Aquarix 4 Aquarium Software

[Roan Art]

I'm using Aquarix 4 software to log everything for my 5 aquariums. The program was originally written in German and translated to English. It has some default settings and I noticed that the nitrates are pre-set to a min of 5.000 mg/l and a max of 75.000 mg/l. The nitrates in all my aquariums are consistant at 0 mg/l and therefore the program gives me a warning. Is this min setting for nitrates correct? Are my nitrates too *low*? The all of the default settings can be changed, it just worries me that it's preset at 5.00

What ARE the optimum settings for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in an established aquarium? All zeros? What are the acceptable minimums and maxs?

Thanks!
Roan

 

[Jericho]

Ammonia and nitrites should be zerro. You should show some sort of nitrates becasue that is showing that the bacteria is working and converting the amonia and nitrites to the nitrates. Now if you have a planted tank that may be a different story (I have plastic so I do not know).

 

[Roan Art]

Ammonia and nitrites should be zerro. You should show some sort of nitrates becasue that is showing that the bacteria is working and converting the amonia and nitrites to the nitrates. Now if you have a planted tank that may be a different story (I have plastic so I do not know).

Oh, that's RIGHT! I forgot that plants will remove some of the nitrates from the water! Thank you SO much! All of my tanks are planted and they all (except the newest one in which the plants haven't had any real growth yet) read 0 for nitrates.

Thanks again!
Roan