A couple of questions - High Nitrate Levels

[rjcatlin]

As I have written before my nitrate level is high in my tank is high (80 ppm). There are 0 ppm for both ammonia and nitrite. Could this be do to never changing my filter media? I have a well and I tested the water from it and it had 10 ppm of nitrate. I'm wondering if I should change out my carbon filter media for Fluval® Clearmax Phosphate Remover.Also, what is the best lighting for African Cichlids? I currently have aqua-glo lamps in my fixtures.

 

[Tomchong22]

I would recommend changing the filter media and doing a 50percent water change. Are you using gravel or sand? If it's gravel u should try and clean the gravel.

 

[BigJim]

Never change the mechanical and biological filter media unless it's falling apart. Clean it in a bucket of old tank water. When you change the filter media, you're throwing away most of your beneficial bacteria.

The best way to control nitrates is to do regular PWCs and keep the tank and filter clean. Since you're dealing with 10ppm nitrate out of the tap, you'll have to do larger than average water changes. Try doing 50% weekly PWCs and see what your nitrate levels look like.

Fish really don't require any special light. A ColorMax type of bulb can really make them look nice though.

 

[ejaramillo01]

I do agree with Big Jim. Your media is working good eliminating the ammonia and the nitrites, and converting everything to Nitrates....

Don't mess with the media, leave it alone, maybe as is mentioned before do a deeper gravel cleaning in your next water change and increase the % of water changes.

Another possible reason for high Nitrates could be overfeeding. Because the fish will generate more waste or they wont finish all the food... so try to reduce a little the amount of feeding or frequency...

 

[rjcatlin]

50% pwc seems like a lot, especially weekly, but it can't hurt. I'll try every other week first and see how that does. As for feeding, I feed them once a day as much as they can eat in a couple of minutes.

 

[BigJim]

I don't see a tank size listed, so for examples sake, lets say your tank is 10g:

Your tank is currently at 80ppm nitrate

A 50% PWC will leave you with 5g of 80ppm water and 5g of 10ppm water = 10g of 45ppm water. Still too high.

A second 50% PWC will leave you with 5g of 45ppm water and 5g of 10ppm water = 10g of 27.5ppm water. Better than 45 or 80, but still too high for my liking.

A third 50% PWC will leave you with 5g of 27.5ppm water an 5g of 10ppm water = 10g of 18.75ppm water. 20ppm of nitrate is the most I like to see in my tanks.

A fourth 50% PWC will leave you with 10g of 14.375ppm water.

My recommendation is to get your tank down near 10ppm of nitrate then do a 50% PWC every time the tank gets near 20ppm of nitrate. Unfortunately having 10ppm of nitrate in your tap makes larger, more frequent PWCs necessary.

 

[rjcatlin]

Ok, I get your drift. My tank is 60 gal. Is there something I can do to make it so I don't have nitrate at all, filter element, etc?

 

[Luna112]

Nitrate is the end product of the nitrogen cycle. Having no nitrate means that there is no cycle going on. You are always going to have nitrates. The simplest solution is to do water changes every week. Try to use prime in the water from the well. Add it in the water you are going to use to do the water change.

Sent from my iPhone

 

[rjcatlin]

What do you mean by prime?

 

[mfdrookie516]

I'm going to guess by you mentioning fluval that you have a canister filter? If so, I guarantee that's where your nitrates are coming from. When I first started my african tank, I was new to canisters. I didn't realize they needed to be cleaned out every other week. If you're not rinsing the media off and cleaning the sponges out, you're going to have nitrate issues. Don't replace the media or sponges, just rinse them out in a bucket of water you take out during a PWC.

Prime is a de-chlorinator. If you're using well water, my guess is you don't use a de-chlor. It definitely won't hurt, but it's not going to remove nitrates. It will take care of heavy metals, but that doesn't seem to be a concern at this point.

50% weekly PWC's are definitely a good idea. I do 50% in all of my tanks weekly. I have a 150g and a 40g, and am setting up a 125g. Sure it's a lot of water, but clean water is the absolute best thing possible for your fish, along with a good quality food like NLS.

Also, ditch the carbon. Unless you have a bad smell or are removing meds from the tank, it's not needed. It stops working after a week or so, and eventually just starts leeching whatever it absorbs right back in to the tank. A waste of money IMO.

 

[BigJim]

There are other ways to control nitrates, but they're less predictable than PWCs.

- Live plants will use nitrates for food. Some, like water sprite, absolutely suck up nitrates.

- There are bacteria that eat nitrates, much like the beneficial bacteria you currently have for ammonia and nitrite. The difference is the nitrate bacteria are anaerobic and need a low-oxygen environment. Research "deep sand bed filtering". It's more common in the SW side, but it will work the same for a FW tank. Stirring up a deep sand bed can poison your tank though.

- There are chemical denitrators. I know very little about these because I don't like using extra chemicals if I don't have to.

 

[rjcatlin]

I think I will stick with pwc's for now. I do need to add some argonite to help keep my pH up.