Adding Fuel to the Nitrate Debate: Why Water Changes DONT Reduce Nitrates

[sushiray]

in my 20gal angel tank with my API tester, I have had nitrate levels of 40 for 2weeks str8. prior it was 5. I do 30-40% w/c weekly & use Prime. but I just changed my filtration from AC110 to AC70 2weeks ago but kept my bio-media tho it went from 2sacs to 1sac. so that must be the answer that my bio-media was not so effective after the change.

so I must start daily w/c to see if it has any impact.

I have 3 large angels, 1 smaller Koi, 1 large albino cory & 2 med.plecos.

 

[tcarswell]

in my 20gal angel tank with my API tester, I have had nitrate levels of 40 for 2weeks str8. prior it was 5. I do 30-40% w/c weekly & use Prime. but I just changed my filtration from AC110 to AC70 2weeks ago but kept my bio-media tho it went from 2sacs to 1sac. so that must be the answer that my bio-media was not so effective after the change.

so I must start daily w/c to see if it has any impact.

I have 3 large angels, 1 smaller Koi, 1 large albino cory & 2 med.plecos.

Bio would create nitrates if it was healthy.. It would not make sense to have excess nitrates if it was a bio issue. Nitrates are your friend (in permissible amounts) ammonia and nitrite are not however. Do you have any ammonia or nitrites indicating on the test ?
Did you switch the way you do the water changes ? Add a new fish ? start feeding more ?

 

[StogieC]

OMG why is this thread still going on? Nitrates sublimation into the filter media and air happens. Some collects in the filter and becomes immeasurable; replace filter media, some goes away; air moves, some goes away.

 

[Schneider]

Nobody ever said water changes eliminated the problem of accumulating nitrate. I have never seen a tank that had small, infrequent water changes that had fish that were as healthy as fish kept in a tank where frequent large water changes were performed. Isn't this what is important. These are captive environments. Isn't it silly to expect all pollutants to stay at zero all the time. Large frequent changes are proven to be very effective. Why is anyone even disputing this. Sounds like lazy fishkeeping to me.

 

[brianp]

I honestly can not explain the enduring nature of a premise which is so obviously counterintuitive. Let's look at it from yet another perspective. Let's say I have a 200 gallon tank and the nitrate concentration is 80 ppm (mg/liter). Let's say that I remove 100 gallons. So, I'm left with 100 gallons (380 liters) at 80 mg/liter.

80 mg/liter x 380 liter = 30,400 mg of nitrate.

If I now add back the missing 100 gallons, I now have:

30,400 mg nitrate
760 liters

= 40 mg/liter (ppm)

So, a 50% wc has reduced the nitrate concentration by 50%...as anticipated.

Every water change is a snapshot isolated in time from any performed previously. You are dealing ONLY with the nitrate concentration at that specific moment in time. The wc regimen that you adopt is designed to maintain nitrates within a certain tolerable RANGE over that period of time between wcs. Within that period of time, the nitrates are, of course, increasing from one minute to the next.

 

[Toddo]

So having said that, if you don't change at least 50% of your water every time, your nitrates will always climb.

Scrubbers eliminate nitrates, providing you do the proper maintenance. And, if you have fish that require zero nitrates, a scrubber is a viable option.

And nitrates are not your friend.

 

[Schneider]

I honestly can not explain the enduring nature of a premise which is so obviously counterintuitive. Let's look at it from yet another perspective. Let's say I have a 200 gallon tank and the nitrate concentration is 80 ppm (mg/liter). Let's say that I remove 100 gallons. So, I'm left with 100 gallons (380 liters) at 80 mg/liter.

80 mg/liter x 380 liter = 30,400 mg of nitrate.

If I now add back the missing 100 gallons, I now have:

30,400 mg nitrate
760 liters

= 40 mg/liter (ppm)

So, a 50% wc has reduced the nitrate concentration by 50%...as anticipated.

Every water change is a snapshot isolated in time from any performed previously. You are dealing ONLY with the nitrate concentration at that specific moment in time. The wc regimen that you adopt is designed to maintain nitrates within a certain tolerable RANGE over that period of time between wcs. Within that period of time, the nitrates are, of course, increasing from one minute to the next.[/QU

Any intelligent person understands these facts and this is exactly why water changes are important. Why do people waste more effort trying to avoid needed maintenance rather than getting it done? People should not keep living things if they are too lazy to take excellent care of them. I say this after seeing so many idiots who have oscars with HLLE who think a WC once every month or two is sufficient. Snapshots that maintain pollution to a minimum are far better than the bare minimum.

 

[Schneider]

So having said that, if you don't change at least 50% of your water every time, your nitrates will always climb.

Scrubbers eliminate nitrates, providing you do the proper maintenance. And, if you have fish that require zero nitrates, a scrubber is a viable option.

Not really. If you had 100ppm and had 10ppm accumulation per day, daily 25% changes would knock it down continually.75ppm on day 1. 64ppm on day 2. 55 ppm on day 3. 48ppm on day 4. 43ppm on day 5. Notice how your improvement would decrease a little every day? Eventually it wouldn't decrease anymore and you would have to do larger changes to get better results.

 

[cchhcc]

Scrubbers eliminate nitrates, providing you do the proper maintenance. And, if you have fish that require zero nitrates, a scrubber is a viable option.

QUOTE]


How?

 

[tcarswell]

Scrubbers eliminate nitrates, providing you do the proper maintenance. And, if you have fish that require zero nitrates, a scrubber is a viable option.

QUOTE]


How?

I reccomend checking out the algae scrubber thread. It is in the DIY section under "Super powerful nitrate and phosphate remover"