I Feel So Stupid...

[Liam2368]

Well I have been having nitrate problems in my tank 100ppm plus, (not lost any fish thank god) ammonia and nitrites are zero, i added Duckweed to lower the nitrate but it didn't alter it at all and just 5 minutes ago I had a brain wave, i did the vinegar test on all of my rocks and 90% of them are limestone... Duhhhhh I feel such a ding bat.

One question, will my nitrate level now start to dim down? I shall perform a waterchange tomorrow and hope for the best.

 

[fluttermoth]

Limestone will harden your water and raise the ph, but it won't affect your nitrates. You could be overstocked and need to up your water changes. How much do you normally do, and what's the nitrate of your tap water?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Limestone is calcium carbonate, so those rocks will be gradually hardening your water and making it more alkaline, but they will not be affecting the nitrate levels in the tank.

Along with oxygen test kits, standard hobby nitrate kits (both liquid form, not strips) are notorious for misleading results. Did you bang the test kit bases many times on a hard surface and practice your cocktail shaking skills for several minutes before adding a few drops to some extracted tank water?

 

[Liam2368]

I've been testing everyday with the api liquid test kits, my tank is 350l and I'd say I change 80-100 litres a week, my ph has been 7.8-8, ill do a big water change tomorrow and re-test tomorrow night.

 

[Liam2368]

Just to further update this... I performed a 30% water change yesterday followed by a 50% today and ended up with exactly the same nitrate reading which was above 80 but below 160 so tested my tap water and too my horror that gave the same reading so all along its not been the water in the tank its been the water from the taps, I'm not sure what to do now?..

 

[coldcazzie]

Where do you live?

In the UK the maximum amount of nitrate allowed in tap water is 50ppm, so either your water company is breaking the law (unlikely) or your test is wrong. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. Nitrate has to be in several hundred ppm for it to affect even the most sensitive fish. If you're really bothered, increase your plant mass further with quick growing stems like hygrophila and do a water change in the region of 70%. I think you're worrying over nothing. I don't test my nitrate. Ever. It's just not important!

 

[Tizer]

The API nitrate test is a bit of a git the 2nd bottle needs a really good shake and a slam on a work surface to get all the settled solution off the bottom of the bottle.

Quite honestly i wouldnt worry, nitrate out of my tap is around 50 and im sure my tank sits around 70 most of the time. It really has to get into the 200+ mark for a negative effect on the fish. I do a 50% water change every Saturday morning, maybe something you might want to consider also if you are a little worried.

 

[MBOU]

Personally, i am worried about the last two posts and think that telling people on forums that they can have nitrates over 100ppm long term and its unimportant and wont ever effect their fish is incredibly bad advice and is likely to be taken the wrong way by other people reading the post...

Long term nitrates can of course be damaging, not just from one species to next but from one individual to the next (fish). You cant account for each fishes immune system and past histry when you make comments like that...

If nitrates dont matter then, what the heck, lets never bother doing water changes again....

---

Personally, i would still make contact with your water board company and question the readings, if they are anything like thames valley, they will tell you that aquatic test kits are completely inacurate and you are wrong etc... then suddenly you will probably find your water quality improves...

Might also be worth getting one of these...

http/www.evolutionaqua.com/acatalog/Detox_Dechlorinators.html

They seem to be really good, have sold quite a few recently!! Even for household use, not just for fish tanks, it works out quicker and easier and cheaper than a Brita Filter lol.

It will be well worth testing your tap water regularly, you might find it improves now all the kids are going back to school and summer is now deffinately over, the water quality always ends up worse in hotter weather when its being used more often because so many more people are at home.

Hope this helps..

 

[Aqua Tom]

Personally, i am worried about the last two posts and think that telling people on forums that they can have nitrates over 100ppm long term and its unimportant and wont ever effect their fish is incredibly bad advice and is likely to be taken the wrong way by other people reading the post...

Long term nitrates can of course be damaging, not just from one species to next but from one individual to the next (fish). You cant account for each fishes immune system and past histry when you make comments like that...

If nitrates dont matter then, what the heck, lets never bother doing water changes again....

---

Personally, i would still make contact with your water board company and question the readings, if they are anything like thames valley, they will tell you that aquatic test kits are completely inacurate and you are wrong etc... then suddenly you will probably find your water quality improves...

Might also be worth getting one of these...

http/www.evolutionaqua.com/acatalog/Detox_Dechlorinators.html

They seem to be really good, have sold quite a few recently!! Even for household use, not just for fish tanks, it works out quicker and easier and cheaper than a Brita Filter lol.

It will be well worth testing your tap water regularly, you might find it improves now all the kids are going back to school and summer is now deffinately over, the water quality always ends up worse in hotter weather when its being used more often because so many more people are at home.

Hope this helps..

Wow, lets calm down here.
My tapwater is 40-50ppm so I have a bit of a battle against nitrates. But because of the tapwater levels I just have to live with it, as a lot of us do.
Nice selling point on the carbon cartridge thingy

AT

 

[Tizer]

The only real fish i've known to suffer from high nitrates are Discus and if you own such high priced fish, its very doubtful that you are going to post on here asking for advice as most discus owners known their nitrogen cycle inside out. So, for the most part high nitrates are a non issue, but yes, i do agree that its still something that should be addressed in the long term and most deffinately put a call or an email into your local water company to ask the question.

 

[kyleb2003]

You could always take a sample of your tank water to your lfs to get them to test it so that you can compare the results. As said above, the nitrate test kits can be unreliable.

 

[MBOU]

Also found that whilst the API tests are really good, if they are approaching the 'year of being opened' mark, they had really odd results, same as if you dont shake them enough, they often make mistakes.

But with nitrate problems, you have to think long term as thats what the damage is likely to be rather than immediate. I dont disagree that most fish will tolerate high nitrates to an extent, but i've seen all sorts from tetras, dwarf cichlids, south ams more so than africans, gouramis etc all hate nitrates.

My only concern is that if just about anyone reads a post and sees nitrates dont harm fish and thats all they pick out of the post without reading the rest of the conversation, it could be more problematic and more fish might end up suffering...

That said, that EA water conditioning unit is a good idea, i've not used one myself, trying to convince my parents to get one becaus paying £5 a cartridge every 1-2 weeks just seems ridiculous to me!

 

[coldcazzie]

My only concern is that if just about anyone reads a post and sees nitrates dont harm fish and thats all they pick out of the post without reading the rest of the conversation, it could be more problematic and more fish might end up suffering...

That is a fair point, and I will try to be more clear about it in future.

I just think that people get the wrong idea about how serious they are. I've lost count of the number of people who come on here saying "OH MY GOD, my nitrates are 40! What am I going to do?!" (although I admit that this case is higher than the usual levels being panicked about) and I just don't think it's something to worry about as much as people do. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do your weekly maintainance, because obviously you should. But I don't think a huge panic and worry about fish being on death's door is really necessary.

OP: it sounds as though your test results are quite inconsistent. As Tizer said, make sure the second nitrate bottle has been shaken to within an inch of it's life before you test, and get another test kit somehow (from a friend, buy a new one, or get the lfs to do it) to compare the results. If it is genuinely higher than 50ppm then a call to your water company is definitely in order, because that is the legal limit.

The other thing probably worth doing is larger weekly water changes. I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I do a water change 50% is my minimum amount. You're doing in the region of 25%. Try upping it for the next couple of months and see how that affects the results.

 

[Schmill]

That cabon filter seems quite good, but how often do you have to replace the carbon?
I presume it suffers the same 'activated carbon' lifespan as the carbon filters in the tanks do and so would need replacing fairly regularly?

 

[MBOU]

Depends how much you use it eh, the smaller one can turn over 150,000 liters of water, the larger... 350,000 liters of water...