Is high nitrate ok for established planted tank

[momsspaghett]

Alright thank you for that insight. I figured out that by tap, the ammonia is about .5 and the nitrate is 5.0. I have prime but of course that won’t clear up everything. Currently doing a 50% water change. About how long of 25% daily water changes would you suggest? Week, 2 weeks?

I see @SomethingsFishy24 has answered your question. I have a simple spreadsheet that you could use to roughly determine how often/how much to change your water to target a particular Nitrate concentration (Unfortunately it assumes the new water is at 0% nitrate).

Please attach the sheet! I would gladly read that

 

[Rocky998]

You may want to test your tap water... I know mine is 10ppm just out of the tap so yours could have some as well or more

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Wow, that seems like a LOT of ammonia in tap water!

 

[momsspaghett]

Wow, that seems like a LOT of ammonia in tap water!

Yeah it’s BS, already I have a disadvantage! I’ll have to pick up some water from my local fish store

 

[Uberhoust]

I am a little surprised about the Ammonia too, I did not think that was acceptable in the water, sounds like the water treatment is using Chloramine but there is too much Ammonia in the mix.

Below is a screen shot from the Nitrates.xlsx file attached. There is no protection on the sheet so you can mess it up pretty easily if you are not good in excel.

• A - Record the Nitrate at the start of a time period, then after a time period record the Nitrate values again in the second field. Finally record the time period in hours between the two times. I use the time immediately after a change of water and immediately before the start of a water change. The rate is only as accurate as the test values starting. This establishes the Nitrate rate per hour (I know it varies through out the day), but this is just a approximation.
• B - Enter the amount of water you typically change and the period of time in hours between changes. This example uses 12.5 over a week. I typically change 50% per week. Percentages are entered as decimal values.
• C - Given the rates of Nitrate accumulation these provide a minimum water change to meet the maximum nitrates at the beginning of the water change cycle or at the end. Typcially you would use the "Upper Target", in this case it is 12.5%
• D - Average values over 1 year or the last 100 days, Max value expected to be reached.
• E - Starting value, in most cases 0 will work. Doesn't affect the overall results much.
• The Graph shows the expected concentration of nitrates over a year.
• I included an earlier version might be easier to start with.

hot from the Nitrates.xlsx file

 

[Uberhoust]

In addition to the spreadsheet there are other reasons for changing the water, generally reduction of all dissolved nutrients, accumulation of fish hormones, etc. So just because your nitrates don't build fast doesn't mean you still don't need to change your water frequently. I generate less than 2.5 ppm of Nitrate every week, due to plants I expect, but I still do a 50% water change most weeks.

 

[Byron]

If nitrate in your tap water is 5ppm, and in the aquarium water it is 40ppm, then the majority is occurring within the tanks' biological system. This internal nitrate can be reduced by live plants especially fast growing like floating, not overstocking, not overfeeding, doing regular (once weekly) substantial (50-60%) water changes, vacuum the substrate and clean the filter to remove all that brown gunk which are nitrate sources. Provided the parameters--and these refer to GH, pH and temperature--are relatively the same in the tap water and tank water, large volume water changes will not harm the fish at all.

You are not going to get the 5 ppm down, but keeping the internal build-up is crucial here, as others have explained.

The nitrate in Flourish Comprehensive Supplement is not sufficient to even show with our nitrate tests. And nitrogen (ammonia or nitrate) is not going to be insufficient in a tank with fish being fed, unless you are running a high-tech system. You may or may not need a comprehensive fertilizer. There is the liquid and the substrate tabs. A photo of the tank will help us with this.

Another comment...get the nitrate as low as possible as quickly as possible. Again, provided the parameters above are the same, no harm will come. Nitrate slowly weakens fish, all fish, and the sooner it is low or zero, the better. And keep up with the water changes so nitrate never rises (using our tests). Water changes establish stability.

 

[momsspaghett]

Currently adding water to the tank today after a 70-80% water change. The sponges in the filter have been used since cycling so the bacteria has built up. Because of that water change, you would suggest on removing those sponges and replacing them with ones that are completely new? Or keep them in there? I also have quartz rings that have been in there as well. Should I remove the sponges and keep the rings in there for the bacteria growth to continue or completely dispose of them? The water I am getting for the change is from the local fish store; I am assuming that the levels are 0 all around.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Currently adding water to the tank today after a 70-80% water change. The sponges in the filter have been used since cycling so the bacteria has built up. Because of that water change, you would suggest on removing those sponges and replacing them with ones that are completely new? Or keep them in there? I also have quartz rings that have been in there as well. Should I remove the sponges and keep the rings in there for the bacteria growth to continue or completely dispose of them? The water I am getting for the change is from the local fish store; I am assuming that the levels are 0 all around.

Gently wring the sponges out in tank water to clean the gunk out, then reuse them and keep on reusing them until they fall apart!

 

[StevenF]

So my ammonia and nitrite remains the same 0. The nitrate has been in the 40 ppm range and my fish in the tank haven’t died, the shrimp actually have grown more. I believe the spikes of the nitrate are when I use the fertilizer, which is flourish. I put in it there maybe every 3 weeks, so I wonder why the nitrate remains high. I added duckweed and salvia but I may have to get more to cover all of the surface. The plants remain green, a few leaves are yellow hence is why I add the fertilizer in small amounts (since it calls for little amounts). Other than that, I don’t understand why it remains so high, maybe it just needs more time to cycle? Any recommendations to what I could add to speed up the process?

Seachem comprehensive has no nitrate in it and it has very little nitrogen in it. When I first used it in my RO water tank my nitrates went to zero, my plants stopped growing and phosphate started to build up. I had to add nitrate to get the plants to grow and reduce my phosphate levels. Flourish comprehensive is designed to be used with tap water. It doesn't work with my RO water so I stopped using it. Seachem comprehensive is depends on your water hainve some nutrients. Since RO water has no nutrients it didn't work in my tank. Hopefully it will work in yours but it may take a month or more to know for sure.

Hello. I have had this tank running around 3 years now and I have been able to grow and keep the beneficial bacteria's in my sponge and quartz rings. Today I checked my water after a couple months and read 0 ppm ammonia, ph 7.6, nitrite 0, nitrate 40 ppm. I have read a few reviews and comments of people with planted tanks keeping the nitrate levels around 20-40ppm and having no problems with it. They may have said it is pretty beneficial for the plants. Is there any opinions on this matter?

There is no question that plants need nitrogen as well as potassium calcium, magnesium phosphate, sulfur, chlorine, iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, Molybdenum, and nickel. If just one of these is missing plant growth will slow or stop and the plant may die. This was proven in a lab before you were born. I prefer to keep my nitrate level as low as possible without going to zero. If it goes to zero I know all other forms of nitrogen have been consumed as well as the nitrate.

 

[StevenF]

sorry double post

 

[Colin_T]

Do not remove or replace filter media/ materials because the beneficial filter bacteria live on these things and if you replace them, you get rid of the good bacteria and start the filter cycle all over again.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

If the filter media starts to fall apart, then replace it with a sponge. You can buy sponges for other brands of filter and use a pr of scissors to cut them to fit in your filter. You can do this now before any of the filter media/ pads need replacing. Sponges just get squeezed out in a bucket of tank water and re-used. The dirty water goes on the lawn.

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Why are you buying water from a pet shop?
Unless your tap water is nasty or has lots of minerals in (hard water), you can use that with a dechlorinator to remove any chlorine or chloramine in the water.

 

[momsspaghett]

Seachem comprehensive has no nitrate in it and it has very little nitrogen in it. When I first used it in my RO water tank my nitrates went to zero, my plants stopped growing and phosphate started to build up. I had to add nitrate to get the plants to grow and reduce my phosphate levels. Flourish comprehensive is designed to be used with tap water. It doesn't work with my RO water so I stopped using it. Seachem comprehensive is depends on your water hainve some nutrients. Since RO water has no nutrients it didn't work in my tank. Hopefully it will work in yours but it may take a month or more to know for sure.


There is no question that plants need nitrogen as well as potassium calcium, magnesium phosphate, sulfur, chlorine, iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, Molybdenum, and nickel. If just one of these is missing plant growth will slow or stop and the plant may die. This was proven in a lab before you were born. I prefer to keep my nitrate level as low as possible without going to zero. If it goes to zero I know all other forms of nitrogen have been consumed as well as the nitrate.

Alright I used RO water and kept my sponge and quartz rings so I would assume minerals would be left in those along with if I added flourish liquid fertilizer. Would that do the job?

 

[raylove]

My tap water is 35ppm nitrate but my tank is usually 0-10ppm depending on how recently I have performed a water change, so it seems my plants are soaking it up. It could be that there is some anaerobic activity in the filter too.
Whenever I set up a new tank nitrate remains high until the plants become established and I have found that high nitrates actually seem to stunt the plants. My solution has been to chemically remove the nitrate for a week or two until they start growing after which I can stop. So for me, plants definitely don't seem to like high nitrates much above 20-30ppm.

 

[Uberhoust]

When researching cyanobacteria I found that some plants can use Nitrates but it uses a lot more energy. From what I remember not all plants have this pathway to get nitrogen. 35ppm of nitrate seems really high, where do you get your water?