Who disagrees with this?

[GoldLenny]

I thought that the amount of nitrates also reflects the stuff you cant test for.

No. Nitrates is something we can test for and is one of the indicators that lets us know we need to do a PWC (to lower them). Nitrate is the end product of the Nitrogen Cycle (ammonia>nitrites>nitrates) so whenever nitrates get to 40ppm, you should do a PWC. It is even better if you can keep nitrates below 20ppm but they really don't become dangerous unless they are well over 100ppm.

Here is a long article all about Nitrates (written by a very experienced fishkeeper) and is a good read since high nitrates can also indicate many other things to look for in your tank. http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/02/nitrates-long-explanation-thanks-to.html

As others have said, nitrates do not reflect the many other biological and chemical processes taking place in our tanks that we cannot test for. We can only read the many studies being done in the aquaculture industry (where they have more money to spend on these studies) and learn from them.

 

[TKOS]

Nitrates of course can be artificially lower in a planted tank as the plants use them as a food source. Also water conditioners like Prime can affect how the show up on tests sometimes.

Plants shouldn't be too much of a problem with goldfish though, since they would long since be eaten.

 

[GoldLenny]

Plants shouldn't be too much of a problem with goldfish though, since they would long since be eaten.

I've thoroughly interrogated my goldfish using tactics developed at Gitmo and they both swear they did not eat my plants. They blame it on my lack of a green thumb. :headshake2: LOL