# Help Please! Nitrates driving me mad. Need advise.



## DudeMan8092 (Mar 6, 2013)

I have had a problem with high nitrates over the past few weeks. Here's some information about my tank: 17 african cichlids (demasoni,labs,acai), my filtration is amarinland c-530 and an emperor 400. Substrate is a 50/50 mix of crushed corral and gravel. Lighting is a beamswork 52 led moonlight/daylight setup. I started doing 8 hours of light a day down to 4 hrs now to limit algae growth.

I do 30% water changes at least 2-3 times a week with water from the tap, treated with prime conditioner. I have recently added 1 moss ball, and 1amazon sword plant to help combat the higher nitrate levels but it seems to be a losing battle. Did I mention my tap water alone has around 30 PPM NITRATES straight from the faucet?! Within 3 days, nitrates go above 90ppm every time I check them, I also just came back from a 7 day trip and when I left my nitrates were at 35 when I left, they were 160+ when I got back yesterday. I hand clean both my filters twice a month and take all of the rocks and decor out to scrub with a toothbrush (because since i have high nitrates, i have blooms of brown and green algae growing on a few rocks which I get rid of but just comes back) over the course of two days just so my good bacteria does not die and has a chance to replicate, and do water changes almost daily depending on nitrate levels, does anyone have a suggestion to help,I'm in serious need.

I talk with some other local experienced aquarists and they've suggested a ro di system, but I don't know what kind to get. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Here are my levels

Ph 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80


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## DudeMan8092 (Mar 6, 2013)

The tanks a 75 gallon btw, that would help lol


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

I don't believe it is possible for nitrate to climb that high that fast. It would mean your system converted 130ppm ammonia to nitrate in one week. It's not possible for that fish load to produce that amount of ammonia. Are you vacuuming your gravel when you change water? Over feeding and not vacuuming the gravel could contribute to higher than normal levels, but with your results I think even that is reaching.

I would suggest you have one of your LFS check your nitrate levels for you, both tap and tank water to verify your results if you have not done so. Some of the test kits out there that require shaking can give false readings if you ever used the test bottles without shaking them, and it gets progressively worse every time they are not shaken properly.

If the 30ppm nitrate out of the tap is confirmed you should take steps to correct it as that's not really safe long term for human consumption. Water softeners can be used to remove a lot of nitrate with special resins.


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## Hap man (May 28, 2012)

I had he same problem in a previous house I was in. Nitrates from the tap were very high. never could get nitrates down were I would have liked to. Kept up on water changes and monitored fish constantly. Thought about putting live plants in the tank that were good for nitrate consumption but dismissed that idea due to the fish I have and how they like to dig and uproot. If i had a sump I would definitely have put plants in the sump. Just an idea.


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## DudeMan8092 (Mar 6, 2013)

So a sump is a kind of a preventative for this kind of problem? I've been told an Ro/Di system would be more sufficient from local fish dealers, but I don't know much the difference. I don't have too much space to put a large sump, but I would be able to put a small Ro/Di system in, but if a sumps what I need I'll make it work somehow.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

If you do in fact have 30 ppm of nitrate in your tank water, it will be difficult to have a large population of fish, and low nitrate numbers even with large regular water changes. You could try larger sized changes, 50% or more, but the high nitrate level will keep numbers high. As well, if there is chloramine in the water that too will add to the nitrate. Purigen is supposed to remove nitrate, but I have never used it so can't comment on it's efficacy. Do you drink this water and is it municipal water or from a well?


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

A good ro/di system will remove most of the nitrate from your tap water. You would need something to store the water in, I used a large heavy duty trash can. While the water is fine for saltwater setups, for fresh water you will need to add back minerals to get the hardness where it needs to be.

As far as which unit to get I suggest you just do some research. Many manufactures make the units but they are mostly the same. Prices get higher depending on how many gallons per day the units output. You could use the lowest output unit most likely which makes 50 GPD. Prices start around $150, and you will have to replace some parts regularly to maintain proper filtration.

I'm still of the opinion though that there is no way your nitrates can climb that high so quickly, but do what you want.


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## q8vw (Mar 12, 2013)

You can try using algae turf scrubber, it will suck the nutrients in your water, or you can run a refugium with some plants. and you will never need to do water change, only top off


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## DudeMan8092 (Mar 6, 2013)

The water supply is city water, and as of yesterday, our water supplier was temporarily shut down due to "contaminants". That probably explaines partially why I've been struggling to keep up with consistent water changes to keep nitrates down, my water does indeed have approx 30ppm nitrates. Hopefully that is what they are fixing, I have never resorted to drinking the tap before or after I found the high nitrates thankfully.
I have also been increasing water changes to between 30 -50% but I was worried. I was loosing too much good bacteria, so I've started to slowly cut back to only 20%. Currently, on the plus side, I think I found the other issue with my tank, as I said earlier about loosing bacteria, I noticed a low ammonia reading after I started this thread, which stayed at the same level over the past week. I got the idea that my tank probably became unchecked because of all of the maintanence I had been doing the past few weeks, so I bought a bottle of quick start and added it to the tank. After two days now, my ammonia has disappeared, and I'm only seeing 35-40 nitrate levels, not great, but much better than before. Thanks everyone for the help.


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## DudeMan8092 (Mar 6, 2013)

I haven't heard of a turf scrubber, however I have thought about the idea of adding more plants to assist in sustaining the ecosystem. I don't know much about plant species and all tho. I don't want to have to prune and trim plants weekly as I've already got my hands full with the few tanks i have given the problems I've had lol,but I can happily say its paid off as I have yet to lose any of my Malawi cichlids yet(knock on wood). All of the works worth every bit. Any plant species that may make a nice addition?


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## Kalost (Feb 27, 2013)

Get some plants in there to suck up the nitrates


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## DudeMan8092 (Mar 6, 2013)

The problem with plants for my setup is the substrate. I used 40lbs of crushed coral, and 60lbs of white gravel to establish the base, the gravel is somewhat large also, typically approx. 1/8 inch or slightly smaller. my amazon sword has had no problems so far but I'm not too sure about what other plants can be added to this substrate without needing CO2 and mineral additives. I have a 20 gallon tank I think I will start with a more plant friendly substrate in the future.


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## yamadog (Oct 7, 2012)

Toss a pothos plant or two in Walmart shower caddies and stick them on the back wall of your tank. Shower cady is 5$ and pothos is 4$ and my local store. Pothos are nitrate eating machines. My Heavily stocked south American tank never reads more than ~5ppm nitrates, regardless of how long between water changes. And they work very fast. Fish love the roots hanging out the bottom too. Read up on this 85 page thread to see EVERYONE's amazing results.... http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... ght=pothos


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