HIGH NITRATE? HELP PLEASE

[haze]

well i did a water change this afternoon in my tank like everyday and added prime like always did nothing different and when i tested my water right now about 6hrs later since the WC my NITRATE is at 30-40 and the AMMONIA is between 0 and 0.25

usually my ammonia is at 0 nitrate between 0-5.0 and my NITRITE is 0 right now and has been

i havent done anything different, what can i do? im going to change water right now i have a 155 gallon tank but it has about 140 gal in it the temp is at 83

 

[haze]

so i did a water change and changed out 25 gallons of water and added prime and waited bout 45mins and tested my NITRATE again and its still exactly the same!!?? could i possibly need to clean my filters? i have had this FX5 running for about close to a month now since i bought it and same with the cascade filter (running since i cleaned it last)

i have biomax and eheim sub pro in the filters

 

[vaine111]

well it's that time for the filter cleanings. i try to never go over 3 weeks without cleaning out mine. but i do occasionally go 4. i have had the same problem with my nitrates too. i'd suggest to test your water right out the tap, clean your filters and do a 50% WC and test again.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

Yes your nitrate can only be as good as your source water. So check that first. If its 30 then your about as good as you can be. I clean my canisters every 3-4 months and have no problems keeping nitrates down. I beleive harleyK on here cleans his canister once a year. If the flow of the can is ok there is really not a need to clean it. Filters work better when dirty, cause they trap smaller debris the dirtier they are. But clogged is not good.

 

[Nic]

thats not high nitrates....

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

I have always heard that 40ppm should be the max allowed? But I am sure you can get away with more. So what is high?

 

[fatpike]

40 is high enough to start bothering the fish. For filters I onlt clean mine when the flow is slower than normal, and then only in a bucket full of tank water. Rinse, squeeze, drop the media back in the tray.

 

[proaquatics]

i just bought nitrate to add to my tank haha

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

i just bought nitrate to add to my tank haha

yep me 2

 

[haze]

NIC, i sent u a pm...