so high level of nitrates won't affect the fish? at least as badly as the other 2?Maybe I should apologise to the guy at least in my head. Thing is pretty much everyone who posts their water parameters here includes nitrate readings, so I figured it's as important. Nonetheless, I guess I just have a natural aversion to sales people. So I always try to do my research beforehand, occasionally it leads me to thinking I know more than I actually do.
another cycling question
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7Enigma
Aquarium Advice Addict
High levels of nitrAtes will affect the fish, its just that they are much less toxic than ammonia and nitrIte, and if regular water changes are performed they should never reach a level where they cause harm to the fish.
Unlike ammonia where 1ppm will begin to damage the gills, 1ppm of nitrAte is harmless (my tap water has between 5 and 20ppm of nitrAte at any given time). You can safely have between 10 and 20ppm of nitrAte in the tank and still not have any detrimental effect on the fish, whereas with ammonia or nitrIte they would all be dead in short order.
The reason we ask for all the readings is to figure out what the problem is and formulate the best strategy for fixing the problem. (Also a large amount of the posts are cycle related and its easy to tell if you have no ammonia, no nitrIte, and a high level of nitrAte present). While high nitrAtes are much less common than ammonia or nitrIte poisoning, if someone new to the board said they only ever topped off the water in their tank, and have had fish for several months in their, we would immediately think a likely problem is the nitrAte and would then want to know the level.
Likewise if a bunch of fish suddenly died, and you had a high nitrIte level but no nitrAtes, you can hypothesize that the nitrIte to nitrAte bacteria have died.
Every circumstance is slightly different, and each possible factor is one more thing to check off if you know its value, and so you can eliminate guesswork, and figure out EXACTLY what the underlying problem is.
Unlike ammonia where 1ppm will begin to damage the gills, 1ppm of nitrAte is harmless (my tap water has between 5 and 20ppm of nitrAte at any given time). You can safely have between 10 and 20ppm of nitrAte in the tank and still not have any detrimental effect on the fish, whereas with ammonia or nitrIte they would all be dead in short order.
The reason we ask for all the readings is to figure out what the problem is and formulate the best strategy for fixing the problem. (Also a large amount of the posts are cycle related and its easy to tell if you have no ammonia, no nitrIte, and a high level of nitrAte present). While high nitrAtes are much less common than ammonia or nitrIte poisoning, if someone new to the board said they only ever topped off the water in their tank, and have had fish for several months in their, we would immediately think a likely problem is the nitrAte and would then want to know the level.
Likewise if a bunch of fish suddenly died, and you had a high nitrIte level but no nitrAtes, you can hypothesize that the nitrIte to nitrAte bacteria have died.
Every circumstance is slightly different, and each possible factor is one more thing to check off if you know its value, and so you can eliminate guesswork, and figure out EXACTLY what the underlying problem is.
