HI NITRATES-help

You say that your gravel is almost new at this point..... did you clean/vacumn all of the gravel in your tank at once? You may have released a lot of nitrates if you cleaned everything at once in your tank, at least that's what I have read some place before. They said not to clean all of your gravel at once.

Also, why do you use ammo chips in your 330 filter? If the bio wheel is suppose to do it's job correctly, isn't it suppose to convert all of your ammonia correctly? I thought the bacteria on the bio-wheel uses ammonia from the tank as food, if your removing it before it gets to the bio wheel....then??? If your having ammonia spikes with a 6 year old established bio-wheel I think there's something else wrong.
 
i did clean all the gravel, but the nitrates were of the chart before that. I realized when I was through that i had probably released a bunch more.

My ammonia is fine. In fact everything is fine except the nitrates. Nitrites are at zero. Ammonia is at zero. PH is perfect and I use Novaqua to condition the water. That's what is weird--all the precursers to nitrate are non existent.

I rinse the filters in tap water, but do not scrub them. I only get the visible waste off. Then I soak them in conditioned water before returning to the tank.

Progress report:
I have been following the 20% a day water change recommendation from above with an initial 35% change and the nitrates are coming down, but still at the top of the chart. Before, the test tube water was turning blood red 30 seconds into the 1 minute shake. At least now it needs the 5 minutes to get to the top.
I got all new plants and eliminated a piece of coral i was using as part of the rock structure.
I trashed the biowheels because they were odorous. I put a power head in with a sponge on it and I have a canister filter on its way.

I'll just keep with the 20% a day until the levels are good.
 
Last edited:
hve you ever thought about using live plants? they could help with those nitrates, i am sure. also, overfeeding could also cause high nitrate levels. someone please correct me if i am wrong.


good luck!
 
over feeding does cause nitrates. i cut way back a long time ago. I feed once every other day.

I keep african cichlids--they eat live plants or else I would do that.
 
If you up your water changes to 50% you can get nitrates down fairly quickly. Say nitrates are at 100ppm (a nice easy number)

50ppm after 50% water change
25ppm after 50% water change
12.5ppm after 50% water change

After just three water changes you are down to a good level.
 
Leave the Bio-Wheels alone

Everything is working except your part! The nitrates are the final step in the bio filtration sequence. You must do consistant water changes to keep the nitrates at an acceptable level. This will be determined by the bio load in the tank.
 
I also had an episode of high nitrates in my tanks. I tracked the why to two sources. One was my fault. I was being cheapo in rinsing the filter media instead of replacing it-this is a huge source of nitrates. The other is I have well water and I live in a very rural area. As I was frantically changing the water, a farmer was fertilizing the field 50 or so feet away from my property line. I went to Walmart and purchased their RO water and did my water changes with that. My tap nitrates are back to a reasonable level, and my tanks are all heavily planted- even so, reasonable is 20ppm and I mean the tanks are heavily planted.

You can buy Nitrate sponge from a better LFS and you can put that into the extra holder in your filter. (I also did that) but most will say it doesn't do much. It was worth a try for me. You are lucky if you haven't lost any fish due to the Nitrates, I lost several.

How old is your test kit? It might be worth a try to pick up a new one and do a comparison.
 
reiverix said:
If you up your water changes to 50% you can get nitrates down fairly quickly. Say nitrates are at 100ppm (a nice easy number)

50ppm after 50% water change
25ppm after 50% water change
12.5ppm after 50% water change

After just three water changes you are down to a good level.
Click to expand...

how often?
 
wendyinwichita said:
I also had an episode of high nitrates in my tanks. I tracked the why to two sources. One was my fault. I was being cheapo in rinsing the filter media instead of replacing it-this is a huge source of nitrates. The other is I have well water and I live in a very rural area. As I was frantically changing the water, a farmer was fertilizing the field 50 or so feet away from my property line. I went to Walmart and purchased their RO water and did my water changes with that. My tap nitrates are back to a reasonable level, and my tanks are all heavily planted- even so, reasonable is 20ppm and I mean the tanks are heavily planted.

You can buy Nitrate sponge from a better LFS and you can put that into the extra holder in your filter. (I also did that) but most will say it doesn't do much. It was worth a try for me. You are lucky if you haven't lost any fish due to the Nitrates, I lost several.

How old is your test kit? It might be worth a try to pick up a new one and do a comparison.
Click to expand...



I disagree. Rinsing is much better than replacing. If you replace, you loose most of your biofilter. Just rinse very well in tank water. NitrAte problems are a result in the owners ignorance (not a bad thing if you are trying to learn) or lazyness. Change your water weekly, if not bi weekly, dont overfeed, and use your gravel vacuum :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom