Can I take water from an established tank with high nitrate?

[TacomaToker]

What size water change are you doing?

Have been doing 50-60% water changes daily. About to perform one this morning. Should I be doing another one tonight? The ammonia will likely continue to read .5-.6 tonight. Byron says it’s not a problem since I’ve got chloramine water and live plants. So I suppose 1 change a day is okay?

 

[Byron]

Sorry, I know this post has been running for a few days and it’s a bit convoluted, but I’ve got 2 tanks going. One is new, it has only about 5ppm Nitrates currently. This tank has not yet begun to cycle as far as I’m concerned. Still 0 Nitrites.

I have another long established tank ive just taken over, and it’s got incredibly high nitrate. Going for a full cleaning of the under gravel grate soon. But regardless, these are different tanks and different battles. Thanks again for your help

The tank with the fish that is "cycling," are there live plants in this tank?

 

[TacomaToker]

2 tall plants, 3 medium sized plants. A tall and medium Amazon sword, and a medium sized fern. Can’t remember the other 2. Just a 20 gallon.

 

[Byron]

2 tall plants, 3 medium sized plants. A tall and medium Amazon sword, and a medium sized fern. Can’t remember the other 2. Just a 20 gallon.

Good. Forget "cycling," it is a waste of time and may cause more trouble than good. These plants can easily handle ammonia from a few fish. Make sure they have food, a good comprehensive liquid fertilizer, and/or tabs for the swords especially.

 

[TacomaToker]

Good. Forget "cycling," it is a waste of time and may cause more trouble than good. These plants can easily handle ammonia from a few fish. Make sure they have food, a good comprehensive liquid fertilizer, and/or tabs for the swords especially.

Okay, thank you. So how often should I be changing the water then? Should I be expecting the presence of nitrites soon?

 

[Essjay]

If there are enough plants to take up all the ammonia, you won't see any nitrite - or nitrate more than your tap water level. Plants to not turn ammonia into nitrite, so there is none to be turned into nitrate.
You only see nitrite when there are no live plants or not enough live plants for the amount of fish; in this scenario the ammonia that the plants can't cope with is processed by bacteria.

 

[Byron]

Okay, thank you. So how often should I be changing the water then? Should I be expecting the presence of nitrites soon?

You willnever see nitrites, using our basic tests. Plants use ammonia/ammonium as their preferred nitrogen source, but unlike the nitrifying bacteria, plants do not produce nitrite from the process. This is also why nitrate is then less (or may even be zero). Plants take up the ammonia/ammonium fairly rapidly, even faster than the nitrifying bacteria can.

Water changes should be once a week, with 50-70% of the tank volume. I usually get into this right at the start when I set up a new tank. It is a good idea for you to monitor ammonia and nitrite, just in case, and for ease of mind, and should either rise obviously an immediate W/C. Ammonia less than 1 ppm I would not worry about.