Nitrate, hardness and cloudy water problem

[Megan2022]

Hi,

So I am having a problem with lowering my nitrates and the hardness of my water is very high, please can someone help me to get the balance right, or will this self sort in a few more days/weeks.

I've had the tank running for a week, using filter boost to get bacteria going. All my other levels are ideal conditions just the nitrate & hardness, so wise ones in my phone please share your wisdom.

No fish in the tank. Fake flowers and gravel.

Also the water is cloudy so I'm assuming a bacterial bloom from the filter boost.



Thank you

 

[connorlindeman]

Large water changes will lower nitrates. As for water hardness, you are pretty much stuck with hardware fish. Whats your gh, kh, ph?

 

[connorlindeman]

I would recommend you get some live plants for the tank. Makes the fish happier
Can you share a picture of the tank?

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum

If you've had the tank running a week with no source of ammonia its likely you dont have it cycled. Check out these articles here to get an idea of the process you need to go through. A lot of those bacteria in a bottle products are not as great as they claim, though they can do some work its not a fix all, and the truth is it just takes time.

https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycle-your-tank-a-complete-guide-for-beginners.475055/

In terms of the nitrates you have present have you tested your tap water as thats the most likely source of them. My tap water has around 25ppm nitrate in it which is not great. I've used RO water to resolve mine and also riparian planting in the aquarium (house plants growing out the top).

RO water would also help with your hardness but how hard is your water? A lot of fish do need soft water but there are some great options for hard water. What size is your tank and what kind of fish do you want to keep?

Wills

 

[Oblio]

Welcome to TFF!
Without live plants, any nitrate must be removed via Water Changes (WC), which you should do once your tank is stocked.

Have you tested your tap water after letting it sit for 24 hrs?

What are your actual tank water parameters?

 

[Megan2022]

Large water changes will lower nitrates. As for water hardness, you are pretty much stuck with hardware fish. Whats your gh, kh, ph?

GH 180
KH 240
PH 7.5

Using API test strips.

I read using bottled water for water changes, to help with hardiness, is this advisable or more poor Google advice?

 

[Oblio]

What is your ammonia & nitrite level?

 

[Megan2022]

Welcome to TFF!
Without live plants, any nitrate must be removed via Water Changes (WC), which you should do once your tank is stocked.

Have you tested your tap water after letting it sit for 24 hrs?

What are your actual tank water parameters?

GH 180
KH 240
PH 7.5
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0.5

I have tested the tap water after 24 hours before I added the filter boost and everything was much higher with PH very low. So PH has risen.

 

[Megan2022]

What is your ammonia & nitrite level?

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.5

 

[Megan2022]

I would recommend you get some live plants for the tank. Makes the fish happier
Can you share a picture of the tank?

It's nothing extraordinary as new to keeping fish albeit when I was a teen and probably didn't care to much back then about the right balance...

So starting with 64l until I'm confident enough to go any bigger.

I'll look into live plants

 

[Megan2022]

Hi welcome to the forum

If you've had the tank running a week with no source of ammonia its likely you dont have it cycled. Check out these articles here to get an idea of the process you need to go through. A lot of those bacteria in a bottle products are not as great as they claim, though they can do some work its not a fix all, and the truth is it just takes time.

https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycle-your-tank-a-complete-guide-for-beginners.475055/

In terms of the nitrates you have present have you tested your tap water as thats the most likely source of them. My tap water has around 25ppm nitrate in it which is not great. I've used RO water to resolve mine and also riparian planting in the aquarium (house plants growing out the top).

RO water would also help with your hardness but how hard is your water? A lot of fish do need soft water but there are some great options for hard water. What size is your tank and what kind of fish do you want to keep?

Wills

It's only 64 litres so I'm not going crazy with fish when I come to adding them, just trying to get accustomed to being able to keep a fish tank running before I go any bigger.

Thanks for the link I'll take a look.

 

[Oblio]

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.5

If you have nitrite, that means that you have some bacteria converting ammonia to nitrite. If your nitrate is higher than tap levels, you also have that bacteria present and are on your way to cycling your tank. Patience is a virtue here.

 

[Megan2022]

If you have nitrite, that means that you have some bacteria converting ammonia to nitrite. If your nitrate is higher than tap levels, you also have that bacteria present and are on your way to cycling your tank. Patience is a virtue here.

Lovely, I will remain patient... Thank you!

 

[Oblio]

Are you feeding the bacteria as outlined in the link?

 

[Megan2022]

Are you feeding the bacteria as outlined in the link?

Not had a chance to go through the link properly yet going to give a read shortly. But have been following the double dosages as advised on the filter boost for the first week and then will do normal dosage from tomorrow, weekly...