am i over stocked?

[Gruff Master]

IMO it's overstocked. I'll leave it at that.

 

[VRWC]

First, more filtration has nothing to do with having less Nitrates, every common filter will in fact produce nitrates and do nothing to remove them. Water changes are what removes Nitrates from most systems unless you have plants/algae or an undisturbed deep sand bed with anaerobic denitrifying bacteria. Waste -> Ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrates (The cycle stops here).

Second, he's not keeping weak Discus or super sensitive Saltwater reef organisms. The type of cichlid he's keeping are perfectly capable of growing, breeding and living a healthy life in even as much as 20~25 ppm Nitrates. If we wanna be perfect-water freaks that's great - I, myself, keep my Nitrates below 10ppm with multiple 50% water changes per week - but let's not judge other people if they aren't.

Hi...and welcome to MFK...

1st...filtration packed with the correct media has tons to do with keeping nitrates down. Dont believe me? throw a small HOB on your tank (assuming you dont have that now) and turn off all your other filtration. Nitrates get high fast without proper filtration dont they? I agree water changes help the most, but filtration is a huge part of combating it as well.

Second, hes keeping Oscars...PRONE TO HITH more than just about any fish...so YES, its imperative to keep the nitrates at or as close to 10ppm as possible and 20-25ppm is asinine advice (proving the point I made in my 2nd post about plenty of bad advice given on MFK) to suggest to anyone keeping fish. Its just not good or healthy to accept that...always better to combat it and fix the problem by whatever means necessary.

3rd...4 fish that grow over 12 inches in a 90 gallon tank is overstocked and a nitrate nightmare waiting to happen.

4th... The term "Id be willing to bet" is a term that is used when one is stating their personal opinion...which Im free to do in my posts here on MFK.

5th...Where did you see me making a "judgement"? I was, again, merely stating what I thought and "Id be willing to bet" that Im 100% correct.

Are you a public defender or do you just play one on MFK?

 

[Gruntking]

First, more filtration has nothing to do with having less Nitrates, every common filter will in fact produce nitrates and do nothing to remove them. Water changes are what removes Nitrates from most systems unless you have plants/algae or an undisturbed deep sand bed with anaerobic denitrifying bacteria. Waste -> Ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrates (The cycle stops here).

Second, he's not keeping weak Discus or super sensitive Saltwater reef organisms. The type of cichlid he's keeping are perfectly capable of growing, breeding and living a healthy life in even as much as 20~25 ppm Nitrates. If we wanna be perfect-water freaks that's great - I, myself, keep my Nitrates below 10ppm with multiple 50% water changes per week - but let's not judge other people if they aren't.

I dont think this is normal...

 

[cacichlids]

Hi...and welcome to MFK...

1st...filtration packed with the correct media has tons to do with keeping nitrates down. Dont believe me? throw a small HOB on your tank (assuming you dont have that now) and turn off all your other filtration. Nitrates get high fast without proper filtration dont they? I agree water changes help the most, but filtration is a huge part of combating it as well.

Second, hes keeping Oscars...PRONE TO HITH more than just about any fish...so YES, its imperative to keep the nitrates at 10ppm and 20-25ppm is asinine advice (proving the point I made in my 2nd post about plenty of bad advice given on MFK) to suggest to anyone keeping fish. Its just not good or healthy to accept that...always better to combat it and fix the problem by whatever means necessary.

3rd...4 fish that grow over 12 inches in a 90 gallon tank is overstocked and a nitrate nightmare waiting to happen.

4th... The term "Id be willing to bet" is a term that is used when one is stating their personal opinion...which Im free to do in my posts here on MFK.

5th...Where did you see me making a "judgement"? I was, again, merely stating what I thought and "Id be willing to bet" that Im 100% correct.

Are you a public defender or do you just play one on MFK?

Nope you're definitely not right, sorry. Explain to me how a sump filter removes nitrates because the 20 gal sump in my 120 gallon tank with Purigen, Clearmax, Activated Carbon, Bio-balls, Seachem Matrix and Nitra-zorb, doesn't. Purigen does bind to dissolved organics and stops nitrates from going higher, because it stops the cycle by not letting these organic waste convert to ammonia in the first place, but it definitely doesn't remove em, nor does any other ~magic~ media, so I don't know what you're talking about.

Turning off my main filter would not raise nitrates, lol, if anything it would cause an ammonia spike/mini cycle, killing all my fish, as the smaller filter can't handle the bioload of the tank by itself, thus increasing the ammonia levels above 0 ppm - not nitrates, because nitrates are the result of bacteria BEING ABLE to convert ammonia efficiently, beginning the nitrogen cycle.

Clearly, chemistry is not your thing. But I guess being an older member automatically makes you right.

The only thing that remove Nitrates from an aquarium system are plants/algae = they use them as nutrients, water changes and anaerobic bacteria - they reduce it to Nitrogen. Because anaerobic bacteria require water with extremely low dissolved oxygen to exist, they can only be found in deep, undisturbed sand beds or special filters that cost a fortune, and are a pain in the ass.

---

I kept Oscars myself and they never got HITH at 20ppm nitrates, ever. But judging by your expertise yours probably got ich and you mistook it for HITH lol

 

[cacichlids]

I dont think this is normal...

What's not normal?

 

[Gruntking]

You should not have to do 50 pct water changes more than once a week.

Have you considered that you might need a bigger tank?

 

[cacichlids]

You should not have to do 50 pct water changes more than once a week.

Have you considered that you might need a bigger tank?

I don't. Right now I have a 120 gal with a breeding pair of Blue Acaras, a small school of clown loaches, 3 bamboo shrimp and 2 baby salvinis. I went 1 month without doing a water change and nitrates only went to 20 ppm.

The reason I have to do it now is because I feed a lot, several times a day, cuz I'm trying to see if power feeding, very clean water and high temperature makes my fish grow faster, the salvini are only 1 inch and the acaras 3" and 5". Loaches are between 2" and 4". I just want the water as clean as possible, but I could probably go for a week without the nitrates going up much.

 

[Gruntking]

Make a thread collecting your results. Would like to know if power feeding really helps!

 

[VRWC]

Nope you're definitely not right, sorry. Explain to me how a sump filter removes nitrates because the 20 gal sump in my 120 gallon tank with Purigen, Clearmax, Activated Carbon, Bio-balls, Seachem Matrix and Nitra-zorb, doesn't. Purigen does bind to dissolved organics and stops nitrates from going higher, because it stops the cycle by not letting these organic waste convert to ammonia in the first place, but it definitely doesn't remove em, nor does any other ~magic~ media, so I don't know what you're talking about.

Turning off my main filter would not raise nitrates, lol, if anything it would cause an ammonia spike/mini cycle, killing all my fish, as the smaller filter can't handle the bioload of the tank by itself, thus increasing the ammonia levels above 0 ppm - not nitrates, because nitrates are the result of bacteria BEING ABLE to convert ammonia efficiently, beginning the nitrogen cycle.

Clearly, chemistry is not your thing. But I guess being an older member automatically makes you right.

The only thing that remove Nitrates from an aquarium system are plants/algae = they use them as nutrients, water changes and anaerobic bacteria - they reduce it to Nitrogen. Because anaerobic bacteria require water with extremely low dissolved oxygen to exist, they can only be found in deep, undisturbed sand beds or special filters that cost a fortune, and are a pain in the ass.

---

I kept Oscars myself and they never got HITH at 20ppm nitrates, ever. But judging by your expertise yours probably got ich and you mistook it for HITH lol

Youre 100% right, chemistry is not my thing...so I cant explain how it works. All that I know is that when adding additional filtration to my tanks in the past, it combatted every high nitrate problem I was having. I wrote it off as more area of BB helped combat the problem.

I will take your verbal spanking and use it as a reason to learn more about the process of the cycle in my tanks.

 

[cacichlids]

Make a thread collecting your results. Would like to know if power feeding really helps!

Yeah for sure I will, hopefully I get good results, I want the tank to fill up quickly cuz currently all of the fish are relatively small.

I'm taking pics of the growth and writing down the types of food every day. Currently feeding em NLS thera-a, chopped hikari freeze dried krill, hikari sinking cichlid gold, live ghost shrimp, live mosquito larvae and frozen bloodworms - tank at 82 degrees and nitrates always below 10ppm, mostly at 5ppm according to the test kit (API freshwater master).