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Hi All,
I've been trying to get my nitrate levels in my tank down for about 3 weeks now with almost daily 1/3 water changes but it's still running at 100mg/l!!! I've tried 3 different test kits so I'm pretty sure it's accurate. Other levels are normal, (PH 8, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0) so I'm stumped...here are the tank details:
21G, 14"x12"x30"
1 8" airstone, 1 6" airstone
In-tank filter (?Powerhead)
Lots of grass, one big leaved unknown plant, all real.
Stocking:
3 Coolie Loaches
2 Hillstream Loaches
1 Angelfish
1 Saimese Fighting Fish
1 Peppered Cory
2 Silvertip Tetra
2 guppie like fish!
I think that's everything...any suggestions?

Test your tap water for nitrates... that's probably where they're coming from...

Is there driftwood in the tank? How much light do you have on the tank? how much gravel (or other substrate) is in the tank? How much is 100mg/l in ppm?

Good luck

Got 2 bits of driftwood both about 4 years old now, one 15W tube light on for 12hours/day, a good 6cm of gravel and as for ppm's I'm not sure but it's the top of the scale on all the tests I've used!
I'll check my tap water, but even if it is that then how do I get it down? Use bottled water?

Here's a link to a picture of my tank if that helps!
http://www.genxcell.co.uk/Pictures/Tank1.jpg

100mg/l = 100ppm
so are you telling us that you are maintaining that level even after the water changes.

what is your nitrate reading immediately after the water change...I just had a tank that finished cycling and had a reading of 160ppm on the nitrate then did a 1/3rd change I'm sitting high at 80ppm on the nitrates. I'll have to agree that the source of your nirate is other than your tank.

Just tested the tap water, 100mg/l
At least I know the source but what is the solution?

Try "prime" from Seachem to detoxify the nitrate.
I used it and like it a lot.
http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Prime.html
As for the nitrate level in the tap water...could this have been the condition for a long time .. or could this just be recent and might go away......in other words have you ever tested for nitrates in your tap water before?

It is good that you found the source of the problem quickly. Contact several LFS in your are and ask them have they noticed this problem and if is a new problem or a short term situation.

They should also know of a product that could assist you.
Also can you contact your water board and ask them the same questions.

Let us know how you get on with the water board or the LFS.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith


Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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Thanks peops, that is really helpful. I've never tested my tap water before but as it's been about 3 weeks that I've been having this problem I guess it might be a long term thing. I'll be heading down to my LFS this weekend to see if they have an answer. Have you tried a nitrate filter? They are pretty pricy but it might be a long term solution?

We have a twin unit for the drinking and cooking water. To remove the Nitrate I think there is a special filter material for that purpose.

A good plumbing or hardware store should be able to give you more info on nitrate removal units.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

You might want to try an RO/DI unit (I'm almost positive they remove nitrates...the remove everything else...) for the long term, if it is a long term problem...

You could try heavily planting the tank if you're into that kind of thing... I've had to do waterchanges in my planted tank just to get nitrate levels above 5ppm (tap is 20ppm... plants consume the nitrates). Hornwort, Anachris, Duckweed, Watersprite, Java Moss... they're all good/cheap nitrate sponges... see if you can get any of them to use as nitrate sponges...

Other than that, I dunno what you could do...

Good Luck

Cheers Poison,
I don't need any encouragement to get some more plants in there, I've got a fair bit of grass in there at the moment but I like the idea of Java moss. I'm also going to get some snails to tackle the algae problem as some of my slow growing plants are covered in the stuff and this must restrict their Nitrate removing properties?

If you've got an algae problem, you've probably got an imbalance of something. In rather low light tanks, it's probably an imbalance or abscence of some micronutrient... you may want to try dosing a general fertilizer that's got several things in it. Kent's "Freshwater Plant Fertilizer" and Nutrafin's "Plant GRO" work good for me (I'm also dosing Flourish Excel, which might help your tank a bit, too... but it's just a source of organic carbon... get the other stuff covered first, imo).

If you want to go with an algae eater, IMO, go for a school of 5-10 ottos... they do a great job. Or maybe a BN pleco. Or maybe you could get MTS. Don't go with multiple snails, as they'll reproduce like mad and your tank will get infested with them and they'll eat all your plants... other than MTS, which don't eat plants, but they stir/move the substrate around and eat a bit of algae...

You should try scraping or pulling off as much of the algae as you can, too... algae eaters go for whatever's easiest to get to and eat... sometimes they may not feel like scrubbing plants clean...

Good luck, dude

More fish? I was starting to think that my tank is getting near capacity, do you think I could fit another 5-10 ottos in there (see 1st post for current stock)?
Great if I can but I'm nervous of over stocking the tank?

Since you're gonna be doing some work to the tank, you may as well redo some of the stock list as well, I suppose.

First off, the tetras and the cories should be in schools of at least 6 per species... so you should have at least 6 silvertip tetras and 6 peppered cories. Add some ottos for algae control. Now, what're you going to have to make some sacrifices and sell them, or set up another tank to house them. I personally vote for the 2nd option

Also, IME the hillstream loaches should be in a specialized river tank with a LOT of unidirectional water flow... do some googling on it, you may want to set up a seperate tank just for them

Have fun!

Haha! My wife says I spend too much time gazing at this tank, if I had 2 I wouldn't have time even for anything else!
The Cory is a happy soul, he's been alone for over a year now and is doing well...give the coolie loaches a fright now and again but otherwise happy! I agree about the tetra's, I used to have 5 and as they have passed away the remainders stay out of trouble...
On the weekend I'm going to get a stronger light, something for the filter to lower the nitrate and some more plants...if I see some silvertips then I'll get some of them too.
I'm hoping with a good scrub, some more light and more plants I'll be able to reduce the nitrate enough to put off more growth of the algae...if not then I'll have to resurrect the 'spare' tank that is currently full of stuffed toys!
(I kid you not http://www.genxcell.co.uk/Pictures/sparetank.JPG)

try de-nitrification.

basically your taking out the oxygen from the nitrogen untill it is pure nitrogen gas.

Cheers Psycho,
I just googled 'denitrification' and came accross this little article http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/3363/denit.htm which describes a nice and cheap denitrator made out of 25 foot of tubing running off of you existing power filter...seems like quite a neat, long term, solution.

Personaly if you want to fight the algae. You need to give your plants prety much everything they need. NO3 is really high. Not a problem if you have tons of light (Min of 70W this will give you about 3.0 wpg) and CO2 and add the other stuff that they are going to want. With a 23G you should be able to do DIY CO2 with out a problem.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

You mean add extra CO2?