High Nitrates

[Saber71]

I have a six gallon tank with three tetras and one silver moon. I've had the acquarium for just over a month now and have been dealing with incredibly high Nitrate levels, from 40 to 80. I can't seem to get them down. I do a 20 percent water change every week and just did a 50 percent change two days ago. I tested today and it's at 80 ppm. I added a plant this week hoping to make a difference, but nothing yet. I am in definite need of some help here. I turn the light on during the day (about eight hours) and then off for the rest of the time. I am considering leaving the light on to increase algae growth. Any helpful ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Shane

 

[jlk]

Welcome to AA!! First, start by testing your tap water for nitrate. Quite a few people have nitrate in their tap water. Assuming theres low or no nitrate in your tap, you simply need to increase your water changes. I would start with 50% daily until you are able to bring your nitrates under control then monitor your tank conditions closely and do 50% wcs once a week or anytime you start to see the levels rise. Also make sure you are only feeding what your fish can eat in a minute or less and there is no leftover food in the tank. Reducing feeding to every other day until the nitrate situation is under control will help as well.

 

[Saber71]

Hi JLK, just tested my tap water and it's at about 15 ppm. That sucks. I guess I'll just have to start filtering my water before I do my changes. Thanks for advice.

 

[jlk]

15ppm in your tap is not horrible. It just means your going to have to work a bit harder to keep your nitrate levels in check than someone with zero nitrates. I have around 10ppm in my tap as do many others- it just means more frequent and bigger water changes. Fast growing plants are a big help too.The other alternative is considering either some type filtration media to reduce nitrates or an alternative/filtered water source.

 

[Rivercats]

In such a small tank you could cut your tap water with RO water, a 50 tap to 50 RO mix, to reduce your WC water to a nitrate level of 7ppm's which is much better. Or if you want you could do 25% tap to 75% RO to get WC water to only 3.5ppm of nitrates. I do this in my nano tanks.