Nitrate question

T

TorturedSOUL

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Apr 3, 2005
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I constantly have a nitrate reading of about 40ppm in my tank. Every weekend I gravel vac and do about a 40% water change and do about a 25% water change during the week. I have some messy eaters (2 eels and 2 severums) and I also have a pretty crowded tank for a 55 gallon tank. I'm in the process of improving the bio load in my tank.

4 monos
9 danios
1 tyre track eel
1 fire eel
2 gold severums
1 mystic catfish (don't actually know I can't find any reference anywhere)

I'm pretty much sick of changing water.

1) Does the nitrate removal media work?
2) How bad is Nitrate for fish at a level of 40PPM? What is an acceptable level? My neighbor has a 40 gallon tank with about 50 fish in it including breeding convicts and the floor of his tank is covered in fish poo and he changes the water once a month.
 
1) Reducing the bio-load will be a better solution (not to mention getting those monos into brackish). The problem with a chemical reduction of nitrates is that nitrates are an indicator--they reflect rising levels of other wastes that we can't measure. Get rid of the nitrates, and it may test fine, but the hormones and such in the water are still rising, and those can cause serious problems in the long run.

2) See above. It's not that nitrates are bad, it's that they can be tested easily and are indicative of general tank conditions.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

I've found a LFS that will take the monos. 1 of them had an infection that antibiotics seems to have cleared up. I think it got stressed/scapped up when I moved them to my 55 gallon tank. It's hard to turn them in when their mouth looks all fuzzy and the water is green. The LFS has a bunch of 200 gallon+ fresh and saltwater aquariums and a couple of brackish so it seems like a good place for them.

I'll retest the tap water, I remember testing it a few months ago and there not being any significant readings of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate...just really hard water.

Fish stores should make the following disclaimers:

1) Your fish, like puppies, will get large.
2) You will have to change a lot of water.
 
Just curious - have you tested your neighbor's water?
 
I dont actually count myself as and expert. But my suggestion if you dont allready have them. Is to buy some plants. Nitrates is what plants feed off of. It may take a little while to see a noticeable reduction but I think they generally help. If you allready ave plants then maybe some more? Other then that no other suggestions.
 
Nitrate levels is something most people will agree to keep low - under 20ppm.
I've had my N-ates peak off-the-charts, and recently been steady at around 40ppm.
My fish don't look like they are bothered by it.
Wardley literature claims it's fine up to 60ppm or was it 80ppm - rather high and almost anyone in here will back at those numbers.
My tank is overstocked.
Water changes is something I have to live with - do at least 50% each weekend, and try to get a partial in the middle of the week, so the schedule is somewhat like what you are doing now.
The big difference is that you're over 5x the amount of water I have to worry about!
I'm trying to throw in a lot of plants to somehow control the N-ates, but this has been rather minor in difference.
I've currently got two bunches of anacharis, two bunches of cabomba, and two corkscrew (vals?).

Looks like to only way to really get the N-ates under control is to reduce feeding and / or water changes.
Other (more expensive) option is a veggie filter / sump - there's a thread going on somewhere on this right now.
 
How many plants is "good" I have a couple of bunches of java fern, two aamzon swords...some stuff that looks like "tall grass" etc.

Is there a vegitation to nitrate reduction ratio?
 
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