Nitrate problem?

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JdE

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Dec 16, 2011
Messages
7
Location
Auburn, AL
I have a 30 gallons well established tank with Eheim 2215 and a good number of plants. I use RO water to keep the pH in range and the total solids low (my water is kind of hard).

Lately I got a light green algae on the glass and the tip of some plants seem rotten. I changed lights, increased algae eater population, repeated water changes and the algae keeps coming back.
I read that it may be an excess of nitrates (mine is kind of high), but if I change water too often, the pH and total solids start to go all over the place and I'm afraid I'm going to kill the fish.

Any ideas on how to lower the nitrates other than water changes? Sump? Extra filtration? Adding more bacteria?
 
Algae eaters won't control the algae if there is an imbalance of some kind. What are you nitrate levels?


Most importantly, what kind of lights do you have on them?
 
I have a 30 gallons well established tank with Eheim 2215 and a good number of plants. I use RO water to keep the pH in range and the total solids low (my water is kind of hard).

Lately I got a light green algae on the glass and the tip of some plants seem rotten. I changed lights, increased algae eater population, repeated water changes and the algae keeps coming back.
I read that it may be an excess of nitrates (mine is kind of high), but if I change water too often, the pH and total solids start to go all over the place and I'm afraid I'm going to kill the fish.

Any ideas on how to lower the nitrates other than water changes? Sump? Extra filtration? Adding more bacteria?

Hello J...

Algae relies on phosphates and nitrates for food. So, you need to remove the food. I prefer the natural ways to control algae to the use of chemicals. You never know how chemicals will affect fish and plants, but it's probably a negative affect.

Anyway, start with an aggressive water change routine, by removing and replacing a minimum of half the water in the tank every week. The more water you change and the more often you change it, the better. When you have the water level down, add a couple of fast growing stem plants that will use the excess water nutrients. I like Water wisteria and Pennywort, because they'll grow well in a lot of different light and water conditions. I prefer to float the plants close to the light source, but you can plant them too.

Go to the LFS and see if they have snails. I keep a lot of snails in my tanks and have no visible algae in any of them.

Don't worry about pH, hardness or any of that, just flush a lot of clean, treated tap water through your tank every week and the fish and plants will adjust to the water conditions.

The natural means of algae control take time, so be patient.

B
 
BBradbury, considering he didn't tell us what his stock list is for the tank you really can't tell him not to worry about ph and hardness. If he has more delicate species, he HAS to be worried about that. Yes, it is true that some fish CAN adapt to all sorts of water conditions but blindly giving advice like that without knowing all of the facts can lead to fish deaths.
 
That's my problem with the fish, every time I started to be aggressive with water changes I killed a few rummy noses and I just got 3 German rams that are rather sensitive to pH and hardness.

I have 3 T8 (brand new) and I would say I'm rather overstocking fish, but I'm really happy with the way the tank looks now. I even reduced feedings and replaced flakes for worms.

I have 2 kinds of snails, the small apple that bred with some other sort and a Malaysian conic snail that turns the substrate upside down. 4 Ottos and 4 Amano shrimp. My APY nitrate reactives aren't working anymore, I'm rushing to buy a new one to test the nitrates again.

By the book, I'm sure I have too many fish and I should be changing water more often. But as soon as I'm busy with something else and stay behind with the water changes I will end up in the same corner. Since I want to learn more how to play with the system I have, I want to find another way to lower the nitrates. Perhaps if I add a sump with extra volume of water and more filtration surface for bacteria?
 
added filtration won't hurt but it's not a quick fix. it will take time for the bacteria to build. you could add plants that take up nitrate quicker. water sprite, anacharis, water lettuce (dwarf for the aquarium), duckweed or most types of salvinia are great for removing nitrates
 
The only way I would suggest removing nitrates is with good PWCs and some big fast growers, like hornwort, which is a nitrate sponge. Nitrates will always be there, it will just take some work bringing it down.

As for fish, I have always kept GBRs in a pH of 7.6 no problem. Rummies are always ending up dead in my tank, so I won't say anything about them.
 
Filtration, biological or otherwise, won't help your nitrate situation. Nitrate is the end result of biological filtration, and can only be practically removed by PWC and plants.

As Bruinsbro said, pH, KH, and GH aren't as big on an issue as people make them out to be for fish, assuming that you have good water quality (nitrates, organics), good fish stock, and good general aquarium technique (no temp shock, good acclimation techniques, etc). I've had rams breed in pH7.8-8.2 water (no fry of course), so it's amazingly a non-issue given the right conditions.
 
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