Nitrate Levels

[death]

hi after doing my water checks i noticed that my nitrate level had risen i am wondering what would cause this to happen??? and while on the subject can any one recommend a testing kit as the lfs gave me interpet one and in my opinion its totally useless as the matching readings card is no where near accurate cheers joe

 

[WILDER]

Tetra test kits are good but abit expensive, when did you last rinse a sponge in old tank water.

 

[death]

i havent rinsed any sponge from the filter directly in the aquarium what i done was when i done a water change last week i cleaned my filter and rinsed my sponge in the old aquarium water that i was going to throw out and i only clean my filter roughly every 4 weeks

 

[paulthegreat]

Nitrate is always going to go up and the only good way to get it down is water changes. The fish waste produces ammonia and the bacteria turns this to nitrite and the to nitrate. Plants can help to keep the nitrate from rising too fast but you still need to remove it from the tank with a water change/gravel vac.

 

[rdd1952]

For a good test lit, I would recommend the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals (API) Master Kit. I would say it is definitely the most commonly used by members of TFF.

 

[death]

ok thanks for evryones advice cheers