help please

[aqua man]

i have a cycled tank which i added live plants to and i am starting java moss. everything as far as water levels go were fine. i even added extra filtration another 40 gallons worth to have a total of 95 gallon of filtration to a 55 gallon tank my nitrites are fine. my ammonia is i think my nitates are rising from 10 to 20 i recently put two small gold gouramis in and two tiny barbs, why is it rising? i just did a water change of about 25% earlier today.

 

[black hills tj]

Which test kit are you using?

More fish produce more waste, obviously. This increase means an increase in ammonia, which increases your nitrites, which, as you can imagine, increase your nitrates. Depending on how heavily the tank is planted, you may not have enough plants to keep the nitrates down. As far as I know, anything below 40 ppm Nitrates is fine.

 

[Purrbox]

Higher bioload means more waste and therefore more Nitrates. Nitrates can be used as a gauge to determine whether or not you need to increase the frequency and/or size of your water changes. While it's normal to see an increase of Nitrates between water changes, if the overall level keeps rising then you know your water changes aren't keeping up.

 

[aqua man]

right know it looks like between 10 and 20 i will wait until next water change in one week to retest by then the issue of new fish should calm down. if it's still climbing do you suggest more frequent water changes? also i tested my tap and it's about 10 on the nitrate scale so i might need a water filter right or am i over doing it?

 

[Purrbox]

It's not at all uncommon to have 10ppm of Nitrate in your tap. It just means that you are unlikely to ever have Nitrate levels below that. It's perfectly safe to have Nitrate levels upto 40ppm.

 

[aqua man]

good looking thanks for the info !!!!

 

[OldMan]

Your nitrates should continue to rise forever unless you have a very heavily planted tank with fast growing plants. The ammonia that your fish produce get converted to nitrites and the nitrites become nitrates. The only way that nitrates go down is when you do a water change or if you have lots of fast growing plants. We try to change enough water often enough to keep the nitrates always less than 40 ppm right before the water change. If your tap water has nitrates in it, like some does, then we change enough water to keep the nitrates no more than 20 ppm higher than the tap water.

 

[aqua man]

looks like im gunna have to do the water changes moe then 20 a week maybe 40 to 50 cant hurt right
?

 

[black hills tj]

looks like im gunna have to do the water changes moe then 20 a week maybe 40 to 50 cant hurt right
?

I like to do 75-90% PWC's on all my tanks every week.

 

[Johnny Tuttle]

At one time, black hills?

I do 40-ish %, and the other day, I was tempted to go 60-ish % but paused at doing that much.

 

[black hills tj]

At one time, black hills?

I do 40-ish %, and the other day, I was tempted to go 60-ish % but paused at doing that much.

As long as you properly dechlorinate your water and the temp is fairly close, there is nothing wrong with doing 95% even. I just stop at 90% because that is when the dorsal fins of my fish start sticking out of the top of the water.