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DaFrIdGe,

Good Job

I am glad to see someone report back and show that he has no problems admitting that he made a few "minor" mistakes.

Wonderful that all seems ok now in your tank.

I applaude your honesty,

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

i am in the high nitrate struggle At The Moment. i do water changes every other day. when i first started my levels were above the color of the test kit and the highest the kit goes is 160ppm i quickly found that i was overfeeding my fishes (Asst. Mbuna African cichlids) i feed once per day now but im going to start every other day. my tank at tat time was well overstocked at about 60 africans in the 55 gallon.npw its under half that amount and things are under control. or at least in the "safe" zone. it has been about 2 weeks now. good luck in your situation. it can be a real pain.

Hi,
High nitrate levels are indicators of something amiss in
the tank.

At 40, yours are NOT high. They are at the threshold of
where you should be concerned and do something about the
nitrate level.

Nitrates are the end product of the decomposition of
fish urea, dead/dying plants, accumulated fish waste and
food in the gravel, and in general, poor tank maintenance.

We all know the Nitrogen cycle, where ammonia secreted by
the fish, is broken down into nitrites, which in turn are
broken down into nitrates.
So too with dead plants, accumulated fish waste, and food
lying on the bottom in between the grains of gravel. They
too decompose into organic compounds of which nitrates
are a part.

Using certain products such as Ammolock convert the ammonia
to a different form, but in the process actually cause
higher readings when testing (the test kit is more sensitive
to the modified form of ammonia).

OTS, know as Old Tank Syndrome, is indicated by high nitrate
readings. If your Nitrate readin is 100 or over, then
your tank is suffering from OTS. Yours, is not.

To lower Nitrates, you should do regular, small, water
changes of 10 - 20% of the tank's capacity. When you change
the water, using a syphon such as the Python, you should
also clean the exposed parts of the gravel, clear down to
the glass bottom of the tank. DON'T clean the entire tank
at once! If you do this you will kill off the bacteria that
is the heart of the Nitrogen Cycle. Instead, clean a
different, small part, of the tank each week. Divided the
tank into 1/4s and do one 1/4 of the tank at a time. Then
next week shift over, and clean another 1/4.

To lower Nitrates, you can use plants. Of all the aquarium
plants, the floating plants are the best for that. They
get their nutrients directly from the water. They provide
shade for shy fish and shelter for fry. They also will
provide shade for plants that are considered low light
demand by growing across the surface over them they shield
them from high light.

To lower Nitrates you should consider restocking your tank
with less fish, and feed them more sparingly.

Hope this and the previous posts help...

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

i agree fully, although live plants will use and indeed require nitrates as food you still need good tank maintenance to keep everything under controll

Live plants do use nitrates and there is evidence that some plants will also use ammonia and nitrites, the building blocks of nitrates. Elevated nitrates can oftentimes be the result of having an older tank, that is a tank that has been set-up for some time. Other reasons for higher nitrates is contamination, dead fish or excess food or waste. You can reduce nitrates by:
1. Good tank maintenance, regular water changes and vacuuming the substrate,
2. Having live plants such as hygrophila.

By the way, the options are listed in order of importance. Maintenance will help you immediately reduce nitrate levels.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

would live plants consume nitrates?

First, test your tab water for Nitrates. If they are low, then you should do a large (30% I would say) water change, asap.

And then you keep on monitoring your Nitrates to make sure they stay low. I would assume that you will have to do additional water changes to get them even lower, probably every day or every other day.

I assume you don't know why your Nitrates are so high, right? Someone recently had this problem (at least by his statement) because there was a dead fish in the tank for a while.

I further assume that you don't know how long this has been the case already, right? If so, then this could explain your [link=Sick Platy]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Livebearers%20Lane/62862.html?200508111146" style="COLOR: #ff6633[/link].

Hope this helps,

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Do a water change? For most aquarium situations. A 20% water change weekly as you gravel vac is beneficial to the overall health of the aquarium.

My Scapes

nitrate should be lowered by weekly water changes of around 25%