Nitrate levels

[bella1234]

I am unable to get my nitrate levels down. All other levels are 0. Ammonia,
nitrite, Ph runs 7.8.

My tank is clear as a bell continuous. I change the water every 2 weeks.
I have tried the nitrate filter, amquel, and am now using cichlid sludge.

Plus the conditioner, de- chlorinate, when changing the water.

I have also used beneficial bacteria additive.

I have researched on line with 2 separate opinions.
Two have stated that Nitrate levels are not harmful to my fish.
I have also read that anything above 20 is harmful.
I have lost 3 fish in a year, some were older fish

I have a 30 gal tank with approximately 12 inches of fish, I have added fish with this high Nitrate level with no problems.

I want to add more fish but do not understand the conflicting information?

Could someone please give me any information, to lower the nitrate or if it is not that harmful.

Thank you

 

[mikem691]

What kind of cichlids are we talking about here. African, South American, central American, Madagascar? Do you know the names?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[bella1234]

African, 2 convicts, 2 peacoks, a vestruvus(i am sure that is spelled incorrectly) it is blue and white striped. A green and yellow sorry dont know its name.

 

[Andy Sager]

I am unable to get my nitrate levels down. All other levels are 0. Ammonia,
nitrite, Ph runs 7.8.

My tank is clear as a bell continuous. I change the water every 2 weeks.
I have tried the nitrate filter, amquel, and am now using cichlid sludge.

Plus the conditioner, de- chlorinate, when changing the water.

I have also used beneficial bacteria additive.

I have researched on line with 2 separate opinions.
Two have stated that Nitrate levels are not harmful to my fish.
I have also read that anything above 20 is harmful.
I have lost 3 fish in a year, some were older fish

I have a 30 gal tank with approximately 12 inches of fish, I have added fish with this high Nitrate level with no problems.

I want to add more fish but do not understand the conflicting information?

Could someone please give me any information, to lower the nitrate or if it is not that harmful.

Thank you

Nitrates in the water don't show as discoloration so the cleanest looking water could have a very high nitrate level. Water changes should however, dilute the nitrate level so unless your water source has nitrates in it, water changes alone should keep the nitrate level down.

That all said, you should have your test equipment checked with another source. I suggest you take a sample of your water into your LFS and check nitrates using your test liquids and theirs. If they come out different, there's the problem. One of you has bad reagents. I will say that Nitrate reagents seem to need extra mixing prior to testing and I have found are prone to going bad faster than the other reagents in a lot of test kit brands. Make sure the reagents are not past their expiration date ( which should be listed somewhere on the bottles.)

Lower Nitrate levels are not harmful to most fish however, higher Nitrates are. Lower vs Higher levels are based on the fish types and not equal for all. If all things are okay with your test kits and water source and nitrate still climbs rather rapidly, I would look into things like over feeding and/or dead fish as the source. Anything that creates Ammonia eventually turns to Nitrates in a tank. If small weekly water changes doesn't help, you are either over stocked or over feeding or over fertilizing or over doing something. Once you know what, you can address the issue.

There is an older product called a "Poly Filter" ( by Poly Bio-Marine Inc.) which I have used for many years. It's a pad that you can fit or cut it to fit into your HOB filters or sumps that removes a number of things including Medications, Ammonia, and Nitrates. If your water source is the problem, you may want to set up one of these filter pads in a filter in a separate container so that it can remove the nitrates prior to you adding the water to your tank.


As for your fish selection, you are mixing African Cichlids with S. American cichlids ( Convicts) and you really shouldn't be. Their dietary requirements as well as water requirements are different and in order to properly keep the one, you are hurting the other. Since the majority of your fish selection seems to be Africans, you may want to remove the Convict(s) and get other Africans to replace them.

Hope this all helps.

 

[bella1234]

Nitrates

Thank you very much.
You have given me a few more things to check. FYI when the fish store tested they got the exact same reading as mine.

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you very much.
You have given me a few more things to check. FYI when the fish store tested they got the exact same reading as mine.

If that was recently, then you need to check your water source both prior to you adding your de-chlorinator and after just to make sure it's not your Nitrate source.