nitraites vs nitrates

[very confused]

could some body please help -- my limited understanding is that nitrites are bad and nitrates are fine -- the testing kit i have does nitrites -- ammonia - ph - and water hardness -- am i missing a test for nitrates

 

[andyt_uk]

nitrates are acceptable in low concentrations
i would recommend a test for them as if they get too high you should be concerned

 

[Lithril]

Ok, have a read around on the web and in the articles in the beginners section on the Nitrogen Cycle.

The basics of it is that there is two types of beneficial bacteria, one that will convert ammonia into Nitrites and the other that will convert nitrite into nitrate. Ammonia is REALLY toxic, Nitrite is slightly less toxic and Nitrates is only toxic in high concentrations. Ultimately its good to have a test-kit for Nitrates but IMO (and others will disagree with this) as long as you do regular water-changes you're not going to need to test for them that often.

 

[very confused]

ok thanks for that -- ido a fortnightly water change anyhow but only knew about the dangers of nitrites

 

[joshua]

nitrates are also absorbed by plants as fertiliser but if ur plants are dying in there they'd contribute to ammonia too

 

[thecichlidaddict]

I never test for nitrates because I know that my water change regimen keeps them well under control. As long as your aquarium is maintained on a regular bases, including both filter maintenance and water changes, then there is little point in testing for them. Especially if you have live plants.

 

[Beesboer]

I mostly test for ammonia and for nitrates. The reason is, most of the time the bacteria will not suddenly stop to function as long as your filters are running, but there could be a rather big buildup in nitrates at the end of the Nitrogen Cycle.

 

[yhbae]

Do plants absorb ammonia or nitrite as well as they do on nitrates (which I see them listed commonly as fertilizers)? Should I be concerned if a mature tank reads zero ammonia/nitrite AND zero nitrate?

 

[thecichlidaddict]

I would be concerned if you are testing 0 nitrates, but my concern would be with the testing kit - many of them do go bad over time, make sure yours is still good.

 

[yhbae]

I believe it still works - this reading came from a breeder tank which is 50% filled with java moss. (it's a 10g tank). I was surprized to see this reading at first, but may be I shouldn't have given the amount of plants in that tank...

The only thing I want to be sure is that java moss is not completely out-competing the bacteria for ammonia, killing them in the process.

 

[CFC]

Plants do not use ammonia or nitrites so you have no reason to worry

 

[yhbae]

Aha! That was the answer I was hoping to get! Thanks for the confirmation!