high nitrate

[Just Toby]

I'm starting to question this test kit.
Have you got the same readings from two different test kits?
Although I was told there would be no math the above
looks solid. If you are not reading those results
I question the test kit's accuracy.
i.e. changing 50% with 40ppm has to reduce it. It's teh_chemistry.

Rays consume massive amounts of food but excrete huge amounts of ammonia, with good filtration they are nitrate machines.

I can go from 15 to 70 ppm in not much more than a week with 25% to 30% water changes.

I do check with 2-3 different kits.


I think at 160ppm the kit might be less accurate and the nitrate could be greater than that therefore the water change with 40ppm water that the poster suggests will not bring it down by much.


My water is at trace out of the tap and I still record large increases between changes.

 

[andysmith]

i am going to take my water to get tested today i thought there may be something wrong with the kit might not be but i think it is worth checking.

i am going to test the water then do a 50% water change then test it again and see if there is a diffrence.

 

[Just Toby]

I imagine the test kit is fine, but pick up another as you need to be constantly testing anyway.

I truly believe that many of the deaths of rays that are explained by paarasites or other weird things are no more than nitrate poisoning. These wonderful fish can produce so much bioload that 0-60 is not a measure of car performance but the rate that a Ray tank can produce nitrate readings,

My tank can go from 0-60in a week without intervention.

 

[andysmith]

well they rays seem really happy at the moment and they have coloured up quite nicley but i have just tested the water and it is at the top scale of the test kit so i am going to do a 50% change and clean the fx5 out and see if i get any change.

 

[Just Toby]

Test the tap water regularly as it can fluctuate, I have heard that in times of heavy rain you get more "run off" from farmers fields that can add nitrates to the water, also at times of low water table they can alter the supply.

One point with the nitrate resin filters is not to try and flow too much water through as they can leak and blow out the seals, it needs to be a slow and steady flow.

When I run mine on the sump I just use a fluvial 4 to pump the water the through and that is about the max flow I would ever use.

 

[kdrun76]

To test your kit, go buy a bottle of bottled water. Dilute a sample of your tank water 50/50 and then again which would mean 25/75 and test those samples.

Very few hoby level kits are sensitive up at the ranges you are trying to measure. And beyond not being sensitive they are really hard to read the difference between 40-60 and 180.

 

[andysmith]

well i have just done a 50% water change and left it about 2 hours and it is still high there is a slight difference in the colour but not much i can see this is going to be a long process of trial and error

 

[Just Toby]

To test your kit, go buy a bottle of bottled water. Dilute a sample of your tank water 50/50 and then again which would mean 25/75 and test those samples.

Very few hoby level kits are sensitive up at the ranges you are trying to measure. And beyond not being sensitive they are really hard to read the difference between 40-60 and 180.

You are so right, I think many people have much higher levels than they think they do. I used to run a shop and we suddenly lost a lot of fish from a 48 tank system, the nitrate was so high that it took weeks and weeks to get the levels down despite running ion exchange resin filters 5times the size of normal unit along with daily water changes with nitrate low water.

I think a lot of the guys on the Ray forum do not realise what an issue this can be as rays eat vast amounts.

I am religious with my water changes and I still battle with the nitrate level....hopefully my deltec will rectify that once mature.....

 

[andysmith]

yeah i think it is time to step my game up a bit more to try and get this down i have heard that moss balls can help reduce the nitrates as the other plants i had just got stuck in the powerhead.
would they be worth a go and do you think they would reduce it by much?

 

[star_fire]

ok, there's so much chemistry math that is bull in this thread i don't know where to start. you do not take 40 ppm times the amount of water you think you changes and get a new number with the number taken from tap you think you filled.. you must take the readings before yes as ppm units but then adding them together by by percents is not correct. you taske a readings from the system after the two have mixed thoroughly.

the nitrogen cycle in a fish tank:

(urea)
(fish)-------->NH3 (ammonia)-------> nitrifying bacteria (nitrosomonas)

Nitrosomonas---->NO2 (nitrite) ------>nitrifying bacteria (nitrobacter) ---

--->NO3 (nitrate)

N2 (from air)---> (nitrogen fixing bacteria)---> NO3 (nitrate)

NO3------> plants-----> amino acids----> fish

see the cycle above is from my anaytical chemistry book called exploring chemical analysis by daniel harris 6th. ed. 2009 pg. 133.

this is the goings on in fish tanks. nitrate NO3 requires nitrifying bacteria AND N2 (nitrogen gas) from the air to con form nitrate. the nitrate is then metabolized into amino acids by plants. so, which one do you think you should add? no, the answer is not to add more urea...!! it's live plants man!