Help! Nitrates always high.

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heidigirl99

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
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91
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Hello all,

(I have posted previously about my albino cichlid Jack and his tank parameters have not changed except for consistently high nitrates ~30/40ppm); anywho, due to the fact I am about to lose my mind regarding this issue I was wondering if anyone has any sound advice regarding tank additions (or the like) which may help to keep his nitrates low. I am doing 40-50 percent WC’s weekly for him.

Thank you so much for any advice!!
 
I know for a while I had high nitrates in my tank too. After a few weeks of trying different things what helped the most was feeding my fish less frequently. I'm not in any way an expert at this kind of thing but it could be something to consider.
 
Is it at those levels immediately before or after a water change?



(Yeah... makes sense what you are getting at.)The readings are after the water change so the nitrates are probably even higher than that. I do feel like I may have been feeding him more of a varied/healthy diet lately to keep away the parasites- but in turn, more food likely settles to the bottom bc Jack is near-blind. He was so great at swiping up the Bug Bites! But not so much with the Spirulina or the other nutritious flakes or crisps. I have four plants in his tank and have ordered four more, but any other suggestions?
 
Nope. Cut down on feeding first to eliminate that as a source. No sense in fighting it on multiple fronts until you eliminate some.
 
Ive been reading some of your other posts on the issue. In summary.

You are cycling a tank with 1 largish fish in a 65 gallon.

You have been seeing lowish amounts of ammonia and been testing with a liquid test (for total ammonia) and also an alert patch (for free ammonia). You seem to understand the difference between those 2 things.

No nitrite and nitrate in the region of 40ppm and 60ppm.

Is that all correct?

One thing i cant see a test for is your tap water.

My hypothesis is that your tap water might be treated with chloramine rather than chlorine. Chloramine starts to break down to chlorine and ammonia once it leaves the tap. The ammonia will be present in a free ammonia/ammonium proportion depending on tank pH and temperature. Your liquid test should read this, your ammonia alert wont if the proportion of free ammonia to ammonium is low due to thevconditions in your tank. Your cycle processes out the ammonia/ammonium, you are now seeing nitrate resulting from low levels of ammonia.

Go and test your tap water, if your liquid test shows little to no total ammonia we can rule out my theory.
 
Ive been reading some of your other posts on the issue. In summary.

You are cycling a tank with 1 largish fish in a 65 gallon.

You have been seeing lowish amounts of ammonia and been testing with a liquid test (for total ammonia) and also an alert patch (for free ammonia). You seem to understand the difference between those 2 things.

No nitrite and nitrate in the region of 40ppm and 60ppm.

Is that all correct?

One thing i cant see a test for is your tap water.

My hypothesis is that your tap water might be treated with chloramine rather than chlorine. Chloramine starts to break down to chlorine and ammonia once it leaves the tap. The ammonia will be present in a free ammonia/ammonium proportion depending on tank pH and temperature. Your liquid test should read this, your ammonia alert wont if the proportion of free ammonia to ammonium is low due to thevconditions in your tank. Your cycle processes out the ammonia/ammonium, you are now seeing nitrate resulting from low levels of ammonia.

Go and test your tap water, if your liquid test shows little to no total ammonia we can rule out my theory.



Good thought. I have tested it in the past and ammonia seemed nonexistent, but I will check again. I have been told by a plumbing source that our water is treated with chlorine versus chloramine.

You are right ... the nitrites are usually 0 and ammonia is 0 with API Master testing kit, but nitrates are usually at least 20–sometimes I can get it close to 10ppm. I don’t know what to do, he is always hungry and I feel like I starve him as it is. He is no longer eating so I’m afraid he has parasites again (3/4th time) I feel so bad for him.
 
Ive been reading some of your other posts on the issue. In summary.

You are cycling a tank with 1 largish fish in a 65 gallon.

You have been seeing lowish amounts of ammonia and been testing with a liquid test (for total ammonia) and also an alert patch (for free ammonia). You seem to understand the difference between those 2 things.

No nitrite and nitrate in the region of 40ppm and 60ppm.

Is that all correct?

One thing i cant see a test for is your tap water.

My hypothesis is that your tap water might be treated with chloramine rather than chlorine. Chloramine starts to break down to chlorine and ammonia once it leaves the tap. The ammonia will be present in a free ammonia/ammonium proportion depending on tank pH and temperature. Your liquid test should read this, your ammonia alert wont if the proportion of free ammonia to ammonium is low due to thevconditions in your tank. Your cycle processes out the ammonia/ammonium, you are now seeing nitrate resulting from low levels of ammonia.

Go and test your tap water, if your liquid test shows little to no total ammonia we can rule out my theory.



64124850435__601DACA2-A531-4BCA-97DA-CD02E2493B41.jpg

Hi,

So I don’t know if this is significant, but this is the first time I’ve noticed my tap water registering *any* ammonia... seems closer to 0.25ppm than to 0. Could that be contributing to the high nitrates? View attachment 1
 
I know for a while I had high nitrates in my tank too. After a few weeks of trying different things what helped the most was feeding my fish less frequently. I'm not in any way an expert at this kind of thing but it could be something to consider.



Thanks!
 
Ive been reading some of your other posts on the issue. In summary.

You are cycling a tank with 1 largish fish in a 65 gallon.

You have been seeing lowish amounts of ammonia and been testing with a liquid test (for total ammonia) and also an alert patch (for free ammonia). You seem to understand the difference between those 2 things.

No nitrite and nitrate in the region of 40ppm and 60ppm.

Is that all correct?

One thing i cant see a test for is your tap water.

My hypothesis is that your tap water might be treated with chloramine rather than chlorine. Chloramine starts to break down to chlorine and ammonia once it leaves the tap. The ammonia will be present in a free ammonia/ammonium proportion depending on tank pH and temperature. Your liquid test should read this, your ammonia alert wont if the proportion of free ammonia to ammonium is low due to thevconditions in your tank. Your cycle processes out the ammonia/ammonium, you are now seeing nitrate resulting from low levels of ammonia.

Go and test your tap water, if your liquid test shows little to no total ammonia we can rule out my theory.



View attachment 320929
Here is what the tap water reads
 
Please help - I need advice re: water in my fish tanks. I have been using Prime for a while, which seems like a good water conditioner but I’m not sure if it detoxifies chlorine and chloramine equally. Not only has our plain tap water tested positive for small amounts of ammonia, I’ve noticed that if I let my test tubes (filled with conditioned water with drops to test for ammonia, nitrogen levels, pH, etc) sit overnight, they will change by the morning. Like you are only supposed to wait 5 minutes for them to develop, right? At that point, nitrates will usually be within a good range... 10ppm. But in the morning I will find the same untouched tube to be in a borderline toxic range— e.g., 30-40ppm. Does anyone know what this delayed reaction could be all about? I am only using our unfiltered water, because I need warm water to fill the tanks and our filtration unit is only on my cold water faucet on another floor of the house. If anyone can shed any light on this issue I would really appreciate it.
 
Prime doesnt really treat chloramine at all. The chloramine will break down to chlorine and ammonia/ammonium a short while after leaving the tap. Prime will remove the resultant chlorine and detoxify the ammonia until your cycle can remove it. The ammonia you are reading in your tap water is likely the chloramine.

Ive also noticed that leaving the test out for more than 5 minutes it will continue to react and indicate higher levels. Ive always presumed the reading after 5 minutes is the correct reading. This is one of the reasons why test kits arent all that accurate.
 
Thanks, Aiken!

I guess I should be looking into a water filter for my downstairs faucet then... or is there a more targeted water conditioner? Like maybe Fritz Aquatics Complete Water Conditioner?
 
If you are seeing ammonia in you water (or chloramine) prime is probably the best. What exactly is the problem? Is it not removing all the chlorine?
 
Nitrates are usually high in my 65 gallon... I can’t seem to find the balance. I’ve added plants to the tank, keep it clean, don’t over feed, and have only one albino Ahli cichlid in there. I have two Penguin 350 bio wheel filters running, lots of air stones and caves. Lately, bc my fish wasn’t eating [again], I was doing 30% water changes every other day, then gave one bath treatment of metroplex along with it in his food (this seems like his third bout with HITH/parasites). I keep up this pattern, bc he always gets better.

He is currently his perky self and eating again. I’m just not sure if our water chemistry is a contributing factor to his repeated illness, if parasites are still in the tank, or if it is something else unknown... it’s so frustrating.
 
Just to clarify one of my previous posts. I said prime doesnt really treat chloramine. The same can be said for all water conditioners. They all treat the resultant chlorine once the chloramine breaks down. The benefit with prime is that it claims to detoxify the ammonia from the chloramine while your cycle removes it.
 
But in the morning I will find the same untouched tube to be in a borderline toxic range— e.g., 30-40ppm. Does anyone know what this delayed reaction could be all about?

Hi Heidigirl99

Can I ask where you found this information please RE nitrate toxicity range for fish.

Thanks
 
Plants. Plant your tank! Garden! Underwater!

I have zero nitrates. My plants eat them all. I am always shocked when I do my monthly nitrate check, to discover they ate it clean out of the water column.

I have a hugely overstocked 36 gallon tall bow front, the nitrates used to read about 30 ppm before I planted fully what I now consider the beginning of my first true Aquascape.

Unless you don’t like plants so much or don’t want to mess with it I have no other tips really, I’ve never had a nitrate problem. Nitrite on the other hand … phew! Thanks to a few chemical boosters I run zero ammo, zero nitrite, and thanks to my green friendlies, zero nitrates. Phosphates on the other hand a bit high, so I always have a little cute decorative algae, but one day maybe not.
 

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Thanks!! Yes, I have about 6/7 plants, but maybe I will look into buying more.
 
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