NITRATE PROBLEM

Have you tested your tap water for nitrates?

What is the cleaning schedule on your canister filters?

How deep is the gravel substrate?

If you aren't seeing a reduction in nitrates with the large water changes, it is possible the nitrate test is too old OR that you initially were not using the test kit properly and the reagents not up to par.

Gravel vacuuming should not impact your good bacteria perceptibly.

Do you see much debris in your filters when you clean them?

Which brand & model canisters are you using? What media are you using in them? Just curious how you have them set up.

deeda said:

How deep is the gravel substrate?

If you aren't seeing a reduction in nitrates with the large water changes, it is possible the nitrate test is too old OR that you initially were not using the test kit properly and the reagents not up to par.

Gravel vacuuming should not impact your good bacteria perceptibly.

Do you see much debris in your filters when you clean them?

Which brand & model canisters are you using? What media are you using in them? Just curious how you have them set up.

Click to expand...

X2. If your test kit is older than 6 months old, get your water tested elsewhere..
Nitrate reagent is very time sensitive.
Good thing is, the test reads higher than it should and you worry for nothing.



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And too add to those above you need to shake a living crap out of bottle #2. It has crystals that settle down at the bottom and stick to the bottom of the bottle. I mean you have to shake the living piss out of it and give it a few good bangs on a table.

But photos take a couple of weeks to get started up, have you recharged the pureigin inside your canisters? If its a good sized plant then each plant should soak up about 15 ppm a week so if everything is fine in the tank I would just wait until the photos can kick in.

But if you want the fastest way to get rid of them that isnt labor intensive make a algae scrubber. My fh tank thats divided nearly has 10ppm of nitrates because the egg grate that I'm using has tons of algae growth on it. Its not stringy algae but the algae that just makes the surface green so I dont even have to clean it. I do water changes biweekly on it only because of the algae constantly keeps nitrate at 10ppm even with two little pigs eating tons. My tank is right below the window in the ceiling so it gets plenty of light, but if yours isnt your going to need to substitute sunlight with artificial light.

The algae scrubber doesn't need a very strong light so a cheap led lighting system would work perfectly but also regular lights would work. If you are going to do it, I personally would use this design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGLnBvDkaO0

Its the best one I have seen so far but as mentioned in the video I would go for a thicker black container and then possibly cut a rectangle in my back ground at the back of the tank so I would never see the light.

But lamps are cheap and cost of running them with high efficient bulbs now days are mere cents a month so a regular desk lamp would work just fine such as this one from walmart. I'm sure you could probably find one at a dollar store though.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Plastic-Desk-Lamp-Black/19398778

Most expensive part is probably the timer but its a investment well worth it I believe. I've been meaning to set up algae scrubbers on my other fh tanks and my jardini's tank but I cant find the time to currently! Its a project in the near future for me though.