Nitrite And Nitrate

[littlenemo]

How do I make 'The Nitrogen Cycle' happen in my aquarium?[font="Verdana]You can see why 'The Nitrogen Cycle' is so important in an aquarium. It converts lethal ammonia into nitrite, and then to relatively harmless nitrate. Without 'The Nitrogen Cycle', our fish would quickly die of ammonia poisoning[/font][/color]">[color="#222222"][font="Verdana]Unfortunately, when we buy aquarium filters, they do not come with [/font][/color][i]Nitrosomonas[/i][color="#222222"][font="Verdana] and [/font][/color][i]Nitrospira[/i][color="#222222"][font="Verdana] included. We must culture these bacteria in the filter in order to save our fish from the danger of ammonia and nitrite.[/font][/color]
[color="#222222"][font="Verdana]
[/font][/color]
[color="#222222"][font="Verdana]Nitrite is also lethal to fish, and so must be removed. There is no safe level of nitrite in an aquarium.[/font][/color][color="#222222"][font="Verdana]The nitrite is removed by the second of the two types of bacteria in your filter. This bacteria is called '[/font][/color][i]Nitrospira[/i][color="#222222"][font="Verdana]'. They do this by converting nitrite to nitrate.[/font][/color][color="#222222"][font="Verdana]Nitrate is relatively harmless to most fish unless in large quantities. The nitrate level in the aquarium is controlled by performing frequent partial water changes. You can read about how to perform partial water changes in the link below[/font]

yes. but when the tank is cycled you will always have nitrate present showing good bacteria in your filter. so when u test u will always have a bit present

 

[CezzaXV]

It is possible to have zero nitrates in a tank if you have enough plants that they're consuming it at the same rate as it's being produced.

We don't need nitrates in our water, quite the opposite in fact as that's one of the key things we try to get rid of during water changes, but with the cycle we turn ammonia into nitrite into nitrate. It's not that we need nitrate, but the other two are poisonous and we don't want those in our tanks. Seeing nitrates going up when cycling lets you know that bacteria are converting the nitrite.

 

[mrshunt90]

Sorry meant to add that Ammonia is also 0ppm x

 

[ainsy]

Littlenemo I think that you are a little confused about the cycle.

As others have said nitrates are not good and it is perfectly possible to have 0 (or low enough that they can't be detected on a hobby test kit)

Many people have heavily planted tanks to do just this or remove as much as they can through water changes.

 

[FishBlast]

Littlenemo I think that you are a little confused about the cycle.

As others have said nitrates are not good and it is perfectly possible to have 0 (or low enough that they can't be detected on a hobby test kit)

Many people have heavily planted tanks to do just this or remove as much as they can through water changes.

But they sure do smell nice. It's way better than that garlic smell my water had at the beginning of the cycle.

 

[OldMan47]

Littlenemo, you have fallen into a trap. Someone once told you, quite correctly, that ammonia being processed through to nitrate is good. Unfortunately that is not the whole story. This heavily planted tank never shows any nitrates, ammonia nor nitrites although it is heavily populated with fish. The reason is simple. The plants are using the nitrogen in ammonia and nitrates to grow.

This lightly planted tank does sometimes get a bit of a nitrate build.

 

[littlenemo]

mine i quite heavly planted and im always showing around 10 on nitrATE oh well

 

[Xraymark]

Good example of a heavily planted tank Oldman. Can't see the fish for the trees.

 

[OldMan47]

Actually you can see the fish. They do not hide much when they have such good cover. Have a look near the middle of the picture and you can easily pick out about 10 of my goodeids.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Actually, the nitrogen cycle does not end with nitrates. The final step in the cycle is denitrification. In this step the nitrate is converted to something else, usually nitrogen gas. Since most of the air (about 80%) is nitrogen gas, the final step is not harmful product.

In some tanks with deep enough substrate there could be denitrifying bacteria which must be in an oxygen free environment to process nitrate. In fw tanks, we are usually the denitrifiers with our water changes. Some tanks will have enough fast growing plants that they do the job. I have one high light co2 added tank to which I add nitratres every week as well as phosphates. To keep the algae at bay requires a good ratio between the phosphate and nitrate present. I still do weekly water changes on the tank, just not to remove nitrates. Heavily planted isn't just the amount of plants, it is also how fast they grow and thus how much food they need (nitrate is food). Typically 0 nitrates occur in co2 high light tanks for the most part. They may also be that low in lower light heavily planted tanks with low stocking levels so the ammonia supply is also low.

In sw tanks where water changes are not done very often, they use a variety of methods to remove nitrates- live rock, live sand, denitrification filters etc. Maybe a saltie/reefer will chime in as I am fw only.

 

[OldMan47]

TTA, we never try to do denitrification on a typical freshwater tank. I do not disagree with your statement but it is an area completely outside the experiences of even the most experienced of most freshwater people. Denitrification is indeed practiced in saltwater arrangements because it is just too costly to keep discarding all that water and salt then replacing it in a saltwater tank. I do have a tank where I use denitrification to supply nitrogen to my plants, the anaerobic bacteria in the root zone of my plants specifically convert nitrates to more easily absorbed nitrogen that the plants use. That does not invalidate the discussion of the open ended nitrogen cycle used in most tanks. A full cycle discussion definitely includes denitrification as a removal method.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Oldman- I never said folks try to do denitrification in fw. I said the opposite that fishkeeprs denitrify via water changes. But here is an interesting observation on this topic.

A lot of folks swear by SeaChem's Stability. It is one of the "bottled" bacteria products. Here is what Sechem says is in it:

[The strains function in fresh or saltwater. Stability® contains both nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria, a blend found in no other product. /quote]

Having read what is in Stability (beyond denitrifiers), I can not imagine ever putting it into a fw tank.