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[font color="#800080"] Somewhat OT: does anyone have pictures of nitrate burns on plants? I've noticed some brown on the tips of my java fern and didn't know if that might be the cause[/font]

Ahhh, your Eric's brother

I wondered

Thats it water changes are the go. Ideally once a week, but definately more than you were doing



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I did not see anything like that yesterday when I cleaned the tank. I always put the hose in till the bottom and vac that way. No heeps of poo coming out as far as I saw.

Do you always use a special gravel vac? We, my brother aka "Tinfoil", and I had one years ago, when were still living with our parents, but almost never used it. we always just vacumed the gravel like I descibed before.

I don't see poo or other stuff floating around, and ofcourse there's always some poo going into the bottom, but that's food for the plants, right? How do the plants grow otherwise, at some point the "food" in your gravel will run out if there's absolutly no poo left on the bottom and getting into the bottom. Only not applicable if you've got fake plants, but that's not the issue.

Bottom line here, I know I have to do water changes more often and I will, really I do .

Thanx again for all replies
Dutchyfish

Then you are gunna be mighty shocked when you do vac It will be sludge city!

bottom feeders don't eat poo, and the filter cannot get all of it. It falls between the gravel. I think if you can give it a good vac, you should see a much more stable tank.



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Well I can say, that after I did about a 50% water change, and filter cleaning, the fish are very happy and the water is nice and clear. I never bothered to vac my gravel because of the barbs cleaning the bottom if you do not feed to much and/or to often. Also, fact, with all the bottom feeders like cories gastromyzon and loaches, I hardly ever have food laying around on the bottom and if I do it's gone within a few hours.

As said before I AM going to change water more often cause of the way I see my fish swimming around now.:88)

Now my tank is ready for the eye spots I think I'm going to buy 2morrow or maybe after new year.

Thanx for all your reactions
Dutchyfish

I do a 10% change on my 30 gal tank and a 20% change on my 10 gal tank religiously every friday, making sure to vacuum the gravel as well as possible, keeping nitrates in check. I also change filters (keeping half of the carbon each time) once a month.

My tap water comes out at between 15-25 ppm nitrates. So if 15 is bad for fish then i guess im a goner <g>. Plants should suck up nitrates, may want to add a floating plant like anachrias or hornwort. You should do water changes more frequently, at least 20% every 2 weeks i do 25% every 7-10 days ... the only tank i ever have problems with is a 50g turtle tank. If you think oscars are bad try red eared sliders.

My parents had a tank for over 5 years that they never did a water change in ... nitrates were way out of hand ... test kit couldnt register them and they didnt have a fish die in all that time.

The nitrates are actually still a questionable thing. The main reason to do water changes is actually to introduce vitamins and minerals back into the tank that get used up. In cases of hard water it is also to lower magnesium and calcium levels.

Bdadawg

Trillian - that would be a good question to post in the Planted Forum. Someone provided a link there for me on pictures of plants with various problems and high nitrate was one of them. I just looked for the link and couldn't find it. I think "Frank" posted it and he frequents the Planted forum often.

[font color="#800080"] Thanks I know how the forums work, my nitrates are added weekly to be between 10 to 20ppm, not that I've botherd to test in the past few weeks[/font]

Do not have a pic trillian but want are the nitrAtes in your tank?? you may want to make a seperate thread. Oringinal thread: you may even want to make that more then just 10 - 20% every 2weeks. Most fish keeper (myself inlcluded) do a gravel vac every week. Changing about 20% of the water each time. If you ever have the extra time i would try to do a water change if possible. GOod luck with your tank.

Yesterday I did a 10 to 20% water change, and for a change thought I'd measure my Nitrite and Nitrate levels.

The level of Nitrates was dramaticly high, as the test pointed, even after a water change, so before it was absolutly life threatning I guess.

So this afternoon, after I stop working, I'm doing a 50% water change and hope for the best.

With a Nitrate level that high (max on the test card :%)), the plants would have stopped groing according to the included leaflet, but my plants are still groing all the same, and my fish seem healthy, so I guess I'm still in time to stop disaster from happening.

Can I expect fish to die? Or can it be the test was wrong and nothing's the matter?

I will first do the test again before doing to much.

Dutchyfish

Increased nitrates are the sign of a aging, deteriorating tank. Regular tank maintenance of water changes, vacuuming gravel and filter cleaning will keep nitrates in line.

Try to do a 20% water change twice each week. Vacuum your gravel on the second water change. Do your filter maintenance at least once each month if not every other week.

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

I think it is good for everyone to test nitrates periodically, as they can easily creep up without us realizing it. We once thought they were harmless at any level and now we know different.

In planted aquariums, many plants can burn if it is above 15ppm (same as 15g/ml).

For fish, we know that it dilates blood vessels. In fish with fine finnage, like goldfish, we see what looks like varicose veins in the fins. Some mistake this for septicemia when it is actually the high nitrates. A few weeks in low nitrate water (20ppm or less) and it goes away. I've seen this in goldies I purchased. I tested the bag water and it blew the scale which topped out at 140. It was twice as red as that number. Within weeks of being in < 20ppm, the streaks were gone.

Nitrates are also thought to degrade the immune system and make it harder for fish to fight off disease and parasites. While they may not die outright, they can die off slowly as a result.

I target my water changes to keep my planted tank between 5-15ppm and my goldfish tank at 40ppm or less. My fry tank needs to also be very low in nitrates, like the planted tank.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 29-Dec-2004 10:41

OK, Thanx.

I'm already changing about 50% of the water now, and I was planning on checking the level again tomorrow.

I also already promissed myself (and the fish ), I'd change 10 to 20% every 2 weeks to a mounth.

Any who wants to check out my tank, you can find it on webshots, go to community and just fillout Dutchyfish in the membersbox to find me. The picture of my tank is like it says, after I just dropped in that piece of wood (tree ) the rock is gone now.

Thanx, Dutchyfish

OK, well, if you don't change the water Nitrates will just keep building up. What we refer to as the nitrogen cycle is only part of it, once it gets to the nitrate stage, it gets stuck, and that is why we change water, to remove the nitrates.

having plants in there will help deal with nitrate, as they use it as food, but after a while they cannot keep up.

just do some regular changes until it gets to about 10, and then change 20% water once a month. that should be enough to keep it in check. do test the water before you change it for the first few months so you get a feel of what level it reaches

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I have to admitt I do not regularly change water. just once every ????, don't know?.

But I never had any trouble with fish or plants, oh accept for that one time when some plants were to old and started to die and pollute the water and the bottom, but that was in my smaller tank.

It's also the first time ever i did a Nitrate and Nitrite check :88). I never bothered to check them.

I did another check just now it should be almost finished, but it still looks the same to me . It reads about 50mg/l.

Nitrate can kill, but the accepted level is well below lethal (as a few members who rarely test have found out )

Check the nitrAte kit on tap water. are you in one of the big cities with chlorinated water or a smaller town? Smaller towns might register some nitrAte, but it should be well below 20ppm.

that should give you an idea of how your test kit is functioning.

a 50% water change should dilute it 50%, then follow with 25% changes every 2nd day until it is at an acceptable level.


EDIT: i just read through your posts, and you don't mention your normal water change routine, do you use a gravel vac? how often do you clean the tank?




Last edited by Callatya at 29-Dec-2004 08:54

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I'm sorry that reading can't be right....

I'm not sure what it was.
i can get back on that within an hour and a half.
(still @ the office).(naughty me )

I'll do the test again and will update you then.

My tank is 33G, and the Nitrate level is I think, as I remember correcly about 100 g/ml, it's a test from TETRA.
(it was the max reading, i thing it's the same in every test, or isn't it?)

I've got 5 odessa barbs, 3 gastromyzom mierzi, 2 cory aneus, 3 cory sterbai, 2 clown loaches and still 7 cards.

My fish and plants seem to be healthy, but that could change if the test is right.

Dutchyfish :%)

Would you mine listing that nitrAte level??? Hornwort has a tendency to suck up nitrAtes but i would stick to good water changes every other day until they go down. How big is the tank you are talking about?? what fish are in it??