water hardness

[Milan]

Based on the parameters you posted, what you really need is a PWC. 80ppm for nitrate is high. It should be arround 10ppm, if i'm not mistaken. Here is the link to information on how to quickly deal with elevated nitrate leves.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/nitratecontrol/l/aa091901.htm

 

[greenmaji]

It is advisable to never let Nitrate get above 40ppm.. but keeping it below 20ppm... a drop from 80 to 10 sounds stressfull to me.. sounds like you need multiple water changes to bring it down to 10 or less... do not try to get it down to 0 though, that is too many or too big water changes to try to keep maintaining..

 

[Milan]

Here is the quote from the article:

Some people have expressed concern that the rapid reduction of nitrates would "shock" the tank critters. This is an understandable concern, but under the circumstances wouldn't you think that the rapid reduction of potentially harmful toxins in a tank to be of the utmost importance, and a lot less harmless? It would be like standing in a closed garage with a car engine running, filling the garage with carbon monoxide, and someone telling you not to open the garage door; that the rapid reduction in carbon monoxide levels would in some way be more harmful to you than only reducing their levels by 20%. If it was me in that situation, I would kick the door open as far as it would go.

I'm leaning toward this approach. 80 ppm seems to me high enough to act radically. Small water change would do very little.

 

[greenmaji]

I was refering to smaller that the 80% needed to get it down to 10... I was trying to advise getting it down to 40 first.. and they are refering to ammonia and nitrite.. these are poison like carbon monoxide.. If you feel like nitrate is poision then your slowly killing your fish with a bacterial filter and need to move to a plant based filter.. like a algae scrubber.. were you can maintain 0 nitrate..

 

[Milan]

I don't think they are talking about nitrites and ammonia, but nitrates ... if you read the article.

One way or another, the bottom line to our fella zach119 is to forget the hardness and focus on real issue. I hope he is already acting ...

 

[greenmaji]

I don't think they are talking about nitrites and ammonia, but nitrates ... if you read the article.

One way or another, the bottom line to our fella zach119 is to forget the hardness and focus on real issue. I hope he is already acting ...

LOL.. changing focus is more important!!! LOL..