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What is considered a good range for nitrAtes? I have read of people with only 5 ppm and it got me thinking about what really is a good nitrAte level, in my tank my nitrAtes are about 20-30ppm and even if I water change every day they only drop to about 7ppm.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

20-30 is generally fine for most fish, but if you have Discus, Stingrays, or other fragile fish, you don't want the nitrates to go above 15 ppm.

If you have live plants in your tank, that will help lower the nitrates. Many aquarists, including me, actually have to add nitrates to the tank because the plants use them all up.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

On my Nutrafin test kit it recommends changing water when it reads 110 ppm. In a planted tank 10-20 ppm is the general aim. I've also seen 40 ppm mentioned in high light tanks (over 3wpg). Fish tolerate nitrates a lot more than nitrites and ammonia, but it's still not good to let it get out of hand. Getting rid of some of the decaying material also helps prevent dangerous pH swings. The weekly water change resets the nitrate level to more acceptable amounts, reintroduces trace minerals needed by plants and fish and overall makes fish 'happier'.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Hi
The nitrates are the end product of the conversion of
the ammonia, to nitrites to nitrates. They are also the
end product of excess fish food and dead/decaying plant
material and other waste products.

The booklet that comes with my test kit, and data from
other sources such as the Drsfostersmith catalog etc
all say that a nitrate level of less than 40ppm is
recommended for freshwater tanks. For those that are
heavily planted, a reading of 10ppm is recommended.
Heavily planted tanks will take up the nitrate and it will
have to be added as a fertilizer on a regular basis.

Partial water changes along with fast growing stem plants
or, especially, floating plants, will control the nitrate
levels in your aquarium. If you choose the chemical
method, then a product such as Nitra-Zorb will do the
trick.

Tanks with Nitrates over 100 are suffering from severe
neglect and need the gravel vacuumed, the bio load reduced,
and the feeding routine modified to include less food.
Tanks over 100 are generally considered to be suffering
from Old Tank Syndrome (OTS).

Here is a link for OTS:
[link=http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html]http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html" style="COLOR: #FF00FF[/link]

Hope this helps...
Frank


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

Thanks for the help.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

My Hagen test kit says to do a wc of 25% when nitrates are greater than 110mg/l .

Hagen has an aquatic research station so you would think their scientists know what they're talking about.

These lower than 40ppm levels im not sure where they come from can anyone put a link up to the studies? it seems to be on all the fish forums..

i have a planted tank and rarely get above 10ppm anyways.
and wc weekly...

To be honest it all depends on the tolerance of individuals and different species. Hypersensitive species can die at less than 10 ppm, others survive into the 100's, but as a general rule of thumb its good practice to keep lower than 40ppm if you can, it avoids a lot of problems. There is no universal standard .

I just got a new nitrate kit from aquasonic(australian made) and im having trouble with it...

I tested my tap and got 20ppm , so i tested distilled water and got 15ppm???

shouldnt distilled be zero? I've emailed aquasonic, basically theyre saying they are not that accurate and it is working correctly.

national guidleines for water in australia has to be less than 10ppm in the tap anyways and i found some results on the web and theyre more like 1ppm actually, so this kit is a waste of money!

If i add a pinch of kno3 it goes over the redest colour so the reagents are working just that i cant get a baseline zero from distilled and no way tap is that high either...

anyone got any ideas?

all i can think of is if my tanks shows 40 i minus about 20 to get a true reading?

RO units should remove more nitrate than distillation, failing that you can buy nitrate reductors and biochemical solutions like tetras nitrate minus.