I've purposely stocked fish in my tank that are long lived (balas, clowns, tinfoils, plec, giant gourami, even my denissons are quite capable of living for 10 years). I much prefer the idea of my fish being with me for years and years rather than getting fish with a 2 or 3 years lifespan for instance. So, in theory, as long as they stay disease free, don't eat one another, have any accidents along the way and of course as long as i look after their water and feed them properly, then they should, you'd hope, live for the duration, and maybe even longer than what the "experts" say they should. So, just say for example that this is exactly what's going on in my tank, everythings perfect and my fish live and live and live for years and years.
Now we all know the long term effects of ammonia and nitrite, your fish will die, probably in the short term, let alone long term. But what about nitrate? Everybody has their own view on acceptable levels. Some strive for 5-10ppm, others 20-40ppm. Others aren't too worried if their levels hit 80 or 100ppm and some people don't test for nitrate at all and just rely on their partials to keep the levels down without actually doing any physical test.
I've read that the only level of nitrate that is 100% safe is 0ppm. Anything above this is effecting the fish, albeit in a slow way (depending on the level). 0ppm nitrate in an open expanse of lake etc is probably the norm but 0ppm in an aquarium is virtually impossible so each and every one of us in the hobby is stuck with nitrate very very very slowly killing our fish.
This brings me to the burning question which probably only the very experienced hobbyists out there may have a definitive answer to. Is there any answer to how long you can expect to lose off any fishes expected lifespan through the day to day contact with nitrate. Or (and i hope this is the case for all of us), is there a cut off point in nitrate level where some level of nitrate won't effect the fishes lifespan one iota. I don't know, anyone any theories?
Now we all know the long term effects of ammonia and nitrite, your fish will die, probably in the short term, let alone long term. But what about nitrate? Everybody has their own view on acceptable levels. Some strive for 5-10ppm, others 20-40ppm. Others aren't too worried if their levels hit 80 or 100ppm and some people don't test for nitrate at all and just rely on their partials to keep the levels down without actually doing any physical test.
I've read that the only level of nitrate that is 100% safe is 0ppm. Anything above this is effecting the fish, albeit in a slow way (depending on the level). 0ppm nitrate in an open expanse of lake etc is probably the norm but 0ppm in an aquarium is virtually impossible so each and every one of us in the hobby is stuck with nitrate very very very slowly killing our fish.
This brings me to the burning question which probably only the very experienced hobbyists out there may have a definitive answer to. Is there any answer to how long you can expect to lose off any fishes expected lifespan through the day to day contact with nitrate. Or (and i hope this is the case for all of us), is there a cut off point in nitrate level where some level of nitrate won't effect the fishes lifespan one iota. I don't know, anyone any theories?
