Nitrate Woes

[plectastic]

I understand this is a popular subject but even as an experienced fish keeper I'm not able to get nitrate down under 40ppm (orange rather than red)

Tank details:

Roma 240
Aquamanta 1500lph external filter with UV
Power head
Sand
T8 lighting
Wood, plants, moss balls.

In the filter is:

Ceramic media and noodles
Seachem de-nitrate
Bio balls
Fine foam
Coarse foam
Filter floss

It's a big filter and I'm happy with my media choices but the nitrate is always showing red depressingly.

I change 75% weekly because although its a big tank with adequate filtration, I've got a messy L330 watermelon plec, sailfin plec, and all sorts of barbs and loaches. I am sure to hoover poop very water change but still can't get my nitrate down to a level I'm happy with. I use prime so it's somewhat detoxified anyway but I want it lower.

What else can I use?

 

[ech0o]

What measure do you get out of your tapwater?  The only way to successfully remove nitrates, as far as I know, is to add more plants, and/or get your plants processing the nitrates faster.  Some ways of doing that is better lighting, co2, fertilizers (make sure they don't contain nitrate).  The faster your plants grow, the more nitrate is removed from the water.   I feel like you may have high nitrate coming out of your tap which makes the battle to lower nitrates much more difficult.

 

[levahe]

You don't state if you are actually having any problems due to the nitrate. If you aren't, then don't worry too much and as the previous poster said you might have high nitrates in your tap water.

 

[plectastic]

Yeah my LFS had said about adding more plants etc but couldn't go overboard because I only have sand without a plant specific substrate beneath it. I've had all sorts of plants grow or fail in the past so kinda gave up spending any more money on them but if I have to then I will. I'd probably just get more moss balls.
 
Concerning my tap water, it is 0-trace. So definitely nothing to worry about. The reason behind wanting lower nitrate is simply to give my livestock an easier and happier living experience. This being said I may be being over careful as it is not given me any problems yet.

 

[fm1978]

As above; not a huge issue. There's probably some in your straight-from-tap water, I'd guess anywhere from 10-40ppm. Apparently 50ppm is the "safe" limit...eek!
 
Plants use NO3 as a nutrient and the rest should be removed by water changes, which, of course, is negated if your tap water already has it in there. Test your tap water to see how much you need to work with. More live plants will help anyway regardless! Get some easy growers if you're not into ferts, CO2 and lighting all that much. 

 

[fluttermoth]

If the nitrate in your tap water is very low, then upping your water change schedule is all you need to do.
 
As you say, you've got an awful lot of big, messy fish in that tank.

 

[plectastic]

Thanks, I'll get some more of what I've got that I know survives ok. 
 
I'm doing big water changes every week and I really haven't got the time to up that to anymore.
 
I may get some more de-nitrate too as even though I bought the biggest tub, there is an awful lot of capacity in the filter!
 
As said, tap water contains 0-trace nitrates so it's very good.

 

[ech0o]

Plectastic, some good low maintenence plants that do not require soil and will grow fine in gravel is the hygrophilia genus, such as water wisteria, sprites, or giant hygros.  Also, java ferns grow off of logs, decorations, rocks, etc, so do not require soil.  Both of these grow very fast so are good for consuming nitrates.  You could also plants vallisneria, they are nitrate consuming hogs!!

 

[plectastic]

Awesome thanks. As said, it's sand.

 

[ech0o]

Sand, gravel, hygro and vallis really do not care where they are growing!

 

[maurizio]

I'm pretty much in the same situation, sand only, because from the start I didn't want plants, but also a painful amount of NO3 from the tap (35 to 40 mg/l, as declared by the provider!). Also, I have a bit of salt in (SG 1.002 at 25 C), so most plants wouldn't love it.
 
Tried a number of supposedly "easy" plants so far (Ceratophyllum, Vallisneria asiatica) with not much success. May give a try to the mentioned Hygros. Any species recommended more than others? I'm really a plant killer, at least in my tank...
 
I've also tried Tetra Nitrate minus pearls, without success. Plectastic, is De-nitrate working for you?

 

[ech0o]

maurizio go for plants that will do well in brackish waters, as your salinity is fairly high.   The Water Wisteria are good, Crypts do EXCELLENT in higher salt environments.  Also, Java Ferns are native to brackish waters so can handle quite a high load of salt, and are really very neat plants that need to be attached to rocks, decorations, or wood.   You can also try glosso, they adapt to a fair level of salt.  
 
From my experience with "de-nitrate" products are to no avail.  Even if you could get a substance to absorb nitrate, which I am sure they have probably figured out, you would still need to replace it nearly daily for it to continue effective as the products would become saturated fairly quickly.  It is like the whole charcoal argument, your charcoal is only effective at absorbing for a few days tops, then it just becomes additional media for bacteria to collect on.

 

[maurizio]

thanks echo, I'm indeed trying to re.think my tank somehow with more plants. I forgot to mention though that i have a dozen mangroves which are doing quite well in there. But I know that, being slow growers, I can't expect much help from them in fighting nitrates.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Sand has nothing to do with your plants succeeding or not btw. You do not need gravel or specialised substrate to grow plants. I've always used sand and have no problem growing a wide range of plants. 

 

[plectastic]

Mmm not technically true. Plants benefit from having something like sand or a proven substrate to grow their roots and develops gravel isn't ideal although I'm not saying that common hardy plants won't do OK in just gravel. The Flourish substrate and the like that people use purposefully under their sand etc are proven to help growth and ease of planting. All that being said, as far as my tank goes, plants annoy me and I'll probably just lob loads of care free moss balls in there.