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High Nitrates

JayZeroSix

JayZeroSix

Members
Hello everyone. I seem to be having a problem with Nitrates :/ I was transferred to a different city for work for 6 weeks. I live 3 1/2 hours from where I was transferred to so I was able to come home every week - week and a half to perform water changes and maintenance in the meantime my husband cared for them (I might add that he is fish illiterate lol!) I came home the 24th of last month and had resumed my regular water change routine. I am pretty heavily stocked so I change water every 4-5 days to keep things kosher :p Well Ive consistantly been testing high in Nitrates since I came home :( I mean a fire engine red on my API master kit.... I have done major gravel vacs and cleaning my filter media (in old tank water, of course!) Should I totally disassemble my rockwork, which would totally break my heart and really irritate my fish lol, would that help?
 
jonclark96

jonclark96

Past CCA President
I'd do a test on your water coming out of the tap for comparison. It could be high before going into the tank. Another suggestion would be to get a new test kit. Yours could be getting old and not working properly.

Unless you are really overstocked, water changes every 4-5 days should keep nitrates in check. How much water are you changing each time?
 
JayZeroSix

JayZeroSix

Members
jonclark96 said:
I'd do a test on your water coming out of the tap for comparison. It could be high before going into the tank. Another suggestion would be to get a new test kit. Yours could be getting old and not working properly.

Unless you are really overstocked, water changes every 4-5 days should keep nitrates in check. How much water are you changing each time?
Click to expand...

Already checked the tap :) the only reading I get is .25 ammonia. I'm going to my fish store today to get a few things, I'll pick up a new kit while I'm there, I'm due for a new one. I change 50% at least. I'm gonna step up water changes until I can figure out a solution. Im starting a new build on a 125 and plan on moving my gang over but I had plans for to turn the 55 into a Tang "Eutopia" ;) so I wanna get it under control before I get the new fish (which is incredibly hard to find anything except your normal Mbuna here in central Michigan, so I have to order them, but that's a separate thread I'll start soon lol) I'm gonna test with the new kit when I get home. I'm thinking I might have to move the scape and get all the debris and fish waste out from underneath in hopes to lower trates. Which is def gonna be a big pain in the butt haha!


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chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
JayZeroSix said:
He may have been, but since I've been home they haven't been. I've actually fasted a couple nights to see if that would have made a difference, and it didn't :/
Click to expand...

If they were being overfed, then fasting after the fact shouldn't really affect the already-high nitrates. Once they're there...they're there until the next waterchange. Nitrate removal from a tank is pretty slow if left on its own.

As far as I know there are only a few ways for nitrates to leave the tank (folks, please chime in if I missed any):

- Removal by doing waterchanges (easy to do, removes lots of nitrates quickly)
- Anaerobic completion of the nitrogen cycle to N2 gas (very slow, not easy, and best left to people who want to tinker with anaerobic system components)
- Physical binding of the nitrate using a chemical additive or resin (not a good long term solution - it doesn't fix the problem...it's just a bandaid)
- Export into biomass by growing plants (requires additional setup for plants, and removal of excess plant growth)
 
JayZeroSix

JayZeroSix

Members
chriscoli said:
If they were being overfed, then fasting after the fact shouldn't really affect the already-high nitrates. Once they're there...they're there until the next waterchange. Nitrate removal from a tank is pretty slow if left on its own.

As far as I know there are only a few ways for nitrates to leave the tank (folks, please chime in if I missed any):

- Removal by doing waterchanges (easy to do, removes lots of nitrates quickly)
- Anaerobic completion of the nitrogen cycle to N2 gas (very slow, not easy, and best left to people who want to tinker with anaerobic system components)
- Physical binding of the nitrate using a chemical additive or resin (not a good long term solution - it doesn't fix the problem...it's just a bandaid)
- Export into biomass by growing plants (requires additional setup for plants, and removal of excess plant growth)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! I'd love to steer away from chemical fixes if I can, the only thing I add to my tank is Prime and I'd love to keep it that way :) I've tried plants in the past and they end up fish food lol, I've had some success with Anubias but as my fish got bigger they started snacking it lol. I plan to use an extra AquaClear filter to grow herbs and such in. I'll start that today and see if it has any effect. I did a water change last night and if I test high again today with the new kit I'll do another one, and continue on until I'm in a safe zone :) wish me luck!


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