High Nitrates..

Rachel.Cody · Mar 11, 2015

My polys havent been eating like they normally do and yesterday I saw my gar laying on the bottom of the tank breathing really heavy so i grabbed my test kit. I hate being a fish keeper with terrible water parameters, its embarrassing but yesterday my parameters were ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite between 2 and 5 ppm and nitrate about 80 ppm. I recently had a rena filstar (made for 75 gal) and a sunsun 304b and the tanks parameters were always good. I recently moved the 304b to my growout tank and put two emporer 400s on my 150 in its place. So in a panic last night i did a 20% water change (cant do big WC because its a cold only tap beside my tank) and immediately grabbed the 304b and switched it for one of the emporer 400s. I dosed with a good amount of prime also. Tonight i tested my water again and its still reading 80 ppm nitrates and .25 ppm nitrite. Will it take my sunsun some time to grow more bacteria for the bigger bioload? Should i replace the filstar with another 304b? Im not worried about the nitrites as they are going away fine now but the nitrates I am worried about.. What can I do to keep them down? I usually do a 10% WC daily on the tank. Any advice is appreciated..

duanes · Mar 12, 2015

Normal filtration produces nitrate, it is the byproduct of our filters beneficial bacteria (the nitrosomonas and nitrobacter groups).
We basically can only get rid of nitrate through either, water changes, plants (terrestrials like pothos, or water plants) or nitrate reactors, or a combination or all 3 methods.

Rachel.Cody · Mar 12, 2015

I may try some more plants or something.. thank you

Sent from my SM-G900P using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

mudbuttjones · Mar 12, 2015

If you're spending the time to do 10% daily it would probably not be too much harder to do 20% daily, but I don't know your set up. It looks like 10% daily isn't enough to keep the nitrates under control.
10% per day doesn't necessarily equal out to the effectiveness of doing 70% once a week. You're fish are probably creating nitrates at a rate similar to the rate at which you are removing them.

Plants do help a lot, they might help you maintain a good healthy level of nitrates, but they won't bring you down to <20ppm from a high concentration overnight.

I use pothos and love it. I'd give it a shot.

Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

mudbuttjones · Mar 12, 2015

What I mean is you'll have to try and get a handle on your nitrates with water changes before the plants will make a noticeable difference.

Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

Woefulrelic · Mar 12, 2015

Get a bigger tank, add plant or reduce bioload. None of them are terribly ideal but 1-2 of them are necessary.

Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

deeda · Mar 12, 2015

Don't you have access to a faucet that provides both hot and cold water? I've seen your other posts and know you also have tanks in the basement. A hose will make water changes easier and you can adjust the water to the correct temperature for your tanks.

Yuki Rihwa · Mar 12, 2015

If you have enough pothos in your tank then pothos is notorious nitrate/water nutrition eater, I used to have a heavy bioload on 1 of my tank and my nitrate is almost 80 ppm at all time (my tap water nitrate is 40 ppm as standard), so I put ton of pothos on top of my tank along with heavy planted plants, after a month my Nitrate is at 0 ppm and will get back to 0 ppm after water change within 2 days or less. Now I just keep that tank as planted tank with very very light bioload and I have to remove my pothos cause it suck up most of nutrition in my water and starve other plants and cause them dying slowly.
**site note**
After removed pothos all my plants getting better and improved their grow rate, I can see some of my plants growing up day by day

REDTAIL1928 · Mar 12, 2015

do bigger water changes, make sure u clean behind any decor and get to the areas where there is low flow . Usually there is where u will find poop, detris, etc... just make sure the parameters are close to the tanks water I.e. temp, pH specifically. If u change 10 perc, ur only taking out 10 perc of nitrates, do like 30 to 40 perc every 2 days for the next few weeks, make sure ur filters are clean especially in canisters where the sponges get full of detris, make sure u have enough water flow as well by the filters. Under filtering the tank will result in high nitrite and nitrate. If u have a wet dry, make sure theres no detris under the area below the bio balls. Thats a nitrate factory as well. Good luck boss

Sent from my SGH-M819N using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

Rachel.Cody · Mar 12, 2015

Thanks for all the help guys. Ill try doing 20% changes real slow so there isnt a huge temp swing. My hot water faucet is upstairs, i would add a hot water faucet from the water heater but thats not a great idea atm. Where can i buy pothos? Walmart? I just cleaned both canisters along with rinsing the media in tank water. I have both of my canisters filled with pond matrix and ceramic rings. My tank has good flow, both spray bars angled down and a big powerhead running behind my driftwood and rocks. Stock is (should be upgrading soon) 12" endli bichir, 12" lapradei bichir, 9" delhezi bichir, 11" teugelsi bichir, 2x 10" florida gar and a 10" clown knife. I know its stocked pretty heavy but feedings are every other day. I may add another 304b in place of the emporer 400. I clean my canisters every two weeks and hob every week. Usually theyre not too bad. I think part of the issue is that about two weeks ago i changed out all the sand and put new in.

Sent from my SM-G900P using MonsterAquariaNetwork App


zoomed.com	hikariusa.com		aqaimports.com	Store

Search

Search

High Nitrates..

Rachel.Cody

Jack Dempsey

duanes

MFK Moderators

Rachel.Cody

Jack Dempsey

mudbuttjones

Fire Eel

mudbuttjones

Fire Eel

Woefulrelic

Goliath Tigerfish

deeda

Silver Tier VIP

Yuki Rihwa

Redtail Catfish

REDTAIL1928

Gambusia

Rachel.Cody

Jack Dempsey