Nitrates

[greenscooby]

Afternoon all, i posted about a week ago that i'm looking after my mates fish in my tank till he gets his re-cycled.

I know with his fish i'm overstocked but it won't be for much longer, thank god!!!!.

I've done a water test and all is ok apart from my nitrATES.

Ph 7.2
Ammonia 0
NitrITES 0

But my nitrATES have jumped from about 0.25 to 7, they've been fine till today(my norm is 0.25)

I'm planning on doing a 50%water change tomorrow(usually do a 30% wc but as i've got extra fish i'm doing a larger change)

Should i be worried about this?

Many thanks in advance,

Mark.

 

[craig855s]

im new to this hobby but nitrates are safe up to 40 (or have i got my nitrites and nitrates confused again)

0.25 nitrate is very very low indeed,mine comes out of the tap at 8 (and iirc the API test kit doesnt read 0.25) it goes like 0 5 10 doesnt it (cba looking)

wheras 0.25 nitrite is always too much,and 7 nitrite is very bad indeed

 

[AdAndrews]

nitrate is virtually harmless, unless high levels over a long time, its nitrite you have to watch out for

 

[greenscooby]

bump

 

[RedeyesUK]

Nitrates of 7 are nothing at all to worry about. In fact, I'd be thrilled to see that sort of level in my tanks!

But with anything up to 30PPM coming straight out of our tap, that ain't gonna happen.

Water changes are a good idea to keep up with your extra stocking, I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[bronzecat]

Yep your nitrAtes are fine Its your Ph reading I'd be worried about......0??

 

[vinylman]

OP says Ph is 7.2

 

[Truck]

nitrates below 100ppm wont cause problems, levels up to 400ppm have shown to be safe with hardier fish, but dont try it.

are you sure you can get a 0.25 reading? are you sure your not mixing nitrite and nitrate up?

 

[greenscooby]

My mistake sorry, i meant 2.5 for the nitrATE.

 

[three-fingers]

As said above, don't worry about nitrAte too much.

As truck has pointed out, most fish can deal with considerably high levels of it (do a search on google scholar ).

Nitrate is only really an issue with very sensitive fish, for example when keeping things like mollies in freshwater. But even then, your stats are fine.

Generally, for most general community tanks, I wouldn't worry about the levels unless they are 40ppm above what comes out the tap water used for the tank.

If you have fast growing plants in the tank, the nitrates could be undetectable.

And on top of all this, the aquarium nitrate kits we use apparently aren't all that reliable, so unless they are off the colour chart, I really wouldent take much note of the results.

 

[waterdrop]

I agree with the above comments and it could probably not be better stated than three-fingers post just above mine.

Its rarely a fish-safety issue, as said, with reports of some species surviving in 400ppm (and even 1000ppm in one post I read.)

It is true however that when we try to help interpret stats here that beginners post, the nitrate(NO3) stat will sometimes be observed with an eye to telling us something about the maintenance habits of the tank keeper. If one knows the tap water nitrate level, then its rare to see nitrates being more than 10,20, 30 or 40 above that in a well-maintained tank. In a common beginners community tank that's not heavily planted or heavily stocked with fish, one would expect to see only 5-20ppm above tap level I'd say, assuming its well-maintained. If its a planted tank then one might hardly see nitrates at all. If its a heavily stocked large-fish tank then perhaps one might see the 20-40ppm above tap type of leve, not sure, although that still might cause a raised eyebrow.

Since the nitrate(NO3) reading is sometimes put to this use of being "the canary in the coal-mine" about substrate/water-change maintenance, it might as well also be mentioned that beginners often incorrectly extrapolate this fact to mean that nitrate(NO3) is the only other substance in their tank water that needs to be worried about with respect to building up to levels that could be "bad" for the tank. That's not true. The nitrate(NO3) reading, really -is- used in the "canary" sense. If it is truly indicating that too little attention to gravel cleans and water changes has been paid, then it could be that -other- substances are building up that could begin to be "bad" for the tank. There are many substances, both organic and inorganic, that could build up as a result of our tiny tanks not being anything like the large water volumes out in the natural world. We just don't have the time or money to perform all the tests it would take to know about these other buildups, thus the use of nitrate(NO3) as a "shortcut" test.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[greenscooby]

Many thanks for all your advice.

I done a 50% water change about 3 hours ago and have just tested my levels, they are looking good for the amount of fish,

Ph 7.2

Ammonia 0

NitrATES 2.5(back to normal)

NitrITES 0

Will check them again tomorrow.

Once again many thanks all,


Mark.