water changes are not lowering nitrates

[p0tluck]

i know i have 2 other threads with this in it one in my root tab and ferts thread where i mentioned nitrates and a member posted in there trying to help me with how to lower them but i just couldn't understand it and in planted category under water changes so i'm moving this so i don't intrude on someones thread.

lets start off by saying i am VERY on point with everything i do (how much water i change, how much prime i add, how much food i feed, to my stocking and even my filtration turnover rate which is 14.5)

my tank is 55 gallons
I do 2 water changes a week approx 30-32% each time so i'm doing 60+% per week ( removing and adding 16-18 gallons of water each time), i gravel vac very thorough both times at 1/3rd gravel each time and skimming the other surface, i do not have anything else in my tank besides filters old food/waste/debris can sit and rot in except my texas holey rock which i also swish in fish water to get stuff out.

I have 2 HoB's 1 aquaclear 110, 1 aquaclear 70
i alternate cleaning my filters every month and a half
my ammonia and nitrite are always 0
ph 7.5
temp 78
nitrates 60
my tap water tests sub 5 ppm

my stock is this
6 lemon tetras
2 buenos aires tetras
1 turquoise rainbow
3 phantom tetras
1 calico BN
2 glo light danios
Yes i know some of the fish listed need 6+ i did have them schooled but a year ago i had columnaris that killed over half my stock (yes at that time i was overstocked at 123%)

I know people say its virtually impossible to still have 60 ppm right after a water change but its true, maybe i am the unlucky one whom it only happens to as it does not make sense to me either thus why it is so frustrating.

i have taken a video of me doing my nitrate test to maybe see if i am doing the test incorrectly, this test was done approx 28 hours after my PWC , if i have to i will do a video of me doing my water change i mean this shouldn't be that complicated there has to be an answer to why it's happening and how to fix it even though its not absurdly high, i don't have many plants a few anubias and 3 swords. maybe bad nitrate test kits i have absolutely no idea , and my bio load is very small.

i feed very small portions 2 x a day for 4 days with cobalt probiotics spirulina veggie flake on one of those 4 days i do a small flake feed in the am and frozen blood worms (1 cube) at night, once every 2 weeks i do blanched zucchini.

BTW this would of been so much faster and i could of went to bed if i had just taken a video on regular hd but noo i had to go 60 fps and or took a pic but i wanted to see if i'm doing the test wrong lol (my bad habit of trying to make everything perfect)

 

[dougall]

Hoe does your water test right before the PWC for nitrates? what about right after?

Have you had a second opinion on the test result? maybe take to a store and have them do it for you?

You cannot really take guidelines provided by a webpage as gospel, there are plenty of other factors that will affect nitrates, like decaying waste, uneaten food, etc.

 

[p0tluck]

Hoe does your water test right before the PWC for nitrates? what about right after?

Have you had a second opinion on the test result? maybe take to a store and have them do it for you?

You cannot really take guidelines provided by a webpage as gospel, there are plenty of other factors that will affect nitrates, like decaying waste, uneaten food, etc.

60 ppm it never drops and yes i know its reallly hard to test nitrates on a hobby level test kit, its even hard to test in a lab cause off different ions.

 

[p0tluck]

did you read my whole book on my PWC's? i make sure i vac out all the uneated food, waste, plant matter, crevices in my rock , drift wood etc etc .

theres no logical reason why my nitrates dont go down and yes i have had it tested at my lfs the most reputable in my area even had them test my tap. they even came to my house to see what was going on with my angel before he passed away.

 

[FreshyFresh]

We've touched on this with all your posts on this. If you're nitrates are measuring 60ppm and you do a true 50% water change, the end result will be 30ppm. If it's not there's one of two things happening. 1) You are not performing the nitrate test properly, which is very common and we've ALL done it wrong at some point. 2) You test kit is not indicating properly. It's expired, etc.

 

[FreshyFresh]

We've touched on this with all your posts on this. If you're nitrates are measuring 60ppm and you do a true 50% water change, the end result will be 30ppm. If it's not there's one of two things happening. 1) You are not performing the nitrate test properly, which is very common and we've ALL done it wrong at some point. 2) You test kit is not indicating properly. It's expired, etc.

 

[FreshyFresh]

There is a 3rd scenario that could be a possibility and sorry if this has been mentioned. Have you measured your source water? If you're tap water has nitrates in it (yuck) you have to add that PPM to the 50% WC lowers your nitrates by 50% ratio.

 

[p0tluck]

i have had the the test kit for about 2 years i did not know they expire i do a true 60 % a week thats 2 30% each week thats all i can say about it tbh its like beating my brain off a wall, my fish are extremely healthy, breeding ( just found another baby lemon tetra 2nd in a month), eating and very lively , not saying i wouldn't like to get them lower i just cannot sit and worry and fret about it anymore, , in the video i showed how i do my test which was the whole purpose of doing the video to see if i am doing it wrong. i will order new bottles ... do all the bottles go bad ammonia, nitrite, ph nitrate? it has been 2 years maybe more and that doesn't include the time it sat on the shelf

 

[FreshyFresh]

Potluck, I watched your video. You are not doing the nitrate test correctly. You have to shake the heck out of bottle #2 before adding the drops. There are solids that settle out in bottle 2. You didn't do this as far as I can see and this will result in a false reading. Again.. very common thing to get wrong. You must shake the heck out of bottle #2 before using it, then shake the completed test tube for a minimum of a minute, then let the test tube sit for 5 min, then read it against your color chart.

 

[p0tluck]

Potluck, I watched your video. You are not doing the nitrate test correctly. You have to shake the heck out of bottle #2 before adding the drops. There are solids that settle out in bottle 2. You didn't do this as far as I can see and this will result in a false reading. Again.. very common thing to get wrong. You must shake the heck out of bottle #2 before using it, then shake the completed test tube for a minimum of a minute, then let the test tube sit for 5 min, then read it against your color chart.

i did, i said in the video i pre shook both bottles vigorously for 1 min each, then shook the vile for 1 min hard, then let it sit 5 min... it felt like my arm was falling off after i shook the bottles

 

[FreshyFresh]

There's no need to shake bottle #1. The instructions say to vigorously shake bottle #2 for 30sec, but I've seen where salts settle out in bottle #2 if not used in a long time, requiring some serious shaking.

Again, sorry if I missed it, but what is the nitrate reading for your tap water?

My API master test kit is ~3.5yrs/old, but I did replace the nitrate bottles a year or so ago given I used up the originals. API puts an expiration date on each bottle. It's somewhere around 4yrs from the date of manufacture.

I know what I would do to try to 'reset' your nitrates. Take the water right down to where your fish, decor, and plants can safely make it through, refill and then do it again. If your nitrates tube isn't still yellow at that point, something is up with your source water or kit.