High Nitrate ~120ppm

[Mordachai]

It's always ridiculously hard to say for sure with the color tests... it could be as low as 80ppm, or as high as 160ppm.... the water is candy apple red.

My fish are showing mild signs of stress (some aggression). Algae is definitely growing.

I will do a WC immediately... or I could add a bunch more plants? What's the "best" way to get very high nitrate down to a reasonable level in a manner that doesn't harm the fish or the plants?

 

[BBradbury]

High Nitrates

It's always ridiculously hard to say for sure with the color tests... it could be as low as 80ppm, or as high as 160ppm.... the water is candy apple red.

My fish are showing mild signs of stress (some aggression). Algae is definitely growing.

I will do a WC immediately... or I could add a bunch more plants? What's the "best" way to get very high nitrate down to a reasonable level in a manner that doesn't harm the fish or the plants?

Hello Mord...

Daily water changes of 10 to 15 percent of the tank's volume for up to a week will bring down the nitrates. Afterward, remove half the water every week or two. This will help maintain a stable water chemistry. You could also introduce some floating plants like Anacharis and Pennywort. Both will thrive in water with high nitrates.

B

 

[Mordachai]

Thanks. I have Anacharis in there now (I think, or it is something that looks very similar) - it's growing like crazy. I think it doubled in a week (and it was large to begin with).

I just did a 50% WC... hope that doesn't throw things out of whack too badly. There is a deep substrate, a few plants, a well established filter, and I added 4 otto cats to the 4 black tetras and 4 cherry barbs I had in there. I'll try to do a smaller amount in a day or two, keep watching the levels, and see if I can bring them down that way.

I trimmed the Anacharis. they were taking over about 1/2 of the 55g tank.

 

[librarygirl]

Have you tested your tap water for nitrate? If not do so, just to make sure the levels aren't coming from the tap water. If the tank's levels are higher than the tap then that either means you're not cleaning the tank enough (e.g. vacuum), not doing enough water changes, are overfeeding and/or overstocked. If the tap's levels are lower than the tank I would opt to do a few 30% water changes over the course of a couple of days to get the nitrates down. You want to aim for <40, under 20 is ideal. Then you'll have to figure out why the nitrate are so high.

 

[Mordachai]

Tap is around 5ppm. I'm on a well, so I'm surprised its even that high.

This is a tank that was restarted... I think I just had a lot of left over biomass in the tank that didn't get cleared out sufficiently when I prepped it. Seems a lot better now. More vacuuming in the future, I suspect, to get even more detritus out.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello again Mord...

Vacuuming, especially if you have plants isn't needed. The organic material that settles to the bottom will soon dissolve in the tank water and a water change will remove some of the nutrients and toxins. But, those nutrients are good for your plants and by removing the detritus, you remove some of the good bacteria too.

I never vacuum my tanks, the plants get their nutrients without me using much in the way of commercial fertilizers and the bacteria keeps the nitrogen levels low, which makes for purer water for the fish and plants.

Just a thought.

B

 

[Mordachai]

I never vacuum my tanks, the plants get their nutrients without me using much in the way of commercial fertilizers and the bacteria keeps the nitrogen levels low, which makes for purer water for the fish and plants.

Cool. That was my approach for the tank for the previous years that it was operational. I just let everything decompose in the tank, and allowed the cycle to run between the plants and the fish and had a leopard pleco, some other cats, a few loaches, and even snails cleaning up the tank. I really didn't even do any WCs - I just added water to replace the evaporation rate and rinsed the filter out regularly.

That worked reasonably well, but I found that over time my plants went from super healthy eventually to disintegrating, and a form of hair algae took over.

I tried getting some fish that might eat the hair algae with little success.

So this time, I'm trying to see if I can do more husbandry, vacuum the tank more regularly, and possibly do the whole CO2 thing. I had never even tested Nitrate before - didn't even have a test kit - I just assumed it was low because all of those plants would consume whatever nitrate there might be.

But... I think there was just too much left over gunk from my previous run - and that must have lead to an explosion of bacteria producing nitrates which totally overwhelmed my new plants ability to use it.

Once I've got the excess removed, and a more stable cycle between the new plants and the new fish, I suspect the Nitrates will remain fairly low as the pants actually use what is available from the decomposition of just the new plants & fish. That's my theory, anyway