keeping nitrates down

[flitabout]

I have been having a heck of a time keeping my nitrates under control. After much water testing I know that part of my issue was my tap water so I started using a 50% RO water mix. A few weeks ago when I realized that the nitrates in my tap were 40ppm. So I was only bringing them down to 20ppm with water changes. So as you can imagine while the plants might think it's paradise, by the end of the week my nitrates where back up to 30ppm. So I went to 100% RO water last week using that with a 50% water got my nitrates down to 5ppm. I figured that this would keep it down to a manageable level in between water changes. This morning I did my pre-water change testing and my nitrates is now at 40ppm. Which in my opinion isn't the worst thing ever but it really doesn't make me happy. I cut down on feedings about 3 weeks ago and I am only feeding every other day. I remove dead plant material anytime I see it. So I am kind of at a loss as to why it is rising this much this fast. I vacuum as much as I can without uprooting plants when I do my water changes. I shake any yucky stuff out of the filter cartridges in old tank water I have quite a few plants to help use the nitrates But I am still ending up with very high nitrates at the end of every week.
Up until yesterday I only had
3 otos
5 cardinal tetras
8 small platy fry
5 assassin snails
pond and ramshorn snails
The platys and the otos will be going to my daughters' tank soon. Yesterday I added
2 quarter size angels
1 GBR
3 cardinal tetras
1 neon tetra (I realized I had a neon in my batch when I got home!)
My plants are:
3 swords a foot tall
5 Ludwigia small
a bunch of Telenatheta cardinalis maybe 30 it was 1 of the petsmart packs
dwarf hair grass 17 bunches and spreading fast.
Staurogyne repens 18 bunches also spreading fast
3 Cryptocoryne Balansae
9 Wisteria 3 of which are massive and about a foot tall, 3 around 6+ inches
2 anubias
2 bunches of windlov Java fern
Lots of water lettuce
3 golden pothos growing out of the top with roots submerged
1 philodendron growing out the top with roots submerged
6 Wandering Jew cuttings growing in an old filter cartridge that I cleaned and cut to hang in on of the HOBs
I have more plants coming in this week too.
I am dosing until my PPS-Pro gets here with
flourish comp 1ml a day
flourish root tabs
glut 1ml per gallon daily
and DIY co2 at 2pps.
I have 4 T5ho going for 5 hours a day
The fish are fed 4 days a week frozen brine shrimp, algae wafers, HBH baby bites, and omega one flake and the new fish are getting Aqueon cichlid pellets. I have been feeding 1 type of food on feeding days and rotating romain, spinach, and zucchini for the otos and platys.
The rest of my levels are all good.
So what am I doing wrong and what can I do to fix the problem?

 

[molliwopp]

40ppm before a water change IMO is nothing I would personally worry about and I may get some stick for saying that. A lot of people like to keep their nitrates below 10-20. Only nitrates above 40ppm in FW start ringing my bells, if it were a saltwater reef tank then my response would be different.

also the average test kit will struggle to indicate an accurate reading, a 20ppm reading could be closer to 10 or 30. i have this problem with my api liquid test all the time and almost bought an electronic nitrate reader only afew weeks ago.

How often are you cleaning your pre filters for debris? anything in the tank hidden and rotting will increase nitrates rapidly.

 

[Old Scales]

+1 on the dirty filter media. If you have tap that starts out at 40ppm, I suggest using some type of nitrate removing media packet in your filter. It's a PITA, but with that bad of tap it would be a benefit. Good luck. OS.

 

[gravereaper0]

40ppm is OK don't lose any sleep over it. Sometime I'll get lazy and do a WC every other week n @ that point my nitrates are almost @100ppm with no ill effects

 

[Rivercats]

The ram, tetra's, and angelfish but especially the ram needs 20ppm or lower in nitrates. You want at least 10ppm for plants. I run most all my tanks at 10ppm nitrates. Some fish are a lot more sensitive to nitrates than you think. I have dwarf anchor cats which can die very easily if nitrates go above 12.5ppm. With all the plants you have, reduced feeding, and using RO you should be able to keep your tank low. Have you done a 75% RO to 25% Tap? Just curious what the results were. If RO brought your nitrates to 5ppm and they shot back up to 40ppm then there is something in the filter or substrate that has built up and is causing your nitrate problem. What type filter do you have? Does it have bio-media capabilities separate from the mechanical filter pad that you rinse out? Only asking because I am leaning towards your old pad being the problem. I run only canisters so I can clean the sponges and replace polyfill but can leave my bio-media untouched. I overfeed the 220 due to the amount of various fish and my nitrates hang about 10ppm.

 

[flitabout]

No I haven't tried the 75/25 RO I just went straight to RO and then top off every couple of days with the tap. I test my tap every week before I do the water changes hoping I can skip going to the store to get 20g of water and my tap has actually been getting worse. Last time I tested it I had
ammo 2ppm
nitrite 1ppm
nitrate 40ppm
ph 8.2
phosphates 2ppm
I am running 2 topfin 40 HOBs that came with the starter kit. I want to get a canister but I haven't managed to save enough for it after I bought the light powerheads ferts and scale. It has just been sort of slow going putting everything together. So in the mean time to have some bio media I got a the fine mesh bags and put ceramic rings in them and I sort of jimmy rigged it into both filters. They also have a rather larger sponge that is on the clean side of the cartridge. It sounds like the canister needs to be my next purchase. I will just have to keep a really close eye on it until I figure out what where the nitrate is coming from.

 

[gravereaper0]

That ammo is up there

 

[flitabout]

**** that ammo is up there

It's bad enough I refuse to drink it let alone use it in my tank. But its great for clean although I do have to wonder about the clorine and the ammo in the water. Last I checked that makes a poisonous gas.