water changes not affective at controlling nitrates?

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So based on his calculations you would need to do 3 weeks 50% changes then on week four two 50 % changes just to keep your levels stable without a major increase, then add an extra every few months! Another reason everyone should have test kits...

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Stupid article. Especially to not give any ideas or solutions for solving the problem. Just making a statement which yes is calculated by math and not actual experience. I would like him to do a test and feed the same every week and do the same water change weekly and show the results. Prove it vs saying this is how it is in an aquarium when I just put the math involved with it. I run a drip system but I know many can control tanks with water changes just fine and they don't just keep building higher nitrates.

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Brian is right in post 2, once at 10ppm start it again and it doesnt increase anymore, it stabilises. .. didnt really get get what you meant earlier!-)

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Brian is saying exactly what the guy in the article said. If you produce 10 ppm nitrates a week, doing 50% WC will stabilize the nitrate level in the tank at the weekly nitrate production rate. If you want it to be lower, add plants or a nitrate reactor. All sounds right to me. Or you could do WC more often, or you could put the fish in a bigger tank, or you could remove fish from the existing tank, or you could feed less. All sounds right to me. To really know, measure it. That's what I do.

" If you continue doing the calculations you will see that the readings will normalise at the nitrate production rate, which in the example given above, is 10 units."
 
"As you can see, as long as water is not changed out 100% (which most of us don't), nitrates will keep increasing as time goes by. Water changes does not control nitrate, but only slows down the rate of increase, normalising at the level that it is produced."

This statement is completely in error. It stabilizes. I guess he thinks that one day he'll have a tank that is 100% nitrates and no water.

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crap, crap crap crap, while there are systems to remove nitrates? they are bulky, and require more maint than just changing the water,
if you can get them to work right. just no silver bullet for nitrate creep, do the water test with a quality test kit such as a API Master fresh Water test kit, find what your water schedule needs to be and follow it. i prefer stock and feeding that allows me to do fin level on all tanks once a week.
 
Drstrangelove said:
"As you can see, as long as water is not changed out 100% (which most of us don't), nitrates will keep increasing as time goes by. Water changes does not control nitrate, but only slows down the rate of increase, normalising at the level that it is produced."

This statement is completely in error. It stabilizes. I guess he thinks that one day he'll have a tank that is 100% nitrates and no water.

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i think you are wrong here, one day all the fish be dead, then rotting and then no more nutrients to support the cycle and the nitrates will stabilize.
 
"it stabilizes" is equal to "normalising at the rate it is produced".
 
Seems like this article has been discussed before.

What the calculation shows is that 50% weekly WC isn't sufficient unless your nitrate production is low enough for 50% weekly to be sufficient in which case 50% weekly is sufficient. Same applies for virtually any WC% or frequency.

Silly article IMO. Nitrates are too high, do more or higher volume WCs. Nitrates are low, keep up the good work. KISS principle.


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I think the misunderstanding of the article here is it is from the point of view as waste in volume instead of the more talked about concentration. I think with a little further explanation more people would agree. He is right that the system will normalize at 10 'units' however this is a volume of nitrates. No depending on the volume of the whole system your PPM of nitrates will vary. Lets say that 10 units is in a 100 gal tank and equates to 10ppm now if we double the tank size you are going to still normalize at 10 units (this is just the amount of waste produced in the system no matter the size) however this will equate to 5ppm giving you a better lower number, while also meaning you are removing more water to remove more nitrates.

The basic idea is if you remove the same amount of water every week and and the same amount of waste every week you are going to equalize (better word then normalize personally) you are going to end up at a steady level of waste, the volume of the whole system will determine the concentration of the waste which is really the important think. So as we every one already knows bigger is better!
 
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