Fertilizers and Nitrate Readings

[jetajockey]

Test your tap water for nitrates.

 

[dundadundun]

^^^he said 5ppm in the OP.

inert substrate then?

 

[jetajockey]

^^^he said 5ppm in the OP.

inert substrate then?

Oops, missed that part.

Not dosing flourish Nitrogen?

Did you do a fishless cycle? Use established filter media?

Have you tried doing a few large water changes to get the nitrates down and then periodically testing to see if/how fast they are going back up?

 

[plantbrain]

I am experienced in the aquarium hobby but am new to planted tanks. I have a Fluval Ebi 8 gallon shrimp tank that I have heavily planted. I occasionally dose Flourish, Iron, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Excel. I want to maintain decent plants without insane levels of growth. So far I have been successful. I also keep shrimp but I am worried about my Nitrate readings. I always seem to have high nitrates. I have less than 10 shrimp and I feed them only once every 2 or 3 days and very little at that since they eat the algae and plant matter in the tank as well. I have been doing water changes because my nitrates have been so high but my goal is to have the plants reduce nitrate levels. My nitrate readings range from 40 to 80 ppm!!! My tap water has less than 5 ppm. Could my fertilizers be affecting the test kit?

Calibrated the test kit to see if the readings are accurate?
This is always the 1st step.

You may not have any issue.

Since the tank is 8 gal, , simply using the Tap and doing a weekly water change of say 4-5 gal will take care of any and all issues with ferts.

Just dose good to prevent anything from running out.........and the water change will remove any excess.
Then you can avoid the test altogether.

4-5 gal, that takes about 3-4 minutes tops, less time than a NO3 test.

 

[Tien23]

Thanks for the help. My tank is fully established but I did do a fishless cycle. I just used a few shrimp at the beginning. The tank has been running for over 2 months now. Plantbrain, you mentioned calibrating the kit. Can API dropper test kits ne calibrated? I will just have to continue with water changes. I want my nitrates low to encourage the shrimp to breed.

 

[jpappy789]

You could try testing against quality RO water. Should come up 0 ppm. If not its either user error or the kit has expired (check the lot #)

 

[dundadundun]

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/f...83545-calibrating-test-kits-non-chemists.html
http://www.bestaquariumregulator.com/reference.htm

this should be a good start to your search. tom has written a bit about this and so have other folks on his site. (hoppy's a member there as well).