High nitrates

[WinksFish]

We have done our first water change in 2 weeks because we have a platy that just had some babies. When I checked the water, before the water change, all numbers seemed to be normal except for our nitrates. According to the color chart we are between 20 and 40 ppm. We changed 25% of our water and the filter cartridge. Should we do anything else to get the nitrates down? Or keep an eye on it for another day or 2 and do additional water changes?

 

[bruinsbro1997]

We have done our first water change in 2 weeks because we have a platy that just had some babies. When I checked the water, before the water change, all numbers seemed to be normal except for our nitrates. According to the color chart we are between 20 and 40 ppm. We changed 25% of our water and the filter cartridge. Should we do anything else to get the nitrates down? Or keep an eye on it for another day or 2 and do additional water changes?

No no don't take the cartridges out! Did you cycle the tank before hand? PWC are the best way to get rid of high nitrates.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah I would check the nitrates again after the PWC and proceed accordingly. Give a day to see if the levels drop? So the "first water change in 2 weeks" suggests to me that your tank is not cycled yet? What size tank, other occupants aside from the platy, type of filter?

 

[WinksFish]

Oh we thought that we had to replace the cartridges every month. Is that not the case? We were newbies and have had our tank set up for over 2 months, so we didn't do a fishless cycle. I do test our water every week, with the tubes (not test strips) and up until today it's all been ok.

Should I do another PWC tomorrow? Or wait a few days.

 

[WinksFish]

We have a marine penguin 350 biowheel. We knee we shouldn't change the wheels out but was unaware of the cartridge.

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Yes, you are not supposed to change the cartridges because that is where all the beneficial bacteria live, getting rid of them you will have a mini-cycle on your hands soon, but if it's a big enough tank then PWC every day until it is over should be fine.

 

[WinksFish]

Brian, we didn't do a fishless Cycle but the tank has been up and running for a couple of months.
We have a 55 gallon tank with the following fish:
3 platy
3 gouramis
4 Cory
5 black skirt tetras
@40-50 ghost shrimp

 

[WinksFish]

Yes, you are not supposed to change the cartridges because that is where all the beneficial bacteria live, getting rid of them you will have a mini-cycle on your hands soon, but if it's a big enough tank then PWC every day until it is over should be fine.

Are we nit supposed to ever change the cartridge?

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Are we nit supposed to ever change the cartridge?

Yes, not until they are literally falling apart. Some people still use some from ten years ago. Whenever you do, make sure you have the new cartridge(s) in the filter a month beforehand so they will be seeded with bacteria.

 

[jcolon]

Are we nit supposed to ever change the cartridge?

You only change a filter cartridge when it's literally falling apart ... As bruinsbro1997 said ... that's where a majority of the BB live. When it does come time to replace a disintegrating cartridge, you stuff it in behind the replacement so as the water passes through the old, BB seed the replacement.

When the cartridge gets dirty, simply rinse it using tank water during a PWC. It's important to always keep filter cartridges or other media wet so the bacteria do no dry out and die.

 

[WinksFish]

Thank you for your help.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah these guys are right. I think the "recommended" cartridge changing times are a ploy by the manufacturers for you to go out and spend money on their products... They're like **** drug dealers I tell ya! Haha... But once in a great while I just rinse out my sponge in siphoned out tank water in the bucket for my deeper cleaning than my typical weekly PWC's. You want to keep those BB colonies up and running. Im not too familiar with your filter but if you have the room, you might want to add in some biomax or comparable media product that would support more colonies of BB. Someone can chime in if I'm correct?

Only when my sponge (which is equivalent to the cartridge I believe) is falling apart is when I change it out. My tank is 2 years old and i haven't changed it yet because it's in good shape. The one thing I do change more often is the activated carbon bag. But that's a personal preference because some people don't even use it in their setups. To me, I think it's in my fish's benefit because my tap water in Arizona has a bad TDS reputation so in theory the activated carbon helps to neutralize chemicals found in tap. If you use RO water (which i dont) this wouldn't be an issue.

 

[retireinpi]

I followed the steps below and tested the water after each step to see if it was working and it worked great! Animated Graphic of Rapid Nitrate Reduction
Many people try to reduce their nitrate levels by performing a series of partial (20%) water changes. This will reduce your nitrate (or any other chemical substance) levels, but it is rather inefficient if the object is to reduce the levels to near zero in the shortest period of time as possible, with the least amount of water. On the other hand, if you reduce the level of water in the tank to 20% of normal and then refill the tank to a 40% level, you have already reduced your nitrate levels by half.
If you then refill the tank to the 100% level, your nitrate levels will be 20% of the original level that you started out at. If, on the other hand, you reduce the 40% water level once more to 20% and then refill the tank, you will end up with a nitrate level of 10% of what you started with. Perform the 40% to 20% reduction once more, and you will end up with a nitrate level of 5% of what you started with. Just think about it for a minute. If you started out with a nitrate level of 100 ppm and used this method, your 100 ppm nitrates would be reduced, in a short period of time, to 5 ppm, which is considered, by most, to be an acceptable level even for corals.