Nitrate Problems.

[richrich]

Hi,

My tank eventually finished cycling last week (fishless)

It is 180 litre with trickle filtration in the hood (agua one) I have the fine white wool and then the heavy black wool and ceramic noodles under. I have no carbon in as per advice on here.

Readings are now:

Ammonia 0
NitrIte 0
NitrAte 40-80 PPM
P.H 7.5

As expected, my NitrAte was very high having processed all that NitrIte having finished cycling.

For the last 5 days I have done 2 x 50% water changes and 3 x 25%. Thats nearly 2 entire tank changes. Despite this my NitrAte reading is still between 40 and 80. The reason I say it is between such a big range is the API test kit has various different colours for each stage up to 40 PPM and then 40 PPM and then 80 PPM are both near identicle shades of red so it is near impossible to tell if it is nearer 40 or 80 !!

Anyway, I have tested my tap water and this shows to be 10 PPM straight out of the tap.

Since my tank finished cycling last week, I have added x 4 platties today. That is all I have now along with about 5 plants

They currently seem more than happy and are whizzing around.

All the guides I have seen have suggested that NitrAte over 50 PPM is bad for the tank, algae growth and the fish making them more prone to disease. I know that water changes are the only way to clear NitrAte. I accept that if my tape water is about 10 PPM I will never have it below that but cant see whay i have done nearly a 200% water change in last 7 days and it is still 40-80 PPM.

Any ideas why I cant get the NitrAte down despite all the water changes ?
Thanks

 

[Liam]

Dont worry about it even 80 is not toxic to fish long term, the water where I live can have 50 out of the tap and fish are fine with that. Also nitrate tests are really inacurate especially the strip ones so your nitrate will have come down. The drop ones are better though still can be hard to get accurate results.

 

[richrich]

Dont worry about it even 80 is not toxic to fish long term, the water where I live can have 50 out of the tap and fish are fine with that. Also nitrate tests are really inacurate especially the strip ones so your nitrate will have come down. The drop ones are better though still can be hard to get accurate results.

Hi,

My kit is a liquid test kit (API)

It would be great if the key measures i.e the 40 and 80 colour were not nearly 2 identical shades of red !!!

 

[TFFKes]

Hello,

I know the problem, I've used Sera (liquid) Nitrate Test, Nutrafin (liquid) Nitrate test and API test sticks.

I'm fairly convinced that my Nitrate is at or below 50, but the difference in colours has driven me mad too.
I tested my tap water and again, I'm only fairly sure that my tap & tank waters are a similar shade....
but with the Sera test to my eye that lies somewhere between 20 and 100!!!

Anyone out there used a.n.other Nitrate test that gives clearer readings?

 

[rdd1952]

You should have done a large water change of 75 to 100 percent before adding fish. Doing 2 50% water changes doesn't equal a 100% water change. That is actually about a 75% water change. If the nitrate was 80 ppm, a 50% change should have lowered it to 40 ppm (actually 45 for you since you have 10 ppm in your tap water). Another 50% WC would take it to 20 ppm (once again a little higher at 25 to 30 ppm) for you). So for you it really only came out to about a 60% change. Most likely, since the colors on those charts are so close together (anything over about 20 to 40 looks the same to me), you were much higher than 80 ppm. At the end of a full fishless cycle, the nitrate is most likely well over 200 ppm.

Edit: I think all of them are extemely hard to read. But if you don't have nitrate in your tap water, you do 20 to 25 percent water changes weekly and you aren't severely overstocked, your nitrates shoulc never get higher than about 20 ppm.