Question on Cycle...

[Mantis_22]

When do you know your on the third stage of cycling (Nitrates)? Right now I have no ammonia and high nitrates and nirtrites. WIll it happen whenever the nitrites totally dissapear?

[carpguy]

The NitrItes will eventually start to drop off as well, leaving you with lots of NitrAtes. These won't drop off on their own -- regular water changes will do the trick. Once the Nitrites have fallen do one massive change (say 75%) to lower Nitrates and then sufficient to keep around or below 40ppm. I change 20% per week.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Carpguy, thats is sorta high for nitrates, they should be less than 20ppm.

[carpguy]

NJ,
The EPA allows up to somewhere in the mid 40s ppm for our tapwater, so staying south of 20 may not be practical for many. I think 40 ppm is a reasonable high end. The ideal target comes up every now and again with some folks, like me, saying south of 40 and others, like yourself, saying south of 20. We're both in some excellent company. RTR covered it well in this thread (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6201) :

Measure your nitrate in the tank. It should be below 40ppm nitrate at least. At best it should be at 10-20ppm.

Plants offer another way of exporting nitrates but don't eliminate the need for water changes.

[NJ Devils Fan]

I agree carpguy, we are the best members here. ;)

[CharlyBaltimore]

Check your tapwater for nitrates, that might be the source.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Uhh, tap water doesn't have nitrates. Since there is no ammonia in the water, there are no nitrates.

[CharlyBaltimore]

Some people actually do have nitrates in their tap water. True.

[ChilDawg]

Originally posted by NJ Devils Fan
Uhh, tap water doesn't have nitrates. Since there is no ammonia in the water, there are no nitrates.

NJDF, if this is true, then the EPA would not have placed a maximum nitrate content of 40 ppm for tap water.

[carpguy]

NJ
Tapwater can pickup nitrates back at their source. Fertilizer runoff, farm runoff (from, um, the other fertilizers ;) ), leaching from septic fields, etc. all get into the groundwater before it becomes tap.

In some areas (like sunny NYC) its fairly minimal (high end under 10ppm, generally much lower), but in other areas nitrates can get fairly high.

[Faramir]

Much of the UK has nitrate in the tap water. There are other sources of nitrate than ammonia in this world, grasshopper.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Thank you for the bit of information praying mantis. ;)