How High is high Nitrate?

dshipl01

dshipl01

DCichlidDude
Nov 10, 2009
40
0
6
Youngsville NC
Hello all, I have a 55 gallon cichlid tank set up with an xp3 filter and two powerheads moving water. I set this tank up back in September and finally got it stabilized. One thing I have is a constant reading of Nitrate of 20ppm to 40ppm. I do weekly water changes, about 20%. I usually clean the filter every other week and not on the same day as the water change. I have foam pre-filter sponges on both powerheads and the intake to the xp3. I also rinse these when doing the water change. Note: this does not cut down the flow on my xp3 at all. Actually works great. All other water tests are perfect. How high is too HIGH on the Nitrate readings? I know feeding to much is usually the cause for high Nitrates. I feed a couple of times a day and only what these pigs will eat in 20 seconds or so. One other thing that I think might be part of this, I have a small size gravel as the substrate and I may have too much in the tank. It is about 2 to 3 inches deep. Could this be the issue? Any suggestions would be very helpful! I have a link to a youtube video below of the tank.
Thanks!!! :22_yikes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ksVgx3vX0
 
Aim to keep your nitrates at 20ppm or below. How often do you do deep gravel vacs? This is a must. You could also up your water changes to twice a week or even do a higher percentage. I know in my unplanted tanks, I'm doing every other day water changes on my breeding tanks and 50-70% on my unplanted goldie tank.
 
Nice looking tank!
Anyway, I would alo check the gravel. Unless you have diggers or live plants, you don't need it that deep.
I would clean the gravel out really well, and unless you have the above mentioned, remove some of it.
If this doesn't help, you just need to do more/larger WCs. Maybe 20%, TWICE a week. Or, if you don'twant to do that, cut down on stock.
Also,live plants help remove nitrate. How about adding some tough, low light, hardy plants like java fern?
 
Actually, the best plants for outcompeting nitrate are floating plants which will work with your low light setup since they are closest to the light source. Maybe try water sprite/Indian fern or guppy grass...Java moss floating at the surface works too if you can start with a big clump.

Plants like Java fern, anubias and onion plants will look nice and probably not be eaten, but they wont grow fast enough to absorb the nitrate very efficiently.
 
platytudes said:
Actually, the best plants for outcompeting nitrate are floating plants which will work with your low light setup since they are closest to the light source. Maybe try water sprite/Indian fern or guppy grass...Java moss floating at the surface works too if you can start with a big clump.

Plants like Java fern, anubias and onion plants will look nice and probably not be eaten, but they wont grow fast enough to absorb the nitrate very efficiently.
Click to expand...
He also has cichlids... Won't they just chow down on things like java moss or other floaters?
 
Yeah, thats why I didnt reccommend floaters. Unfortunately, the fast growing ultra nitrate absorbers are also veeeeery tasty. Stuff like anacharis, hornwort and frog bit wouldnt last 2 seconds in a tank full of cichlids.
 
I don't know, I've got hornwort in my goldfish tank and they totally leave it alone. Never tried guppy grass but it also looks yucky...but you're right about the frogbit, that turned out to be nothing but expensive fish food for them! I wouldn't recommend it or duckweed.

Cichlids eat Java moss? I thought they didn't eat that, the only problem was that they uprooted it all the time....so I figured floating would be ok. Maybe not!
 
How high are the nitrates straight out of the tap?

Mine are 50ppm (upper limit in the UK) so can't get the tank much below that. You have to have a LOT of plants to absorb nitrates and to survive a mbuna tank. Java fern worked in my mbuna tank, but grows slow.
 
You should definitely test what's coming out of your tap. If you're in an area like me, rural, with farm fertilizer runoff adding nitrate to the water supply, you'll see some nitrate in the water. A reading of 20-40ppm is just fine. I know everybody tries to keep them lower, but 20-40ppm is really ok. Cichlids can handle that level of nitrate. If not, somebody better tell my discus, cories, amano shrimp, tetras, etc. etc. You don't say how many cichlids you have in the 55G, but I'm guessing your high nitrate level is a combination of everything.....fish stock level, feeding routine, not enough weekly gravel cleaning and not changing out enough water each week. The depth of the gravel is fine. You don't mention anything about cleaning it weekly though. And for water changes, depending on stock and feeding routines, 20% seems like such a small amount to me, I'm changing 75-80% of my water out every week.

You're going to dilute your nitrate with water changes, so if you're reading 40ppm and you do a 50% water change, your nitrate level will be at 20ppm. While your level of nitrate is not going to harm the fish, unless you're getting a reading above 10ppm out of the tap, I think you can reduce it by just upping your water change amounts and doing regular gravel cleaning.

And nitrate is not just from feeding too much, although it is a contributor. The big contributor......fish excrete ammonia, which is converted to nitrite, which is then converted to nitrate. So a heavy stock load in the tank will result in higher nitrate levels too.
 
I try to keep my nitrates less than 10ppm for non-planted tanks and right at 10ppm for planted. Agree you need to know what is coming out of your tap. For my high bioload, non-planted tanks, I'll utilize chemical media, such as chemipure or purigen, to help keep my nitrates down so I don't have to do quite as many water changes (makes it so I can do 50% weekly instead of twice a week).
 
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