Why Are My Nitrates So High?

[Gr44]

Fairly new tank, Ammonia and Nitrite are both 0ppm.

I've been doing 30-40% water changes every week and test every 2-3 days. My nitrate level was between 40-80ppm last night so I decided to do a big W/C to try and get them down for good - was at least 80%.
Tested this morning and Nitrate is still between 40-80ppm?!

I'm using an API Liquid test kit, it's well in date and I'm shaking the Nitrate bottles like a good'un!

I'm happy to do more water changes if that's what it takes, but I get the feeling that isn't the problem!

600x300x300 (mm) tank (2footx1footx1foot) so around 54L in size and has 14 Glowlight Tetra, 6 Panda Corydoras. Not fed them much this week in hope of getting the Nitrate levels down. Also has a fair number of plants.

Any thoughts on whats going wrong here? I want to get them to 10ppm or below so they're easier to monitor, anything over 40ppm on these tests looks the same until it hits 160ppm!

 

[Truck]

80ppm isn't even high, and your API nitrate kits are useless, they're so un accurate I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot barge pole.
Whats, your stocking like?

 

[OldMan47]

You might want to check your tap water nitrates. Where I am, the tap water can be as high as 40 ppm nitrates at certain times of the year. That means the best that you could hope for is a level 10 or 20 ppm above tap water levels, not an absolute number of 20 ppm.

 

[mattlee]

agre with oldman test the tap water as you will not get it below that level

 

[Gr44]

I tested before and Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate was all 0ppm. I will do it again incase something has changed though!

If the API Liquid tests are no good... what would you recomend?

 

[Truck]

I tested before and Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate was all 0ppm. I will do it again incase something has changed though!

If the API Liquid tests are no good... what would you recomend?

The API ammonia and nitrite are okay, but not brilliant and the nitrate one is a waste of time, I wouldn't bother testing nitrate, I haven't tested it for months.

Saliferts are pretty good, quite accurate too.

 

[mattlee]

I tested before and Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate was all 0ppm. I will do it again incase something has changed though!

If the API Liquid tests are no good... what would you recomend?

when using api for nitrate make sure you give the bottles a real good hard shake before putting the liquid into the tube.

 

[OldMan47]

You will need to do exactly the same with the Saliferts. All of these kits use about the same chemicals and it is the fact that the test chemicals settle on the bottom of the bottle that makes the tests unreliable.

 

[Gr44]

Hmmmm,

I think the issue is I tested the rising mains into my house which is free of Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate. The cold and hot water tanks appear to have a small amount of Nitrate in them, which I use to fill up the fish tank as I can match the water temp easier that way!

What do you guys use to fill your fish tanks up with?

 

[dgwebster]

i fill straight from the cold tap - using water held in a tank can introduce undesirables such as metals from the tank. If its a plastic tank you are not so bad but for the hot water, I'd personally recommend boiling a kettle to bring the cold tap up to temp (my tap water comes out at a paltry 6 deg right now.)

 

[three-fingers]

You will need to do exactly the same with the Saliferts. All of these kits use about the same chemicals and it is the fact that the test chemicals settle on the bottom of the bottle that makes the tests unreliable.

Though the API kit pre-mixes two of the regents, which is why you need to shake it so much. If you open up the regent 2 bottle, there's a lot of black precipitate on the bottom of the bottle, the older the bottle the more precipitate there is, indicating some reaction is going on over time.

In test kits that have 3 reagents (one powder), this doesnt seem to happen, also, the use by date is a lot longer. I use a Sera NO3 test kit at home, basically the same as the Salifert, I also use the API kit every day at work, it's great if you get a new one and shake it very well as instructed.

 

[bitteraspects]

if your tap is not the problem, then it is likely either the filter or the substrate.
how often do you clean your filter?
do you vacuum your substrate during every WC?

 

[Gr44]

I think the issue is the hot/cold water tanks I've been using. It looks like if I use the rising main I should be okay!

Will use it when I do my next W/C.

I cleaned my filters for the first time last week (tank only been setup about a month) but will start doing them every coupld of weeks, there wasn't much gunk in them though.

I do vacuum the sand when I do my W/C but it isn't easy with sand and all the plants any tips??

Thanks,

Sean

 

[Curiosity101]

There is no need to clean the filters unless they're clogged. So it sounds like even once a month is plenty regular enough.

And with sand it's just practise makes perfect. And also after having it for awhile you'll find all of the lightest particles have been sucked out. I have to actually TRY to suck sand out now (or stop paying attention...which is risky full stop with kuhli loach around! lol).