How to lower nitrate?

[aqua_holic]

My silver dollars don't seem to mind.

 

[PNWaquarist]

You do 100% WCs with silver dollars?

 

[aqua_holic]

Not on purpose. I leave a few inches of water.

 

[PNWaquarist]

Wow, I never would've guessed that.

 

[aqua_holic]

Now the rainbows, that's another matter. If the water gets too low they start jumping so I leave a few extra inches for them.

 

[Caliban07]

Admittedly I don't have anything to measure fish stress with, but my fish do not exhibit behaviors associated with being stressed after large PWCs nor do I have random sicknesses or deaths.

I can't think of anything in the water chemistry that would have a negative impact on the fishes' health if a large amount of water was exchanged using the same source water. KH, GH, pH and temp should all be comparable. If they're not, then that's a separate issue.

Large water changes practiced regularly can still provide stable water chemistry. The idea is that you are not allowing enough time for things to change. That's why your fish are not stressed. Tanks that receive less volumes and water change frequency still have stable parameters.

The stress is seen when the chemistry shifts to such a degree that the osmotic pressure the fishes osmoregulatory system is working to achieve is suddenly altered.

Change in TDS means more energy expenditure on the fishes part to achieve the new balance between salts internal and external to the fish. A sudden increase in energy demand even in humans puts great stress on the body even if you can't automatically feel it. Fish may appear to be ok for a time and some may just die straight after a water change.

This does not always happen and a healthy well fed fish may be able to deal with such a change better than others.

How say soft water fish find regulating in harder tap waters is hard to say for sure, you can exactly ask it but I bet it would appreciate softer water.

Hard water fish experience a much quicker ''rush' of water in to there bodies due to the concept of osmosis to control this and achieve the balance which uses the least amount of energy usually results in fluid removal, much greater than it was previously used to and so the kidney are overworked and subsequent kidney related issues arise.

Nitrates can be lowered by good filter and substrate maintenance as well as a decent water change schedule, live plants and sensible feeding.


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[jetajockey]

Plants, lots of plants.

Sent from Peabody's rabbit hole.