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A couple of years ago I starting using a nitrate filter to filter my tap water as the Nitrate level came out at 80ppm and the filter manged to get it to 20ppm...this has worked well until recently when after rescuing a common pleco (20-25cm, 5 years old) and because of the waste he produces the nitrate level in my tank has risen to 100ppm! Even with two 50% water changes in the past week I'm still at 80ppm.
To save the added stress of 50% water changes and the resulting inevitable temp fluctuations I was wondering if I attached the nitrate filte to the end of a powerhead whether I could filter the existing water to bring the levels down to a manageable level and go to once weekly water changes until I manage to get the stock down.
Has anyone heard of using a nitrate filer in this fashion previously and is there any un-desired side effects I should be aware of?
Any help in this would be greatly received!
If you must know:
22gal tank
2 large internal filters
4 Pearl Gourami
3 Molly
4 Silvertip tetra
4 Zebra Loach
1 Clown Pleco
2 Khuhli Loach
1 Hillstream Loach
Lots of Anubias Nana and not much else since the introduction of:
1 Common Pleco

It's been 7 hours on the nitrate filter and it's all running smoothly, the powerhead is just strong enough to get the water trickling through the nitrate filter. Just tested the water and it's gone down about 20ppm, I'm going to leave it overnight and with any luck it'll be down to about 20ppm by the morning...that should be slow enough a transition not to shock the fish.

I work and practice just because no one or "They" say it will not work why not try it. If it is working for you and you are monitoring it correctly it should be OK.

The only thing I could say is keep a check on the filter as the nitrate just might start to build up in the filter and not work efficiently as you expect it to.

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

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Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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This ended up working a treat, I recharged my nitrate filter then set it up to flow overnight, next morning I was down to 5ppm Nitrate! I'm keeping a check on the levels and after 5 days it's still only up to 15ppm so weekly water changes should keep it in check for the time being...I think my Nitrate filter wasn't working to it's fullest until I re-charged it so the tap water was going into the tank at 40ppm (60-80ppm out of the hot tap!).
I well recommend the use of a Nitrate filter attached to a low powered-powerhead processing tank water overnight to tackle 'emergency' nitrate problems.