is not completely "cycled". When we say that we mean that the colony of beneficial bacteria in your tank is not large enough to process all the fish poo/leftover food. Ammonia and nitrite are pretty toxic to fish and as such you would like to not ever expose them to these compounds. Given that your tank lost some of the bacteria, you need to give it time to grow back. During this time, you need to keep changing the water such that the toxic ammonia/nitrites do not affect the fish. Although purists would say none of each is necessary, I will go ahead and say that given your current situation if you see either ammonia or nitrites above 0.25 then you need to change half the water immediately. Your goal is to get to the point where you don't have either of these and all you have is nitrates. DJ says 20ppm is your target for nitrates, really 40ppm isn't a big deal either but I would not go higher than that.

The liquid test kit will dramatically help with your nitrate test precision (make sure to read the instructions because some tests - like the ammonia- require that you wait 30seconds before reading the value). To answer the question about should you test it before or after changing the water...technically it doesn't matter because if you have 200ppm in your tank then change half your water out then you will have 100ppm. You may want to check it before and after a water change when you first get your new test kit just to prove to yourself that you can use it properly?

Another comment. I saw you mention that you adjust the pH of the water and add salts. I know some people's water is really far off from "what cichlids are used to" but I hestitate to add those things. Fish are extremely sensitive to pH changes that are not gradual, so I never add pH adjustment stuff due to the risk of killing the fish. You will find that most fish are extremely tolerant of a wide range of pH. What pH does your tap water test at? What about kH/GH?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Some dechlorinators can cause 0.25 ammonia reading (Prime is one). But read the fine print on all the additives you are using because if it is not your dechlorinator then you need to get the result for ammonia to zero.

And as Aaron S said, change 50% of your water daily until you get to 10ppm. Whether the true reading is 80 or 200...it's too high.


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## apinto89 (Dec 15, 2016)

So we tested with the tubes today and did another water change. Nitrite 0, Nitrate 20ppm, Ammonia .25 zero chlorine and perfect on salt and Ph.

The fish seem to be "shy" I'm not sure if its because of all the activity in the tank. Is that normal?


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## Biciclid (Jan 27, 2016)

Once you get your liquid reagent test kit it is also worth checking your tapwater. Ammonia should be 0 but it is not unusual to have a sizable ammount of nitrates, if that is the case it can hamper attempts to keep down nitrate levels in the tank. If you are getting a master kit (that covers all the basics) and you are testing your tapwater for pH it is worth doing it straight out of the faucet and then leaving the water to stand for a day then test again, if the pH has gone up more than a small fraction it means your water contains a fair bit of desolved CO2 (if that is tha case ask for advice on this forum) ciao


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## mbargas (Apr 19, 2009)

I have posted my opinion on this before, and I will post it again:

As someone else mentioned, conventional Biofiltration (nitrosomaonas, nitrobacter) reduces ammonia and nitrite levels but doesn't do much for the nitrate level. Doing frequent wear changes is a very tedious and cumbersome process. I personally don't have time for that. Here is what works for me:

I use and overflow system to a tank below my main tank. The lower tank contains hornwort and it has high intensity LED light that that makes the hornwort grow like crazy. It has to be harvested periodically and it acts as a nitrate sponge. The water from the tank below is pumped back up to the main tank.


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## RayMontana (Oct 5, 2016)

can you give a few details on how you accomplish this? I have the space , a 10 gallon tank and some hornwort..


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## apinto89 (Dec 15, 2016)

Update
We did the frequent water changes and bought a new canister filter and used the old foam. It's about three weeks and everything has been regular since. I've continued to use the glass tube tests regularly and we've done 1/4 water changes weekly. No fish loss and all seems well. We've also cut back on the feeding as I think that was a big reason for the spike.
Thank you all


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## mbargas (Apr 19, 2009)

RayMontana said:


> can you give a few details on how you accomplish this? I have the space , a 10 gallon tank and some hornwort..


I will post some pictures or videos of my setup when I get a chance.

Briefly this is what I have:

On to op the stand I have a 70 gal reef tank with an overflow. On the bottom of the stand I have a 40 gal breeder tank. The water from the top tank overflows to the tank below. I use a pond pump to pump the water back to the top tank. The bottom tank has 2 LED strips than can be kept on 24h/day to maximize plant growth. Yes, they seem to do OK without a rest period.

I use hornwort because for me it is the easiest plant to maintain. It does well with moderate to intense lighting. No roots so no substrate is needed. Of course you could experiment with floating plants like water lettuce, but you may need more intense lighting.

And one disclaimer: it may not bring the nitrates down to zero, but mine are rarely above 10ppm even though I hardly ever change the water.


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## Hooked! (Jan 8, 2017)

Is it possible to get to 0 ppm and maintain Nitrate level?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

You could do 100% water change but fish will immediately start producing ammonia which gets converted to nitrate.

Or in a heavily planted tank, the plants can consume the nitrate as fast as it is produced. But IME this caused other problems...like plant death and cyanobacteria. Hard to get a perfect balance and not necessary IMO.

Nitrates are just an indicator...not the only reason to change the water. Even with zero nitrates in a planted tank I changed 50% weekly.


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