i have a 550litre community tank, i bought this tank as a starting tank for my american cichlids, i have 2 oscars, 1 gt, 1 Jack dempsey and 2 gibbyceps (spotted and standard)all around 10cm or 3inch, my tank has a wet dry trickle filter buil in the back of tank, and a run an air powered sponge filter as well, my nitrite and ammonia levels are at a constant 0ppm, how ever my nitrate levels are through the roof up to 40ppm every three or four days, although i enjoy cleaning my tank and doing my water changes (upto 40% once a week, and around 20% in between) it is starting to be a bit much both in time and cost of water. I have tried a Nitrate pad............useless! I run activated carbon media to clear the water although really hasn't made that much of a differance as my water is always very clear as i change my water so frequently. My Filter is setup as follows. Tank overflows on to to a spreader through a nitrate pad, then over a second spreader down through around 500bio balls, then into a resevoir at bottom of tank water travells from one end of tank to the return pump at other end, in the resevoir is a bag of carbon, the guy before me used this setup for some years to house African cichlids no problems at all how ever i"m not aware of what his nitrate readings were if this is a normal reading for this tank
high nitrates HELP
- Thread starter love4thegt
- Start date
I do not think 40ppm nitrates is too high. I would continue with a weekly water change routine and not worry about it.
Are you kidding me? 40ppm is actually pretty high.
@OP: Get rid of some of your fish and do a few large water changes.
I'm not concerned at the level at 40ppm however, it requires me to do two water changes per week and these fish are still juvenile so i won"t be getting rid of any i would get a larger tank before i did that my fish are my babies, i've had them from fry, no one else would be a good enough home (although i know that is a ridiculous statement you know what i mean) how ever i think there is more a problem with my filter setup rather than an overstocking problem, as the fish are only 10cm any suggestions, to the optimum wet dry setup? I have had limited experiance with this type of filter!!! would more mechanical filtration be a better option so as to ensure zero excess waste in the bio filter (how often do you rinse your bio balls) would more biological filteration be a better option my LFS was telling me to switch to noodles or alternatively keep the bio balls and in the resevoir add another section containing noodles how ever i would have thought that this would either add more nitrate or have very little effect if at all, the other thing i was thinking was possibly making it a planted tank, plants remove nitrate but i'm wondering if it would be worth the hassle of trying to keep plants with oscars and such for the actuall differance it would make? do you think there is any value in switching to a sump filter instead?? or should i just get a larger tank, i'm thinking 8' x 3' x 2' or 6' x 3' x 2' i want a deeper tank more so than higher as cost associated with going higher. i would change to a sump filter for this tank, however we are renting our house at the moment and a smaller tank is a better option.........but if need be i will....any ideas to hopefully avoid the new tank as my partner and i have just had twin boys and the hassle of changing tanks would be emense as i dont think my wife would handle it atm haha.
You are overstocked. Your tank would be great for the two oscars. Adding a sump would not help your nitrate levels. Nitrate is an end product in the Nitrogen Cycle. The fact that you have 0 ammonia and nitrites indicates that your tank is cycled (has enough beneficial bacteria in the filtration system to handle the current bioload). The easiest way to reduce nitrates is to do larger and more frequent water changes. The tank would have to be heavily planted to do much for nitrate reduction. There are other alternatives for nitrate reduction such as algae screens, and expensive nitrate removing systems that have to be fed and monitored all the time. Water changes are the simplest method for removing nitrates.
It is possible to keep nitrates low in an overcrowded tank--before we upgraded to a larger tank, we were changing out about 60 gallons a day from a 55 gallon tank, 15 gallons at a time. We made sure that when we upgraded to a larger tank, that the system was as maintenance-free as possible, and that water changes were easy to do (open/close valves and faucets).
So your options for nitrate reducation are:
1) more frequent larger water changes
2) reduce the stocking for less bioload
3) get a much larger tank (a larger volume dilutes the nitrates)
4) invest time/money on a nitrate reducing system (plants, algae, or a nitrate filter)
I don't think any plants would last very long with your oscars, but you could take an extra HOB filter, remove all the media and use it to house some pothos. Those plants are nitrate sponges, otherwise you could try to set up an algae scrubber but I think the pothos would be more pleasing to look at.
ok well i guess i'm resigned to water changes at the moment, at very least our water from the tap is fine so i need no conditioning, i like the sound of the pothos in a HOB idea more for the idea of what it could look like than any real benefit
out of curiosity what do people think would be appropriate for the fish that i have! Full Grown, if they actually will be able to stay as community tank haha not likely but lets say!!!