What Are Your Nitrates?

[t1tanrush]

"No Idea I don't have a test kit" Or filters for that matter. Test kits = wast of money IMO.

Why do you think that? And why no filters?!

You know I have no idea what my nitrates are like out of the tap, looks like I'm going to be testing tonight.
I'm pretty shocked that people have to put up with nitrates of 50 out of the tap! One guy at the lfs told me that my nitrates where too high and 10ppm, and that I should either buy a nitrate removing resin-thing or start buying the shops RO water! He said that I should have at least 4 inches deep sand substrate to allow for aerobic bacteria to get rid of the nitrates.
However he doesn't work there anymore, and I do. I think he just needed to brush up on the FW side of the hobby...

Surely he means anerobic bacteria which is what you get in a deep sand substrate. I have heard of this, but the flip side is it produces a black smelly gunk which can poison your tank!

One tank is my female betta tank, and I don't filter my males, so why filter the females? The other tank had just my frog in it, and minnows for feeders, no need for it. I just change the water more often.. Although, since overstocking both tanks (they are 10g) I am going to pick up a couple filters when I find one I really like.
No deep sand bacteria, just whats in the gravel..

 

[three-fingers]

IMO they are hardly a waste of money If you constantly have to do large water changes, but whichever method you prefer . And if you don't have a test kit it's difficult to judge if they are a waste or not....
I personally feel it's not really that responsible to use the fish as indicators to weather the water is OK, when there are other methods cheaply available.