Are all nitrate bad for fishes ?

[plebian]

Those pdf are useless since they are not measuring the health of the fish in any sort of scientific way. They simply state the condition of their water as measured.

I wouldn't say "useless". The Stendker folks were in business for over 50 years. They bred and sold hundreds of thousands of fish, which were generally recognized as being of the highest quality.

PS - Stendker recently stopped selling discus and now only sell discus food. I guess that tells us something about where the real money is.

 

[anewbie]

I wouldn't say "useless". The Stendker folks were in business for over 50 years. They bred and sold hundreds of thousands of fish, which were generally recognized as being of the highest quality.

PS - Stendker recently stopped selling discus and now only sell discus food. I guess that tells us something about where the real money is.

Might be an effort issue more than a $$$ issue after all they've been in business for 50 years....

 

[plebian]

The EPA has set a limit of 10ppm of nitrate in drinking water.

This "fact" is repeated ad nauseam on tropical fish forums. It's false.

The tests the EPA use are measuring NO3-N while most aquarium test kits (all?) are measuring NO3. The EPA figure needs to be converted for apples to apples comparison. When done, this results in a limit of 44 ppm using the API test, for example. The EU limit on drinking water nitrate is 50 ppm. I assume the EU is measuring NO3 not NO3-N.

Not that any of this is relevant to fish keeping. Human biology differs substantially. I don't have the reference handy, but I read one study of striped bass fingerlings which found physical changes at 200 ppm over time, but no changes at 100 ppm. The conclusion of the study was that striped bass farmers should keep nitrates below 100 ppm for optimal results.