well the mystery is solved, their whole store runs off an oversized pool filter. its huge!
they also told me nitRATES were very toxic to fish, is that true???
they also told me nitRATES were very toxic to fish, is that true???
visited petsmart
- Thread starter Hans
- Start date
Nitrates are toxic, but generally speaking not until levels reach over 40 ppm will it pose a danger to fish.
If gives you less toxic toxins, if that makes sense. Nitrates are less toxic than Nitrite and much less than Ammonia.
I always had my suspicions that Petsmart ran all their tanks off a common filter system. That is why you see the same disease at teh same time in several different tanks. I don't even think they put the nets in solution after use.
Generally speaking, it takes much more than 40 ppm of nitrates to actually become "toxic" to the fish's health. Some people have levels of 50-60 although thats certainly not ideal.
So basically... if you had enough nitrates in your water for them to become toxic to your fish, you would have to seriously skip the water changes, and totally ignore the aquarium all together.
So basically... if you had enough nitrates in your water for them to become toxic to your fish, you would have to seriously skip the water changes, and totally ignore the aquarium all together.
Nitrate is between one and two orders of magnitude less toxic than nitrite - look at the scales on the test kits for a heavy hint. An order of magnitude is a 10x change.
But ammonia and nitrite are highly toxic short-term. Nitrate toxicity is long-term. Big difference, huge. Besides, we do not really know that the long-term toxicity seen with high nitrate titers in under-maintained tanks is entirely nitrate's fault, or if it is potentiated or actully solely due to or by the other gunderfunk that is also present and which we do not test for outside of a laboratory with specrtrophotometers and flame photometers. Nitrate is a coal-mine canary, it is an indicator of pollution, not necessarily the sole and entire pollution itself.
Some fish are senstive to nitrates (and associated pollutants) at less than 40 ppm, others can survive a over 100 ppm. There are big species differences there.
HTH
But ammonia and nitrite are highly toxic short-term. Nitrate toxicity is long-term. Big difference, huge. Besides, we do not really know that the long-term toxicity seen with high nitrate titers in under-maintained tanks is entirely nitrate's fault, or if it is potentiated or actully solely due to or by the other gunderfunk that is also present and which we do not test for outside of a laboratory with specrtrophotometers and flame photometers. Nitrate is a coal-mine canary, it is an indicator of pollution, not necessarily the sole and entire pollution itself.
Some fish are senstive to nitrates (and associated pollutants) at less than 40 ppm, others can survive a over 100 ppm. There are big species differences there.
HTH
