High Nitrates

[Joe511]

Seeking any advice for high nitrates. I have a 110 gal tank with an eshopps wd125cs wet/dry filter. I have 25 small to mid size mbunas. Tank has been setup for 7 months. I do a 50% water change once a week. I recently noticed my nitrates were at 160ppm, nitrite and ammonia 0. Even after water changes, nitrates would not lower. My tap water tested at 5ppm for nitrates. Tonight I rinsed the bio balls and wet/dry using water from the aquarium to rid any detritus and did a 50% water change. Nitrates still tested at 80ppm. Any advice would be appreciated.


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[dcutl002]

Keep doing the water changes. Place plants in the tank especially fast growing plants i.e. hornwort. If you have a canister filter, place some Seachem Matrix in there.

But hey. 160ppm to 80ppm is an improvement. Try to get the Nitrates to 20ppm or less.

 

[Joe511]

I did forget to mention, I feed NLS pellets, spirulina flakes, and Hikari algae wafers (for synodontis). I tend to feed each food once a day in what I feel is a moderate proportion. I never see any food just sit on the bottom. When the synodontis and mbuna eat the wafers, I do notice quite a bit of floating particulate in the water. Could that be adding to the nitrate problem?


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[Freakgecko91]

Make sure you are testing properly. Shake the nitrate bottles thoroughly and then shake the test tube pretty vigorously. I've seen false readings on nitrates a few times. 160ppm is extremely high and at that concentration is pretty toxic to fish


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[Angela1108]

The floating bits can eventually add to it. I would cut back on the feedings a little bit and keep doing water changes. You might want to consider adding purigen to your filter if you can. It doesn't take out nitrates but it helps catch some of the stuff that become nitrates


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[BBradbury]

Reducing Nitrates

Hello Joe...

A company by the name of Acurel makes a nitrate reducing, cut to fit poly fiber padding for mechanical filters. It may help your nitrate issue. You can also reduce the amount you feed and up the amount of water you change.

B