Late night brainstom!! Filter media HELP!!

[Camogirl28]

I have really high nitrates and a 0.25 ammonia spike. Like I said late night idea so I have the region white filter bag if I put in the reg little bag of carbon then 1/4 cup Zeolite for ammonia then 1/4 cup of the Nitra-Zorb will this work or is it dangerous

 

[Khuligirl93]

Just do big water changes. That's the simplest solution.

 

[threnjen]

she has really high nitrates out of the tap.

There are a lot of threads now and it's getting really confusing, Camogirl I would stick with one primary thread so that people aren't inadvertently telling you info that won't work (like if we followed your other thread we know your nitrates are too high from tap, but someone just coming to this thread doesn't know that)

As for the additives, is that above the recommended amount? I would put in whatever the manufacturer recommends for your tank size, sounds good

 

[threnjen]

Actually I LOVE what Mebbid suggested in the other thread:

per Mebbid:
chips that you stick in a media bag in your filter. They will remove both ammonia and nitrate from your water supply. I've never personally used it but it's probably the easiest course of action for you. You could run the chips in a HOB filter on a garbage can or similarly sized container that you can use for water changes. It will pull the nitrate out of your water before it goes into your aquarium. This is the method that I personally would choose out of my three suggestions."

Treating the water before it goes in with the zeolite is a great idea!

 

[Mebbid]

Actually I LOVE what Mebbid suggested in the other thread:

per Mebbid:
chips that you stick in a media bag in your filter. They will remove both ammonia and nitrate from your water supply. I've never personally used it but it's probably the easiest course of action for you. You could run the chips in a HOB filter on a garbage can or similarly sized container that you can use for water changes. It will pull the nitrate out of your water before it goes into your aquarium. This is the method that I personally would choose out of my three suggestions."

Treating the water before it goes in with the zeolite is a great idea!

Except that zeolite is the wrong addition I suggested to add I threw out some other medias such as Seachem's de nitrate that should do the job though.

 

[Alan79]

I have plans to try and recycle my tank water by running it through an aquaponics setup after i do WC to filter out any nutrients. I have yet to set this up though so i don't know if it will work. If you were able to buy some Pothos vine i have heard it is great for removing nitrate. Just leave the roots submerged in your tap water for a while and it will work it's magic. I cannot confirm if this would do the trick either

 

[Mebbid]

I have plans to try and recycle my tank water by running it through an aquaponics setup after i do WC to filter out any nutrients. I have yet to set this up though so i don't know if it will work. If you were able to buy some Pothos vine i have heard it is great for removing nitrate. Just leave the roots submerged in your tap water for a while and it will work it's magic. I cannot confirm if this would do the trick either

The pothos vine is a good option but I am not sure if it will manage to do the job by itself.

 

[Delapool]

I think nitra-zorb was mentioned in the other post? I've used API nitra-zorb which is meant to remove ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Seemed to work. Reading the packet, it says can be used whenever ammonia or nitrite is detected or whenever nitrate is above 20ppm. Recharge is with a salt solution. Replace pouch after 2 months (I'm not sure how long you can keep re-charging though as I only got it for a QT). It doesn't do anaerobic nitrate removal though compared to the Seachem denitrate.

 

[flitabout]

How about wisteria? I am cycling a tank right now and every morning for the last few days my nitrite and nitrate have been off the charts. Except this morning. My nitrates have apparently dropped from 160+ to today it was down to 80ppm. Nitrite is still off the charts again today. The only thing I did differently was that I added a crap load of Wisteria that I am floating. Maybe that will help.

 

[Mebbid]

You would have to float it to get much use out of it. Wisteria is a heavy root feeder so won't normally pull things out of the water column. Anacharis, water sprite, and duckweed are some of the best choices.

 

[Mebbid]

If it really comes down to it you can just go with full r/o water and remineralize it. The RO will strip all the nutrients out of the water and will make it too nutrient poor for fish to live in however you can change it to whatever pH level you want to make the water just perfect for your fish.