Nitrates

[lee420]

How high can your nitrates be before they harm the fish?

 

[techen]

Depends what your fish are used too.
 
What are your normal nitrates?

 

[TallTree01]

I try not to let my nitrates get above 40 ppm.

 

[lee420]

Well; i havent checked them in a few months because i never got a bad reading so i was confident in my methods. But i checked today because i overstocked my african cichlid tank due to aggression. Got a 80 ppm reading (bright red on api test), i do 10 gallons a week change and its 46 gal. Should i start doin more?

And thanks for quick response. Was literally ten seconds, lol

 

[techen]

What nitrates are in your tap water?

 

[lee420]

What nitrates are in your tap water?

Gimme 5 min bud. Ill find out right quick

Zero. Stayed yellow

 

[MBOU]

Well, if you do 10g water changes and your nitrates are at 80ppm... you need to be doing 20g changes just to keep it a 40ppm bare minimum.
 
Would also look into how much dirt is building up around and under the rockwork and gravel cleaning what can be done to help keep nitrates lower. Would also consider more mechanical nitrate removing media in filters just as JBL NitratEx or BioNitratEx or I believe API doing one, I think its the one called 'crystal' that is the nitrate one, used to be called Nitrazorb.

 

[lee420]

Well, if you do 10g water changes and your nitrates are at 80ppm... you need to be doing 20g changes just to keep it a 40ppm bare minimum.
 
Would also look into how much dirt is building up around and under the rockwork and gravel cleaning what can be done to help keep nitrates lower. Would also consider more mechanical nitrate removing media in filters just as JBL NitratEx or BioNitratEx or I believe API doing one, I think its the one called 'crystal' that is the nitrate one, used to be called Nitrazorb.

Well i got a fluval 306 so i got plenty of room for new media. Ive never seen the media your talking abou though, is it something they sell everywhere? And how does it come, in bottles like carbon does?

 

[Mamashack]

I've tried that Nitrazorb when I discovered my tap water was 10-20ppm (can't tell the diff on API) and it worked extremely quickly - from 80ppm to 5ppm in 28 hours! One day bright red and the next day barely orange!
5ppm was too low for my plants and then was doing water changes to bring the level up! Didn't want to start messing about with ferts.
If you do go that route just keep a very close eye on your test results daily if not more frequently.
It said it could be used to control ammonia as well but needs to be recharged every 2 weeks with aquarium salt. I got it from PetsAtHome but tbh I haven't used it since that first occasion which made it quite an expensive experiment.

 

[Livewire88]

If your reading's are correct and your tap water contains no Nitrate's, as long as you are doing regular water changes I wouldn't worry about your NitrAte level because it should never get so high in order to effect your fish. 

 

[DreamertK]

I try to keep my NO3 under 20ppm as my tap is 0ppm. I use the water from the WC for my roses (which have been doing fabulous since).

 
A dangerous level is 100+ppm, or over 40ppm above tap level, though it's certainly not as deadly as NH3/NO2.

 

[Mamashack]

I like mine to be 20-40ppm which is ok for both fish and plants.

 

[Royston]

My tap water is 40 and tank water stays at 40ppm

 

[Mamashack]

Do you use anything to bring it down Royston or is it a planted tank?

 

[Royston]

It's a planted tank