Having problems growing plants in the foreground and spending a ton of money

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WOW. What a shock!! I shook the 2nd bottle on the Nitrate kit and tested again. My nitrate are almost off the chart. They are about 160ppm. I'm doing an immediate large WC today including getting all the gook off the bottom. What else should i be doing to get this under control? I hate adding chemicals to my tank. Is there something I can add to my filter that will absorb the Nitrates. I never would have known if I hadn't read up on nitrates. API should make a point of letting people know about this. ANYWAY WHAT NOW?
 
Did you mix in kno3 to pps mix?
A few 50% wc's over text couple days will help. Not all at once as it can shock fish..
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Yes, KNO3 was added. Should I mix a new batch and leave it out?
 
Yep the tank is decently stocked with both fish and plants. Could this be the reason all but 1 of my shrimp have died as well? I feel like I should have known this. Not feeling too good about myself right now
 
Probably.. certain shrimp will not tolerate those levels..don't beat yourself up.. it's a learning process.. i left my co2 on full blast for a week and killed my betta so....

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jan4scuba said:
WOW. What a shock!! I shook the 2nd bottle on the Nitrate kit and tested again. My nitrate are almost off the chart. They are about 160ppm. I'm doing an immediate large WC today including getting all the gook off the bottom. What else should i be doing to get this under control? I hate adding chemicals to my tank. Is there something I can add to my filter that will absorb the Nitrates. I never would have known if I hadn't read up on nitrates. API should make a point of letting people know about this. ANYWAY WHAT NOW?
Click to expand...

Well, if you've been using your nitrate kit incorrectly, it might be toast. The concentration of reagent in bottle 2 could be too high due to dispensing drops without shaking it enough. I'm not sure which way it would sway the results, but either way I would get another kit to be sure. You could try testing some RO or distilled water and see if it still shows nitrates when it should read zero.

I've even bought nitrate kits that were bad right out of the box, and had to return for a different one.
 
You're 100% right. The concentration could be way off. I need to get another nitrate set as well as some distiller water. I tested my tap and it came up between 5 & 10 ppm.
This is probably the reason for algae problem on leaves and glass as well.


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Glad you are making progress with this. Initially when I started PPS Pro, I would dose nitrate (it was in a separate bottle). Ignored testing for a few weeks and found nitrate ~80 ppm. Plants looked their worse at that time; Downoi started melting. Stopped nitrate dosing altogether and it holds steady between 10-20 ppm with weekly water changes.
Do water changes to bring the nitrate down. Should be okay even if your tap has 5-10 ppm nitrate. That's better than your tank water.
Ah, yes, the nitrate shake. Every time.


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Help!!!! I've done 3 - 50% WC and substrate cleaning in the last 8 days. Made a new batch of Macro PPS-PRO without nitrate and used only half phosphate.

I've lost 3 fish and 2 more are about to go. Nitrate still above 100ppm and phosphate above 60ppm. Also have new nitrate testing kit.

Any suggestions?




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Oh man, sorry to hear that, forgive me if we've been through this already... few questions... what brian said, what type of filtraion? Do you run purigen? How long has the tank been running? Guesstimate your stocking percentage? Unless it's negligible.. disregard that question if so.

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Tank has been up since May. Eheim 9 gallon with 2 Eheim power filters. No root tabs at all. Stocking currently 2 SAE 2 harlequin Rasboras 2 CPD and 3 Killifish. Everything was fine up until a month ago. Then algae became a problem on glass. As soon as I cleaned it. It was back. Water changed every week like clockwork. Gentle cleaning of filter with water from tank. No PURIGEN. I really appreciate the help. Sad to see your fish die. The tank is right on my desk and I look at it all day. So I'm very aware when something is off. Thanks again for the help and support.
 
So this is a 9 gallon tank? Think you may just have to many fish in there? Do you ring out the filters weekly?

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No. I wring out filters monthly. I thought with consistent water changes I was able to push the fish limit. Maybe I was wrong.
Doing a major cleaning and WC today including filters and algae on glass.

Should I buy any chemicals to get the nits and phos down? Hate putting chems in my tank.


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Weekly cleaning of the filters could help, running purigen may help with the nitrates, works for some not all.. 2 weekly 50% wc's would be my play..

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I will keep to that schedule and see what happens. I tried purigen before it doesn't fit in my filter.


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