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Hello, I am new to your forum and am desperate for some advice. I recently did a water change and vacuum on my tank, I also changed out ALL of the media in my filter (I now know that this was a horrible idea). Anyway, while the ammonia and nitrites are at 0ppm, my nitrate is way over 80 ppm. Do you think that this is due to my mistake or is it due to something else that I did wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I apologize, the topic should read high nitrate! I also forgot to mention that I have a 30 gal freshwater tank, with 5 fish and live plants. Thank you again.

Hi TSWisla and welcome to fishprofiles!

The only way to lower nitrAtes are water changes or fast growing plants that absorb nitrAtes. Nothing is faster than water changes now. So I'd suggest u do more frequent 10-20% daily or every other day. NitrAtes arn't too poisionous to fishes but at high levels can be detremental.
Since u just changed all your media in your filter, u should also monitor your ammonia and nitrItes to make sure no spike occures.

Gee

Gee

!!I think I just learned somthing new!!

Thank you for your reply. I have been checking the ammonia and nitrites, for about a week and they have not gone over 0ppm. I am just trying to figure out how the nitrates got so high. I can change the water again, but what should I do if the nitrates persist?

BigGee168 really gave the only way to lower nitrAtes. If the tank is overstocked and or has not recieved regular maintence (ever week or two weeks) the nitrAtes are likely to be high. Additionally an underfiltered tank will have problems as well.
I had a 30 gallon tank that had readings of 80ppm nitrAtes even after I did the nearly 100% waterchange to transport it from the previous owner. I did try frequent water changes but being an office tank I wasn't @liberty to do them as frequently as I would have prefered to. After adding a large handful of hornwort the nitrAtes plumeted withing a day!
I highly highly suggest some hornwort as a floating plant. It's lowlight and fairly easy to maintain.

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Thank you for your advice.

Hello, well, I did a 20% water change and I added a hornwort plant and my nitrates are still over 40ppm, does anyone have any ideas, should I keep on doing water changes??? Please help!!!

Water changes and plants are the ONLY way to reduce nitrates. Don't feel bad about daily water changes to reduce nitrates to a bearable level.

Remember, nitrates are a byproduct of the cycle, if you overfeed or overstock, you need plants to absorb the cycle byproducts or you need to do MORE THAN WEEKLY water changes!

Last edited by Bob Wesolowski at 19-Feb-2005 14:24

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