High NO3 Levels

[cpm05799]

Hello!

My tank has had high NO3 levels for the past two weeks and I am struggling to get them down.

My tank is 200 litres and contains 2 mollies, 1 black widow tetra, 1 silver tipped tetra, 1 catfish and 3 leopard corydora's. It has sand on the bottom (which gets agitated when cleaning) along with a few plants and ornaments.

After testing I did a 15% water change and tested the day after and the levels had not gone down. A week of doing this and they have gone down but not to where they should be. Yesterday I cleaned the filter as well (it was in desperate need of doing - it could not have been left). When I do a water change I siphon the water and use the pipe to clear out the faeces on the bottom of the tank.

I have tested my tap water directly and it is at number 1. The levels have gone from 80 to 30, I had hoped they would have gone completely after the week. I use the JBL combiset kit.

Is the water change enough? Should I be doing a bigger water change? Also, any recommendations on fish would be appreciated, I have been thinking about extra corydora's and guppies. I am aware my tank is understocked, however, I am reluctant to put new fish in until this is under control.

Sorry for all the information but any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am at my wits end and starting to worry about my aquarium.

Many, many thanks in advance.

 

[Caliban07]

Hello!

My tank has had high NO3 levels for the past two weeks and I am struggling to get them down.

My tank is 200 litres and contains 2 mollies, 1 black widow tetra, 1 silver tipped tetra, 1 catfish and 3 leopard corydora's. It has sand on the bottom (which gets agitated when cleaning) along with a few plants and ornaments.

After testing I did a 15% water change and tested the day after and the levels had not gone down. A week of doing this and they have gone down but not to where they should be. Yesterday I cleaned the filter as well (it was in desperate need of doing - it could not have been left). When I do a water change I siphon the water and use the pipe to clear out the faeces on the bottom of the tank.

I have tested my tap water directly and it is at number 1. The levels have gone from 80 to 30, I had hoped they would have gone completely after the week. I use the JBL combiset kit.

Is the water change enough? Should I be doing a bigger water change? Also, any recommendations on fish would be appreciated, I have been thinking about extra corydora's and guppies. I am aware my tank is understocked, however, I am reluctant to put new fish in until this is under control.

Sorry for all the information but any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am at my wits end and starting to worry about my aquarium.

Many, many thanks in advance.

Hello

I think you may be overreacting slightly. 80ppm and 30ppm is not high nitrate levels at all.

I dose around 30ppm every week just in potassium nitrate for my plants, that is without what is being produced by the fish.

Also nitrate test kits are very unreliable and inaccurate.

Nitrates will not go away they can just be kept low via water changes. High nitrate means lots of ammonia oxidation. Which means lots of oxygen consumption. Keeping the tank and filters clean will maintain efficiency of the biological filter and prevent anaerobic conditions caused by clogged and dirty sponges. So cleaning the filter is a good thing.

How are you fish acting? Have you tested for ammonia and nitrite?


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[TMaier]

How high is bad?


29g fresh with Betta, Kuhli's, Neons, Denison Barbs, ADF, Mystery and Nerite Snails.

Some plants: Anubias, Java Fern, mosses and other misc.

 

[cpm05799]

Hello,

Thanks for your response!

All my other tests are really low - at the very bottom of the spectrum. Just the NO3 is in the red.

The fish seem to be happy - although my mollies have black eyes which is a bit worrying.

Someone did suggest doing a 50% water change on them but that seems like a lot and I don't want to shock them.

I have tested the water before and the levels were very low - I live in Derbyshire where the water is very soft, KH test always comes out at 1 because there is no hardness in the water.

Thanks again!

 

[Caliban07]

How high is bad?


29g fresh with Betta, Kuhli's, Neons, Denison Barbs, ADF, Mystery and Nerite Snails.

Some plants: Anubias, Java Fern, mosses and other misc.

This really depends on the species and exposure time. Little has been done on warm water fish. But there is a suggestion from a study that an upper limit of 90mg N-NO3/l is a recommended. To obtain NO3 from N-NO3 you times by 4.4 so we are in the few hundred range.

Apparently warm water fishes have better tolerance towards high levels of nitrate. There is a study showing guppy fry up in the 800-900ppm no3 range before 50% deaths occur.

There's tons of studies on this mainly for cold water granted but after you read a few your fear of nitrates become somewhat subdued.

There is a member on an aquatic plant society forum in the UK that had been dosing 10x EI levels for weeks before they realised....no effect on fish.

Ask yourself. What do you class as high nitrate? And why? ?

Keeping an aquarium clean is good for many reasons. I overlooked this when trying the Walstad method and I lost some fish. And while I agree with most of the principles in her book, I'm not sure I agree with the no water changes no filtration policy knowing what I know now. Even she has retracted some of this to a certain extent.

Water changes should always be advocated which lowers nitrates anyway. But when we hold a regurgitated view on toxicity of nitrate and recommend levels without ever looking in to it we end up with confused panicking hobbyists that rely on inaccurate test kits and ignore what your eyes are telling you. The fish seem fine. They are eating, swimming, breeding in many cases yet we look at a little tube that goes red and immediately assume our fish are in danger.

This industry loves scaremongering because it sells useless products. Water changes are free and so were our eyeballs better to go down this route in my opinion. ?



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[Caliban07]

Hello,



Thanks for your response!



All my other tests are really low - at the very bottom of the spectrum. Just the NO3 is in the red.



The fish seem to be happy - although my mollies have black eyes which is a bit worrying.



Someone did suggest doing a 50% water change on them but that seems like a lot and I don't want to shock them.



I have tested the water before and the levels were very low - I live in Derbyshire where the water is very soft, KH test always comes out at 1 because there is no hardness in the water.



Thanks again!

50% should be ok but if you are unsure just do 30%. I did 50% last night on my tank.

Check your tap water and see if the tube turns red or better still have a look at your average nitrate level from your water quality report to see if it's coming from the tap.

Over feeding can increase nitrates/lack of water changes and cleaning also.

I live in Lancashire and also have very soft water. If you are worried then you can add crushed coral to your filter that will raise KH.

I don't use coral and inject carbon which sometimes lowers my ph to close to 6.0. Then a few hours after lights are go of its around 7.2. My fish are swimming in 30ish ppm nitrate and a triple dose of phosphate/ potassium and trace elements all dosed dry with close to 6ml of liquid carbon daily and I change 50% water once sometimes twice a week.

I haven't lost a single fish or shrimp while doing this.


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[cpm05799]

50% should be ok but if you are unsure just do 30%. I did 50% last night on my tank.

Check your tap water and see if the tube turns red or better still have a look at your average nitrate level from your water quality report to see if it's coming from the tap.

Over feeding can increase nitrates/lack of water changes and cleaning also.

I live in Lancashire and also have very soft water. If you are worried then you can add crushed coral to your filter that will raise KH.

I don't use coral and inject carbon which sometimes lowers my ph to close to 6.0. Then a few hours after lights are go of its around 7.2. My fish are swimming in 30ish ppm nitrate and a triple dose of phosphate/ potassium and trace elements all dosed dry with close to 6ml of liquid carbon daily and I change 50% water once sometimes twice a week.

I haven't lost a single fish or shrimp while doing this.


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Thank you so much for all your help - I may leave it a few days to let everything settle and try a larger water change if things still don't look right. It's been more the black eyes on the mollies that have been concerning me - I had read this was due to high NO3 levels

 

[Caliban07]

Thank you so much for all your help - I may leave it a few days to let everything settle and try a larger water change if things still don't look right. It's been more the black eyes on the mollies that have been concerning me - I had read this was due to high NO3 levels

How you getting on?


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