Hi fish people I have been suffering with high nitrates for some time now my tap water reads 40ppm plus so that's one problem the next problem is I can't get my nitrates below 80ppm I have plants I do water changes every week the tank is 9months old now the water looks great but i do lose the odd fish but I am worried I mite lose some of my big fish in the future. Anyone else here experienced the same problem and sorted it ??
Nitrates problem
- Thread starter brew86uk
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
***********************************************
Hi brew86uk:
How heavily stocked is your tank? What is your feeding regimen like? Is there any chance you're overfeeding? When doing your water changes, do you vacuum your substrate? Do you rinse your mechanical filter media periodically?
Given that you have nitrate in your tap water, you might consider one of those chemical filter media that pull nitrate out of the water (Kent makes one called Nitrate Sponge, and there are others).
Hi there I feed my fish on prima once a day and i feed my pleco cucumber once every other day I have a pleco 7"" in size ghost fish 5"" and the other fish are about 1/2"" in size I have 14fish in a 45g tank I use a Fulval 206 filter I clean that out every 4/6 weeks and I do a water change once a week 20/25% with a gravel clean
****************************************************
Thanks, brew86uk. Sounds like you're doing everything right. As I said in my other message, you might want to consider trying one of those ion-exchange resin media to see if it might help drop the nitrates somewhat for you. I've never used them myself but there are undoubtedly others in the forum who have and who could give you more detailed suggestions about using it.
If nitrates are that high out of the tap I suggest find a better water source , that would be priority , cut back on feedings change your cleaning schedule on filter cut back from 4 to 6 weeks to every 2 . larger water changes 50% I would try distilled water but check it first till you can find a better water source . maybe purchase a house water filtration system
Plecos are big waste causing polluters. Probably good to get the Nitra-Zorb
Welcome to API Fishcare: NITRA-ZORB®
Look into a larger tank and up the water change amounts and frequency. 40 is better than 80ppm...
Also perhaps pretreat a trash can amount of water at time with the Nitra-Zorb and also run it in the tank.
Otherwise the RO unit might help, or a good filter and filter a trashcan amount of water at a time. Of course depends how much money and space you have for that. There are those rings with wheels for rolling the trash cans around that they sit on.
You can try feeding less but divide it into or 3 feeding times so the fish eat the food faster since there is less and then less to rot.
Not familiar with that food, is it flake? Flake always is a quick change to ammonia and so on to nitrate. Even high protein /or high quality foods can be quick changing into ammonia. I have that problem with one of my foods, usually use Hikari for the staple, but I feeds lots of different foods to go along with it.
Welcome to API Fishcare: NITRA-ZORB®
Look into a larger tank and up the water change amounts and frequency. 40 is better than 80ppm...
Also perhaps pretreat a trash can amount of water at time with the Nitra-Zorb and also run it in the tank.
Otherwise the RO unit might help, or a good filter and filter a trashcan amount of water at a time. Of course depends how much money and space you have for that. There are those rings with wheels for rolling the trash cans around that they sit on.
You can try feeding less but divide it into or 3 feeding times so the fish eat the food faster since there is less and then less to rot.
Not familiar with that food, is it flake? Flake always is a quick change to ammonia and so on to nitrate. Even high protein /or high quality foods can be quick changing into ammonia. I have that problem with one of my foods, usually use Hikari for the staple, but I feeds lots of different foods to go along with it.
I forgot, Matrix, it is a good product for a filter, I use it, provides maximum amount of surface area for biological filtration. Which reminds me I need some for my other tank!
Do you dose ferts for the plants? If so what kind?
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Nitrates up, pH and total alkalinity down
- Latest: Airborne 82nd
-