Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fishtank Filtration and Cycling => Topic started by: Fiona on April 07, 2016, 06:45:06 PM
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As the title says I just checked in the community calculator and I'm only 36% stocked and have been for at least 2 months and I've still got off the scale nitrates. Tap is 40ppm. Very hard water.
You've seen photos of my tank, its quite densely planted, although I had a gardening session in there this week. John Innes seed compost, topped with white sand as substrate. Liquid carbon dosed daily and iron supplement weekly.
I don't think I overfeed my fish. 1 soft algae pellet, a pinch of dried flaked food, courgette slice every 2 days and half a cube of bloodworms twice a week isn't excessive.
I did have an oversized internal and this week I fitted a fluval 206 external filter.
Sooo why are my nitrates so high?
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How high is high?
Just to eliminate ... have you tested the Nitrate on the liquid carbon?
Not saying it's a likely source but ...
Unless you also use the same liquid carbon on your QT tank which, you've said elsewhere, has low nitrates that would put an end to that idea.
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I've been using the liquid carbon in the QT too since I got it. You use the same source for it Simon, I've no idea how to test it with my API test kit, however the nitrates in the 200l were high even before I was using that product.
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The way to test the liquid carbon would be to run a bucket of water and test the nitrate level of that. Then add liquid carbon to the bucket at the same rate you do in the tank (200 litre tank so if the bucket held 5 litres, one fortieth of the amount you add to the tank) and measure nitrate again. The dose wouldn't need to be terribly accurate as you just want to know if it affects the nitrate level yes or no, the scale of any alteration isn't really important.
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I'd say that it's highly unlikely that the liquid carbon is adding nitrates.
Can't remember details about this tank? Has it been set up for long? Are your plants growing strongly? Plants only use nitrogen sources when they are growing. I've found floating plants to be by far the most efficient at reducing nitrate.
But really, I've no idea ......................... seems quite mysterious.
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Fiona, Just a thought. I wonder if your water supply is treated with Chloramines, if it is then you have a mixture of Chlorine and Ammonia coming into the tank. Treating it with conditioner should deal with it but if you also use API conditioner there are two recommended dosages one for Chlorine and a much higher one for Chloramines.
If the tank is established Ammonia should be reduced to zero, but the nitrogen cycle would be constantly being primed each water change above your stocking level and this would end up as Nitrates.
I guess an Ammonia check on your tap water will prove this. I would suggest a test both before and after adding your normal amount of conditioner as I'm not sure if the Ammonia is detectable when bound to the Chlorine before its treated.
Regards,
Andy the minion
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I emailed my water supplier and my tap water is treated with chloramine and I use a fluval aqua plus water conditioner which removes chlorine and chloramine.
I recently bought tetra test strips and they indicate the nitrates in the 200l tank are 50ppm, which isnt bad considering my tap water is 40ppm. The API test was unreadable to my eyes and showed as being somewhere between 40-80ppm.
I also recently acquired some amazonian frogbit which has reduced the nitrates in the shrimpery to 20ppm prior to a water change.
I was chatting to the guy in MA yesterday who lives up the road to me and he says in his densely planted tanks he never does a water change. He just tops the tanks up so the tap water acts as a buffer. We have very hard water in our area. So I'm going to try and do the same in my shrimpery. Hopefully the carpeting plant will eventually cover the majority of the substrate and the poop will filter down through the fine gravel and convert to plant food for them and the other plants I have growing. Thats the eventual aim anyway. I'd like to be able to do the same with the other tanks but as one has stiphs in it and they dig everywhere it's unlikely to happen in that tank while I have them and my son's tank doesnt contain soil.
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The MA guy's method is similar to mine, I very rarely do water changes and not more than 10%. Have done the same ever since I started the tanks and have had no problems. As Diana Walstad says "let the plants do the work". Of course, this may only be possible with hard water with good buffering capacity.
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I take it you have hard water as well Richard?
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Pretty hard, yes. The reservoir is basically on Liassic limestone. It's not as hard as the supply we had when I was a child, from a different reservoir. In those days, any soap or detergent would form a thick scum on the water surface. My pH is only about 7.3/7.4, so within sensible limits for many fish apart from the real acid specialists.
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Hello. I'm sorry your having a bad time. I was getting some but very small amount nitrites in my tank but think mine was due to changing to external filter and messing around with media. Plus I was getting bit of cloudy water. I spoke to my lfs and asked if he coukd help. He told me to try arcadia poly-filter. I done some reading up on it and must admit I was impressed. I purchased some and placed it in my filter. The next day I checked my levels. Nitrite was gone and nitrates had lowered. Also my phosphates lowered so that will help with the algae I was getting. Plus the water has cleared. I'm so pleased. I'm always going to use them now. It's white pad and the change colour to tell you what it's taken out and turns black when it's done with and it's time to change it. It takes bad stuff out the water of the right amount that needs to conduct out. Just thought I'd mention it incase it can help you reduce your nitrates as it states it does and has mine. Good luck
Maria
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I use Poylfilter to remove medication etc from the the tank. To be precise, to remove the last bit after I've used carbon to get rid of the bulk of it - Polyfilter is just too expensive to use a lot of it.
You may also see it advertised as Underworld Polyfilter - that used to be the name before Arcadia took it over.
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Thanks for the advice Maria. I do have polyfilter but for the reasons Sue stated I just use it to remove meds.
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John Innes composts contain added nitrates, aswell as phosphates and other compounds that are collectively "plant fertilisers".
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Thats why I used seed compost, it's got a very low nutrient base. I'm going to redo the entire tank after I finish college and replace that back and sides with soil topped with fine gravel. Hopefully the plants will grow better and that'll help nitrate levels in the tank.
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Hi
I had high nitrates last year, ordered and got 3 ceretopteris plants, which did exactly what I'd read on the Internet. They sucked the nitrates right out
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I had high nitrates last year, ordered and got 3 ceretopteris plants, which did exactly what I'd read on the Internet. They sucked the nitrates right out
Thanks Rosaleen, I'll try and get hold of some when I redo my tank in a couple of weeks, the brown algae would just smother it at the moment.