Nitrates wont leave!

[LostLoach]

i have been doing water changes recently like 2 20% or more a week i have a sand bed its a 55g tank and i have one aquaeon HOB filter rated for 55 it has a bag of carbon and bio material and thrn theres another bag of bio material covered with coral bones i put those in there to bring the ph up to neutral and now i just leave them n there for bio material ..is there anyway i can get rid of these nitrates!!?? would another filter help?

 

[mudraker]

Try upping your pwc to 50% until the nitrates are down to where you want.

Another traditional filter will not help but there are some very high end ones that will.

Are you aiming for 0?

 

[Fishguy2727]

What is the nitrate concentration in the tank?
What is the nitrate concentration in your tap water?

 

[Kyler Skipper]

Two words: get plants.

 

[Jason7894561230]

Nitrate isnt bad in the aquarium but sometimes isnt good. The reading will help us.

 

[dkpate]

When my nitrates get above 5 ppm, I clean the filter media in old tank water.

 

[LostLoach]

thank you for the replies i need my test kit back from a friend and then i can give u guys some readings

 

[LostLoach]

i am aiming for as close to 0 as possible..its weird i may just take the water in and have my lfs check it (tap and aquarium) because my set would say its in the eighties but my ish really are all healthy and even the colors on some are the best iv ever seen...

 

[XimeD]

The LFSs I've been to that offer free testing use test-strips if your does too the it is not as accurate as the liquid kit.

+1 on actual test values of both tap and tank water
+1 on getting plants - pennywort and moenywort are nitrate sponges. Lucky bamboo also takes up a lot of nitrates but it is not atrue aquatic and part of it needs to be out of the water or it will eventually die. I have heard of people keeping a small lucky bamboo sticking out of the hob filter for. nitrates

Edit: I just thought about this, do you have the API freshwater master test kit, if so the "all in one" master card is sometimes not printed right. I had an issue with that and thought my nitrates were above 100ppm (I was doing fishless cycling at the time) and I thought the kit could be bad and got an individual one and noticed a significant difference in the color os the individual chart vs the master chart.

 

[Fishguy2727]

Nitrate is a long term problem, so even with very high nitrate you won't see the problems right away. And it is not just the nitrate that is a problem, fish give off growth inhibiting hormones and dissolved organic compounds build up in the tank too. In general these correlate very well with nitrate, but with plants it will be skewed.

Let us know when you get your test kit back.

 

[ejaramillo01]

Another possibility is that your HOB filter is a little small, I know that you said is rated for 55 G and the tank is 55G, but normally the filters are overrated by the manufacturers.
So there is the possibility that will take extra time the growth of the bacterias.

Just my opinion trying to add

 

[aqua7]

I also suggest getting live plants (if you don't already have any) and see how that works out. I'm sure that will help.

 

[beepboop]

I'm only aware of four things that can get rid of nitrates: water changes (which only works if you do it often and your water source doesn't have nitrates), plants, chemi-pure elite (which uses and ion exchange resin to absorb nitrates.) or a denitrator that uses anaerobic bacteria to convert nitrates into nitrogen and oxygen. But, it's an expensive reactor that requires frequent tweaking and the bacteria needs a source of fuel, either sulfur or alcohol. Alternatively, something called Purigen can absorb the fish waste before it breaks down into nitrates, but whatever your nitrate level is at, it would stay there unless you have plants or use chemi-pure elite. I'm going with a plant filter, personally.