My water changes for messy fish approach the 70-80% level 1-2x weekly. Fish don't seem to mind the large water changes.
For smaller trops, I do the smaller 30-50% once weekly.
For smaller trops, I do the smaller 30-50% once weekly.
How do i keep nitrates under control in my tank (180g)
- Thread starter Jayfish7
- Start date
I agree 100%.
I would however seriously be careful with xraycer's suggestion above.
Never clean all of your filters at the same time. That is the recipe for wiping your beneficial bacteria colony out and causing an ammonia spike in a fully cycled tank.
In short this is the WORST thing that you could "unintentionally?" do to your cycled tank!!!!!!!
I also seriously disagree that the trapped gunk significantly increases your nitrates. What trapped gunk does is decrease the flow through the filter. That decreases the feed of Ammonia and Nitrites to the beneficial bacteria that resides in your filter. This in turn inhibits their maximum potential to convert the precursors to nitrates. Cleaning all of your filters thoroughly without a water change will not decrease your nitrates and will spike your tank!
Clean at maximum 50% of your filters at any one time, and stagger cleaning them by at least two weeks!
The simplest thing is to reduce the temperature a bit and feed less. Skip a day or two per week. Less waste = less nitrates. You could add some Pothos or other plant to help as well, but it won't be instant nitrate reduction.
Next, up your water change schedule. Water changes dilute nitrates. Do 50% water changes per day or every other day until your levels are under 20ppm. And vacuum your substrate really well, if it full of crap.
Finally, clean your canister filter(s). Dipping your bio media in tank water isn't going to kill the beneficial bacteria in your filter or tank (which, by the way, covers everything in your tank). Thoroughly rinse or replace your mechanical media. And don't allow it to become really dirty again. I clean mine weekly.
One of the reasons that I don't use canisters is that they don't allow quick and easy cleaning of mechanical media (the way that a sump/dump, box filter or even HOB does). Cleaning them is a PITA, which means that they become filled with crap. Much better to remove waste before it breaks down to produce nitrate than to have a plastic box of it spewing it into your tank.
Matt
Next, up your water change schedule. Water changes dilute nitrates. Do 50% water changes per day or every other day until your levels are under 20ppm. And vacuum your substrate really well, if it full of crap.
Finally, clean your canister filter(s). Dipping your bio media in tank water isn't going to kill the beneficial bacteria in your filter or tank (which, by the way, covers everything in your tank). Thoroughly rinse or replace your mechanical media. And don't allow it to become really dirty again. I clean mine weekly.
One of the reasons that I don't use canisters is that they don't allow quick and easy cleaning of mechanical media (the way that a sump/dump, box filter or even HOB does). Cleaning them is a PITA, which means that they become filled with crap. Much better to remove waste before it breaks down to produce nitrate than to have a plastic box of it spewing it into your tank.
Matt
I have never used a canister filter and stopped using HOB's several years ago due to exactly what you mentioned, the PITA keeping the plastic box from spewing gunk into my tank.
I cannot disagree with you more on the location of the extreme majority of the functional beneficial bacteria outside of your "filter". The substrate and decor contain such a small concentration of the BB that it is highly impractical to consider it a viable source contributing significantly to the nitrogen cycle within the tank. Your BB militia is in your filters! Even if the concentration was significant, without an "under gravel filter" you are NOT circulating enough water through the gravel to expose the ammonia and nitrites to the full colony within your substrate!
I have had a grand total of one massive ammonia spike in my 30+ tanks since quitting the HOB nightmare. It occurred quickly upon switching up filtration systems and was without question due to my negligence.
What I did was drain water from my tank into 5G plastic buckets and thoroughly rinsed all six of the size V sponge filters in the tank water siphoned into the buckets. I whiped a 135G tank completely out!
I have never been "negligent" cleaning my filters since, and have not experienced anything similiar in the years since.
Please do not take my experience as "gospel". I have passed along my experience and encourage anyone who feels different to feel free to rinse any or all of your filters daily if that is what you believe will lead to the best success in your tanks.
Eiher way, I wish all good luck!
Are you using tap water? If so, have you tested it? I started using ro/di water, that I was only using for my reef tank, on my freshwater tanks...turns out my tap water hovers around 40ppm. May be a good place to start before trying the above suggestions.
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Whoa, easy killer!
I never mentioned cleaning all the filters at the same time, just more often. Rinsing your media using tank water will not kill any bb. You are wrong, all the organic "crap" accumalated by your filter pads and at the bottom of the canisters do ultimately get converted to nitrates. That is a major reason why you vacuum gravel.
But I suppose I've been doing it all wrong in the past 30 years of fish keeping. I also suppose that since I've never had a single tank crashed, it must be due to just pure luck.
The whole "Don't clean your filters" thing is being blown waaaay out of proportion. BB lives on any surface area in the system that gets oxygen and nitrogenous waste. This means your gravel too. In a bare tank, yeah be very wary of cleaning your filter, especially if you have no permanent BB homes (such as biowheels, bioballs, etc...). As mentioned above, cleaning a filter in tank water won't kill all of your BB. A completely clogged filter pad won't nitrify well either. But if you have a healthy amount of surface area in a tank (i.e. gravel, decorations, plants) then I wouldn't worry as much about cleaning the filter with tap water. Many (most?) people run tanks on single filters all the time and they manage to clean them without issue.
OP, you could try running a denitrification reactor. They're easy to build or buy. Just pick a suitable carbon source for the anoxic bacteria and try not to overdose. Alcohols, vinegars, and sugars are good potential carbon sources, or you can buy a commercially available product. We run a large version of these reactors at work and they function very well. The water coming out of the reactor usually has about 10% of the nitrates as the water going in.
OP, you could try running a denitrification reactor. They're easy to build or buy. Just pick a suitable carbon source for the anoxic bacteria and try not to overdose. Alcohols, vinegars, and sugars are good potential carbon sources, or you can buy a commercially available product. We run a large version of these reactors at work and they function very well. The water coming out of the reactor usually has about 10% of the nitrates as the water going in.
I'm not sure if the OP is in NYC, but I googled the NYC drinking water quality report, and the nitrates from the tap (according to the report, which I believe because of my previous experience putting the same type report together for my city) are less than 1ppm. (Info is in Table 1)
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/wsstate13.pdf
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/wsstate13.pdf
There is no shortage of beneficial bacterial all over a tank, it's decorations, substrate, etc.... not just in the filter.
Matt
Matt
