Nitrate level

[Lamie]

Hi there, the nitrate is 20 but the other parameters are fine. Why is this

 

[Myraan]

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

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Hi there, the nitrate is 20 but the other parameters are fine. Why is this

Quick summary:

• Beneficial bacteria turn toxic ammonia into toxic nitrite.
• Another set of beneficial bacteria turn toxic nitrite into far, far less toxic nitrate.
• Plants love nitrate (and ammonia)...nom-nom.
• Happy tank.

 

[Lamie]

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

Hi thanks for replying. I have had fish in the tank for a while. It's just that I tested the water yesterday and the Nitrate was up. I haven't done a water change this week. Alot of things in the tank are going wrong. Plants aren't really growing well, java fern, black brush algae present, parameters are just ok.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Hi thanks for replying. I have had fish in the tank for a while. It's just that I tested the water yesterday and the Nitrate was up. I haven't done a water change this week. Alot of things in the tank are going wrong. Plants aren't really growing well, java fern, black brush algae present, parameters are just ok.

Okay, so how's your cleaning regime and are you careful not to overfeed?
(Excess algae is caused by excess nutrients in the water...and too much of the wrong sort of light).

Given your current difficulty with plants, I'd suggest you get some floating plants asap. All you need to do for these is to stick 'em in the water and they'll do the rest, including gobbling up nitrates. They may even assist you with your algae problem.

What does 'just okay' mean? They're either okay, or they're not. Precise figures would help here.

 

[Lamie]

Okay, so how's your cleaning regime and are you careful not to overfeed?
(Excess algae is caused by excess nutrients in the water...and too much of the wrong sort of light).

Given your current difficulty with plants, I'd suggest you get some floating plants asap. All you need to do for these is to stick 'em in the water and they'll do the rest, including gobbling up nitrates. They may even assist you with your algae problem.

What does 'just okay' mean? They're either okay, or they're not. Precise figures would help here.

I feel it's such a delicate balance of getting the parameters right. It's like I'm always doing water changes. Because I have been doing water changes very regularly I thought my nitrate would be low. I have a 70l tank. In week I do change of 10 l one day and 3 days later I do a change of 20 l. That's 2 buckets. And I planted lots of plants but the pH is still high
pH is 7.4-7.8
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0ppm
Nitrate is 10ppm

Thanks for helping

 

[Lamie]

Okay, so how's your cleaning regime and are you careful not to overfeed?
(Excess algae is caused by excess nutrients in the water...and too much of the wrong sort of light).

Given your current difficulty with plants, I'd suggest you get some floating plants asap. All you need to do for these is to stick 'em in the water and they'll do the rest, including gobbling up nitrates. They may even assist you with your algae problem.

What does 'just okay' mean? They're either okay, or they're not. Precise figures would help here.

How much do I feed? I have about 25 fish.
I appreciate your help

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

How much do I feed? I have about 25 fish.
I appreciate your help

I prefer a little and often. You need to spend some time and seriously watch your fish when you feed them, paying attention to what they miss.
You start out with a small amount that they'll eat all of right in front of you.
You can either feed that same dose a few hours later, or try some more.
Note that if you keep adding food, usually there'll come a point where there's little real interest...although some fish, like many animals, can be gluttons.

My preferred method, as I suggested, is a little, often.

 

[Byron]

There are a few things here. First is, have you tested your source (tap) water for nitrate? This may or may not be an issue, but you/we can discard it if not.

Second, water changes should be regular, and once a week is all you should need, but the volume of these might need to be increased.

Nitrates can occur within the tank (i.e., not coming in with the tap water) due to overstocking (too many fish for the system to handle), overfeeding, insufficient water changes, insufficient substrate vacuuming, insufficient filter cleaning. The brown gunk is the organics, and you want it out of the system. Live plants help because they take up a lot of ammonia/ammonium, which means less nitrification causing nitrite and then nitrate.

You mention 20 ppm nitrate initially, then 10ppm later. Nitrates should never increase between water changes; once you get them to "x" and assuming this is as close to zero as possible, they should sty there from water change to water change.

 

[Myraan]

Perhaps overfeeding.
I can feed small amounts of dried food several times and get no nitrate - but it shoots up if ever I do more than 1 frozen cube treat a week.