serious question about nitrates

[Gingimaru]

no they didnt suggest that. my main suggestions have been RO water, or like a nitrate absorber (not sure what) other than the the only other suggestion was these
Evolution Aqua Pure Aquarium Balls
but they dont actuakyy lower nitrates.

i'm just gonna live with 2-4 PWC a week (around 20% or so) and just keep that up to keep everything nice and level

 

[Terrance]

Product appears to have a nice sales pitch, but it appears to be junk. If the bacteria is "live", then they would starve and die. Product says that it can reMove organic waste, but manufacterer website does not go into detail as to how that works.

The bloodworm juices will become organic waste. Its a big source of water pollution if thawed in tank.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

no they didnt suggest that. my main suggestions have been RO water, or like a nitrate absorber (not sure what) other than the the only other suggestion was these
Evolution Aqua Pure Aquarium Balls
but they dont actuakyy lower nitrates.

i'm just gonna live with 2-4 PWC a week (around 20% or so) and just keep that up to keep everything nice and level

Unfortunately it looks like I have to live with that as well. Oh well I have a good method of doing it so its become a quick process. Good luck.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

Product appears to have a nice sales pitch, but it appears to be junk. If the bacteria is "live", then they would starve and die. Product says that it can reMove organic waste, but manufacterer website does not go into detail as to how that works.

The bloodworm juices will become organic waste. Its a big source of water pollution if thawed in tank.

Im sure like any food it will become organic waste. However, I don't believe it has the same impact as leftover flake or pellet food and I have not been able to find any information internet wide that says its harmful if not defrosted first. In fact every instructional site I found about feeding frozen food says once do not fully defrost cube just make it mushy and put it in the tank. They also talk about fish getting nutrients from the entire cube. Don't forget fish do absorb through the skin. Maybe not food but other stuff like medications and vitamins. I believe everyone has misunderstood the real reason for partial defrost and that is th sensitive stomach of the fish to cold foods. That is why I do a partial defrost. And sometimes I do defrost my brine shrimp and feed through a turkey baster otherwise they sink to fast and nobody gets any except my low swimmers. But some made assumptions and didn't bother to ask how I feed and made judgements instead. And it was totally off topic. My main question was weather my bio filter could be the cause.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

Im sure like any food it will become organic waste. However, I don't believe it has the same impact as leftover flake or pellet food and I have not been able to find any information internet wide that says its harmful if not defrosted first. In fact every instructional site I found about feeding frozen food says once do not fully defrost cube just make it mushy and put it in the tank. They also talk about fish getting nutrients from the entire cube. Don't forget fish do absorb through the skin. Maybe not food but other stuff like medications and vitamins. I believe everyone has misunderstood the real reason for partial defrost and that is th sensitive stomach of the fish to cold foods. That is why I do a partial defrost. And sometimes I do defrost my brine shrimp and feed through a turkey baster otherwise they sink to fast and nobody gets any except my low swimmers. But some made assumptions and didn't bother to ask how I feed and made judgements instead. And it was totally off topic. My main question was weather my bio filter could be the cause.

Thanks everyone who provided constructive criticism and helped me find the cause.

 

[Gingimaru]

No worries at all fella. We've been working ages to try get our tank settled and working well. Gonna get a new filter at the weekend because the current one doesn't seem to clean detritus out of the water that well. There's always loads of crap all over the shop so this weekend a nice big clean, new filter on and hopefully our tank should be a perfect lil home for our Betta, snail and shrimps.

I realise I've said we and our a lot. It's mine and my girlfriends tank

 

[Alkane]

Hey Lifeoffroad,

Terrance was a little too straight forward when stating that you overfeed, but I do somewhat agree having kept reef tanks that require pristine water.

I don't see it as overfeeding so much as just feeding more often. The fish like it Some people enjoy feeding their fish more regularly which is usually* just fine as long as they don't over pollute the tank while doing so.

The truth is many fish can go for up to 2 weeks possibly longer without being fed. I have seen more fish die from feeding too much than not enough.

I also agree that there is a lot of organic waste and oils or "soup" in frozen foods such as brineshrimp, bloodworms, mixed foods..ect. The amount of "soup" is usually less with higher quality foods. I have always rinsed my frozen food with a small fish net then added it to the tank.

If you are truly having a nitrate problem in your tank (its not the test kit) and have nitrates in your tap as well... then I would recommend reduce the amount and/or frequency of feeding. If you are totally opposed to that then just keep doing large water changes. You could also buy bottled water or distilled water from the store and mix it with your tap.

Also have you considered live plants?

Anyways good luck! I'm in no way trying to tell you what you are doing is wrong, just sharing my personal experience

 

[Lifeoffroad]

Hey Lifeoffroad,

Terrance was a little too straight forward when stating that you overfeed, but I do somewhat agree having kept reef tanks that require pristine water.

I don't see it as overfeeding so much as just feeding more often. The fish like it Some people enjoy feeding their fish more regularly which is usually* just fine as long as they don't over pollute the tank while doing so.

The truth is many fish can go for up to 2 weeks possibly longer without being fed. I have seen more fish die from feeding too much than not enough.

I also agree that there is a lot of organic waste and oils or "soup" in frozen foods such as brineshrimp, bloodworms, mixed foods..ect. The amount of "soup" is usually less with higher quality foods. I have always rinsed my frozen food with a small fish net then added it to the tank.

If you are truly having a nitrate problem in your tank (its not the test kit) and have nitrates in your tap as well... then I would recommend reduce the amount and/or frequency of feeding. If you are totally opposed to that then just keep doing large water changes. You could also buy bottled water or distilled water from the store and mix it with your tap.

Also have you considered live plants?

Anyways good luck! I'm in no way trying to tell you what you are doing is wrong, just sharing my personal experience

I totally understand and can accept your feedback way easier as you are providing information and or other possabilities. I really don't believe I am over feeding though. 2 cubes in one feeding is gone in about 1 minute. I also feed on the side with my strongest filter so whatever is left of the cube is typically sucked in or falls the the bottom where the corys and pleaco come a eat it. And as I previously stated sometimes one whole cube ia eaten by one fish! I think I may have just been performing to small of water changes. I think a %20 isn't enough considering the feeding and waste. I am going to up the size and will let everyone know. Also consider the filtration I have. Its a lot! So waste and food soup are sucked in pretty fast. If I see a bunch a poop from the pleaco usually I suck it out with a gravel cleaner so nothing sits long. I believe the larger changes will do the trick since my tap water has higher nitrates in it.

 

[Alkane]

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Just remember that unless you are using chemical filtration (like carbon) all of the fish waste and left over food will be converted into nitrates and will only be removed with water changes or plants, the gph of your filtration won't make a difference. It has to be removed from the system.

This brings up another option using GAC (granular activated carbon) which will reduce nitrates. A tip for using GAC is to use less and change it more often (once every 2 weeks). Check out Purigen too.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Just remember that unless you are using chemical filtration (like carbon) all of the fish waste and left over food will be converted into nitrates and will only be removed with water changes or plants, the gph of your filtration won't make a difference. It has to be removed from the system.

This brings up another option using GAC (granular activated carbon) which will reduce nitrates. A tip for using GAC is to use less and change it more often (once every 2 weeks). Check out Purigen too.

Im using carbon. I would never not use carbon. I am back to normal levels. I cleaned my biofilter did another 40% water change and everything is good. I have thought about adding those ganulars to one of my biotrays but I haven't seen much of a difference in the past using one. So I guess the outcome of this is I will be doing larger water changes weekly to make up for my tap water that is high in nitrates.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

Okay guys so now I really don't know what to do. I cleaned my biofilter. Changed the water almost everyday and reduced feeding to once a day inly two cubes and yes I defrosted them first just to see if it made a difference. Oh and those water changes included gravel vacuums. My nitrates are lower and seem to be in a " safe" range but they are still high to me. I can help but believe its the leftover snail shells in the tank from the loaches.

What's a guy ti do next? There's no way I can rely on bottled water to change a 55 gallon tank. And this was never an issue before.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

I know they sell the nitrate removers nit in chemical form but by mechanical filtration, foam pads fill with something, or media placed in the top of a filter similar to the carbon pouches. These worth anything? Maybe I ought to try one. Kent makes some granular media that gets good reviews.

 

[Terrance]

So what's the nitrAte reading after the water change and before you do a water change for the following week? What is the tap's nitrAte reading?

 

[Lifeoffroad]

So what's the nitrAte reading after the water change and before you do a water change for the following week? What is the tap's nitrAte reading?

Ill have to get back to you on that but I know it gas hone down significantly. Its in the orange but I forgot the numbers and im not home. I will post when I return.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

So what's the nitrAte reading after the water change and before you do a water change for the following week? What is the tap's nitrAte reading?

Okay im going to have to guess at some of these cause I didn't write them down.

When it was high I would say it was 80 or a dark 80. It wasn't really 160 cause there's seem to be a color change there which didn't take place. It is now between 5.0 and 10 probably closer to 10. I would say the tap water is the same between 5.0 and 10 but closer to 5.0. Here's the thing when it turned red it was orange first for at least a good minute or two. Then it turned red. That's why I originally asked.

 

[Aspencer]

The test for NitrAte says to wait for 3 minutes before taking a read...

I was testing a friends tank yesterday and it took a minute for the green to register for ammonia

 

[Lifeoffroad]

The test for NitrAte says to wait for 3 minutes before taking a read...

I was testing a friends tank yesterday and it took a minute for the green to register for ammonia

Yeah that's what I thought. Oh well it remains light orange now. The ammonia and nitrites remained at 0.

 

[Pton46]

I know they sell the nitrate removers nit in chemical form but by mechanical filtration, foam pads fill with something, or media placed in the top of a filter similar to the carbon pouches. These worth anything? Maybe I ought to try one. Kent makes some granular media that gets good reviews.

Have you looked at maybe Trying SeaChem Purgen

Purigen® controls ammonia, nitrites and nitrates by removing nitrogenous organic waste that would otherwise release these harmful compounds. Purigen’s™ impact on trace elements is minimal.

From their website.

 

[Pton46]

Reason, I ask because I have higher than I would like Nitrates in my tap, and was getting high reads. My Tap starts at 10ppm, so I was doing 3 PWC a week(50%) , to keep it under 40ppm. Once I added the Purgen & Matrix I'm down to one to 50% and one mini 20% on the 1/2 way point. Even so it is probably just me keeping the schedule since a couple times I was way under on the mini PWC it took a month though....

 

[Lifeoffroad]

Reason, I ask because I have higher than I would like Nitrates in my tap, and was getting high reads. My Tap starts at 10ppm, so I was doing 3 PWC a week(50%) , to keep it under 40ppm. Once I added the Purgen & Matrix I'm down to one to 50% and one mini 20% on the 1/2 way point. Even so it is probably just me keeping the schedule since a couple times I was way under on the mini PWC it took a month though....

That sounds cool. Id prefer to get some sort of media that goes in the filters to reduce it. Or maybe plants are the way to go. Thanks for the info though I will look into that stuff.