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1 week ago I discovered that i had a pretty unacceptable nitrate level of about 40ppm. I have a 20gal tank with 4 danios, 2 swordtails, 2 false juli cories, 2 panda cories, 1 Bolivian Ram & 1 BN Pleco. On Tuesday I added 3 bunches of floating plants in hopes that they will start to use some of the nitrates, along with a 40% water change. I tested my nitrates last night and they have not dropped. It looks to me that the test reading is in between 40-80 so I am assuming my level is close to 60ppm. What else can I do to get this under control? Should the plants consume some of the nitrates, and if so, how long should this take? I am going to do another 25% water change/grav vac tonight, but the problem there is that my tap water tested at a level of 20ppm nitrates, and this doesn't seem to offset the nitrate level in my tank at all. Any suggestions? I believe my cories are being affected as I lost one on Sunday and another isn't looking too good.

With you water supply having 20ppm nitrates. I would be loking at why it is so high in your tank. Find that and it be a lot easer to control.

More ifo about you tank would help.
How often do you do a water change and what persentage? Plants how many and what species?
Lighting and size and type filtration also how
often do you do a full cleaning?
Feeding what used and amounts used?

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Keith

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I was doing a 25% water change every two weeks. I started doing them more frequently about two weeks ago when I noticed I had a problem. In the past two weeks I have done a 50% water change, 40% one week later, 40% three days after that, and I was going to do a 25% change tonight.

As for plants, I bought three bunches of 4 (I think...) of Anacharis (Egeria densa) I think that makes 12 plants total. I have a 18" 15 watt Aqua-Glo tube (18000k.)

Filtration: Penguin BIO-Wheel 125 (up to 30 gallons) and I actually have not yet done a "full cleaning" with this setup as I upgraded from my original 10 gal tank to the now current 20 gal. just about 2-3 months ago.

Feeding: 2 sinking wafers, 8-10 African Cichlid "Attack" sinking pellets, and a pinch of Aquatrol Spirulina Flakes in variation with frozen cichlid chow, spirulina enriched brine shrimp, Emerald Entree & Bloodworms. I feed (about) this amount in different variations twice a day. I also throw in the occasional algae wafer for my pleco and recently tried zucchini. Oh and my PH seems to be about 8.0 and I feel that is a little high for my fish as well...

That about sums it up, any other questions just ask...


Last edited by inlikefish at 22-Dec-2005 21:59

A 25%-30% weekly water change would be recommended.
My 10g has an Eheim internal canister type I clean it out when I do the weekly water change. This keeps it working at 100% efficiency. It also has the efficiency to do a far larger tank this even gives my more room for safety.

Feeding cut the feeding to once a day. Extra food can mean food not eaten, and also extra fish waste.

This is just a suggestion someone else migh have a different opinion.

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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?
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Hi,
High Nitrate readings are most commonly the result of
over crowding, over feeding, and under maintenance of
the tank.

Cut back on the number of fish, and the amount of food
being fed. A fish's stomach, is about the size of one
of their eyes.
Do more frequent water changes of 10-20% of the tank's
capacity.
Vacuum the tank's gravel, the non-planted sections, about
1/4 to 1/3 of the tank at a time. Don't do the whole tank
every time, only do one section at a time and do it
once a week, or once every two weeks depending upon the
severity of the problem, and how over crowded the tank is.
By alternating sections, you allow the cleaned section to
rebuild its bacterial colonies, before destroying the next
section.

Adding floating plants will help, by absorbing the nitrates
but it is not necessarily a cure all. Depending upon your
tank, you might have to add pounds of plants, instead of
just a handful to see any difference.

Frank


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

InLikeFish,

Although water changes will reduce your nitrate level, you may not be able to measure the difference in nitrates from before a water change to after a water change. The reason is simple math.

For example, your water source has 20 ppm of nitrates and your tank has 80 ppm of nitrate. A 25% water change will then reduce your nitrates to 65 ppm or [25%*20 + 75%*80]. A 50% water change will reduce nitrates to 50 ppm.

If your tank is overstocked, overfed and underplanted, you would expect nitrates to rise between water changes as waste byproducts increase the nitrate levels and plants do not use all the available nitrates. More frequent water changes and larger water changes will reduce the nitrate buildup as will the addition of fast growing plants that will suck up the nitrates.

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

I think that Overfeeding &amp; Over stocking are the 2 mayor problems. If you overfeed, just cut back the feeding &amp; if you are overstocked, just do more water changes.



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I have 11 fish. none over 3"... I don't know if that is overstocked. I also do feed twice a day but in quite small amounts really. I do think I had a problem overfeeding a few months back, but I noticed what I was doing and cut back to the amount I'm feeding now... For instance, this morning I fed 1 sinking wafer, 8 mini cichlid pellets (the pandas eat these too), and a pinch of flakes. All the food is gone withing 5 minutes (aside from the sinking wafer.) BTW: My other juli cory died last night, I'm only down to one... Not good...

Going by all the replies I agree with all of them. You will have to do some serious thinking about changing, water, feeding, planting and stock.

If you dont it will continue to a problem and get worse as the tank gets older.

I think we have all been through a similar situation more looks better. When actually more equals big problems.

Some tanks can be over stocked but it requires a lot more effort, experience, and equipment filters etc to keep it running correctly.

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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?
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The inch per gallon rule isnt' really the best if that's what you're applying for stocking your tank. If you werent having problems with your nitrAte levels I'd say you're okay fish ammount wise (although the schools need some balancing that's the topic of another thread).

The best plant I've found for nitrAte consumption is hornwort although that may cause issues later...and seems to never survive very well in my tanks :%). The plants nitrAte consumption will also depend on the how much light which in your case is quite low for plant growth. Low light plants like hornwort will be fine with it. Lighting period and CO2 injection will also make a difference.

Since your corys are doing poorly I also back the idea of daily water changes 10-20% make sure you're going all the way to the bottom with your gravel vac to pull up all the excess waste. Dump that out in the garden the plants will love it .

NitrAtes can be tricky to get down. A used tank I liberated from its previous owner had really high (around 90ppm) nitrAtes even after a nearly complete water change...just enough was left over the substrate to keep the bacteria alive during transport. It wasn't till a few good solid gravel vacs (previous owner had never seen one before ) and a few days with a LOT of hornwort that I got the nitrAtes down in the 20-40ppm range.

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I just wanted to add that over the past two weeks with the addition of live plants (that are growing very well) and more frequent smaller 15-20% water changes (I was doing 30-40% prior) I have managed to bring my Nitrates down to a more comfortable 10ppm. I am pleased with that number...

Oh yeah, and my last remaining false juli seems to be pulling through, I am finally starting to see him/her scavenge (and actually eat) food again. I feel bad though, I can't keep only one juli in my tank, and I don't want to risk overstocking. what shall I do???

Last edited by inlikefish at 12-Jan-2006 16:38