where is your nitrate level at ?

[dan dan the fish man]

i have been using my nutrafin nitrate test kit and im always getting a reading of less then 5 ,i mean you can hardly see the pinky color is this to low ? if so what can i add to get my water to the right levels? and what is the right level of nitrate ?

 

[Fawke]

as far as I know the lower the better, except if you have a planted tank. I assume you have got live plants in there? I cheat and have fake plnts, so dont know much about the care of real ones but I know they absorb nitrates. I think I read on here that they need them to be healthy.

sorry not much help, hopefully someone will be along with a greater knowledge of plants

 

[ajhainey]

I've never seen anyone on here ask for higher nitrate before Anyway, to answer your question: After a water change mine gets pretty low. Yesterday it was practically 0. I think my hoard of new plants has used up the existing supply, but I added more fish at the same time so I'm hoping it all balances out again soon.

I'm aiming for between 10 and 25 myself but if it's lower I take that as a good thing. If you do want to raise it (for a planted tank?) Just add more fish!

The only other thing to ask is are you cycled (0 ammonia and nitrite) if not nitrate will go up automatically when this process finsihes.

aj xx

 

[dan dan the fish man]

my tank is heavily planted the plants are using up the nitrate I'm wondering if its to low because the older leaves on one of my swords is turning a little yellow possibly a nitrate deficiency maybe ? does anyone know the recommended nitrate level for a heavily planted tank ?

The tank has certainly cycled.

 

[tstenback]

The older leaves on the sword will normally turn yellow. This is when you should pinch off the leaf to allow the newer leaves to use all the available nutrients. If this is only happening to the older leaves then its OK but if all/most of the leaves are turning brown then you would look for a nutrient problem. HTH

 

[Bol]

I agree with Terry. But ...

does anyone know the recommended nitrate level for a heavily planted tank ?

Usually, a level of 10-30 ppm is recommended for heavily planted tanks.

However, it's often more important (especially in 2+wpg tanks) to try to maintain around a 14:1 ratio of phosphates to nitrates.

But just to throw a twist in, from what I've read most red plants will only get "really red" if the nitrates are very low, as in below 5ppm.

edit: oh, and usually the preferred method of adding nitrates is by dosing KNO3 -- some brands of commercial Stump Remover are pure KNO3; check the labels, though.