Let the roots of a house plant dangle in the water of your tank. Odds are the plant will help stabilize and consume the ammonia leading to reduction of algae. -FM
High Nitrates.
- Thread starter Novaman1967
- Start date
Hey thanks for the info guys, im not really that stressed about it, just looking for some info. The test kit is brand new only about 3 days old.
Like i said in the last post, the ray is doing just great, doesnt seem to bother at all, and is eating very well, and is very active, when the lights go out, he is all over the place, even going up the side of the tank to near the top.
I do at least 20 to 40 % water changes at least once a week.
Will keep you guys posted and will post pics later when i get them uploaded.
Regards Novaman
Like i said in the last post, the ray is doing just great, doesnt seem to bother at all, and is eating very well, and is very active, when the lights go out, he is all over the place, even going up the side of the tank to near the top.
I do at least 20 to 40 % water changes at least once a week.
Will keep you guys posted and will post pics later when i get them uploaded.
Regards Novaman
I think that you have to small tank for that kind of fish.
I had a similar problem. Changing water twice a day 50% was very stressed for my fish, you will never get a good quality of water in your tank and its waste of time. You will always worry about a nitrate level. It is nightmare !
I made a Automatic Water Exchange, and this will help me a lot. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317516
The main problem is that your rays producing to much waste in relation to the size of the aquarium.
Good luck...
I had a similar problem. Changing water twice a day 50% was very stressed for my fish, you will never get a good quality of water in your tank and its waste of time. You will always worry about a nitrate level. It is nightmare !
I made a Automatic Water Exchange, and this will help me a lot. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317516
The main problem is that your rays producing to much waste in relation to the size of the aquarium.
Good luck...
Novaman1967;4258297; said:
I wouldn't use this. With rays, the less junk the better. They can handle a wide range of ph levels. As others have said try Amquel for water changes. I have always used Prime...more concentrated...cheaper overall...excellent - based on the opinions on this site and my own.
T1KARMANN;4258741; said:
Zoodiver;4259586; said:
What they said. Rays handle nitrates well. I would do some big ones to get the numbers back down and then just keep up with a weekly or bi-weekly large 50%+ water change. I'd check your levels often though at first to make things are in check and work yourself into a routine.
Buy yourself a Nitragon / Nitraghost and run it weekly on the tank (and tap water if it needs it)
I personally would worry above 100 ppm, over time Nitrate has the same affect on fish as Nitrite as it reduces the ability of the blood to absord oxygen. I know people will argue with this and it is always people who have high nitrates that say it does no harm - this proves the fish stay alive but it also worries me that they have accepted it and therefore promote it - anyway, I will not argue that point further.
There is a good article by a well known Fish / Ray collector in PFK this month and he has run recent studies on the toxicity of Nitrate in all fish - it is worth a read but he says 200+ is harmful to many fish (Killed Guppies at 200) but 5ppm has been shown to harm some fry. I will post up some details later without breaking his copyright.
If it kills guppies at 200 then I would not want to expose any fish to that even if they tolerate it.
I personally would worry above 100 ppm, over time Nitrate has the same affect on fish as Nitrite as it reduces the ability of the blood to absord oxygen. I know people will argue with this and it is always people who have high nitrates that say it does no harm - this proves the fish stay alive but it also worries me that they have accepted it and therefore promote it - anyway, I will not argue that point further.
There is a good article by a well known Fish / Ray collector in PFK this month and he has run recent studies on the toxicity of Nitrate in all fish - it is worth a read but he says 200+ is harmful to many fish (Killed Guppies at 200) but 5ppm has been shown to harm some fry. I will post up some details later without breaking his copyright.
If it kills guppies at 200 then I would not want to expose any fish to that even if they tolerate it.
Have u tested your water staight out of tap? Mine is 20 for nitrates. But my tank averages 40-50 all the time. It's not a problem.
The last time I had a crazy algea outbreak was when I used silica sand in a new tank bout 3 years ago. I found my phosphate level was sky high, which lead to algae.
All I could do was use phosphate remover packs in the filter.
The last time I had a crazy algea outbreak was when I used silica sand in a new tank bout 3 years ago. I found my phosphate level was sky high, which lead to algae.
All I could do was use phosphate remover packs in the filter.
Ade;4262067; said:
Totally agree on testing the water out of the tap - also the tap water will change from time to time depending on water authority and some people struggle with "run off" from farmers feeding nitrates to crops.
Nitragon / ghosts do remove phosphate too. If you have a sump then you can add a phos reactor too. The Nitrate removal process is via ion exchange and needs to be recharged with salt - this is easy if you set up a bucket in the garage to drip the salt solution in using a tank connector and tap in the bottom of the bucket - I can re-charge mine in about 30 mins which is literally filling up a bucket and waiting.
This will take a 200 gallon tank at 100ppm to around 10ppm or lower over night. The water is always clearer in the morning and I have noticed that Cichlids often breed / spawn after doing this.
ADDED TO ABOVE:
From Rupert Collins - Practical Fishkeeping: Most are aware that Ammonia and Nitrite are acutely (immediately) toxic to fish, while Nitrates appear more chronically (long term) toxic.......Just how harmful, Not a great deal of research has been carried out despite the wealth of literature on aquaculture.....Nitrate has the same effect phsiologically that Nitrite has, in the way it binds to oxygen-carrying pigments and inhibits oxygen transport, however fish tissues are less permeable to Nitrate meaning lower / slower uptake. Unsurprisingly, Nitrate Toxicity increases with concentration and exposure but the concentration likely to affect varies between taxa. 200ppm are lethal to guppies but samonid larvae were affected at levels below 5ppm. The Hardy Channel catfish was shown to tolerate 90ppm although it took higher levels to kill them...... Would we really like to expose our Rays to this stuff if it can be avoided?
ALSO Heiko Bleher (one of the most prolific collectors of fish)....The lower the conductivity the better, in nature it is hardly above 50-70 units of microseimens but tank bred rays are more used to 200 and higher. As an example you would want to keep discus at max 50 and Goldfish max 500.
This goes to show that older water with higher dissolved content (therefore likely higher Nitrate) will have a higher conductivity and best avoided.
From Rupert Collins - Practical Fishkeeping: Most are aware that Ammonia and Nitrite are acutely (immediately) toxic to fish, while Nitrates appear more chronically (long term) toxic.......Just how harmful, Not a great deal of research has been carried out despite the wealth of literature on aquaculture.....Nitrate has the same effect phsiologically that Nitrite has, in the way it binds to oxygen-carrying pigments and inhibits oxygen transport, however fish tissues are less permeable to Nitrate meaning lower / slower uptake. Unsurprisingly, Nitrate Toxicity increases with concentration and exposure but the concentration likely to affect varies between taxa. 200ppm are lethal to guppies but samonid larvae were affected at levels below 5ppm. The Hardy Channel catfish was shown to tolerate 90ppm although it took higher levels to kill them...... Would we really like to expose our Rays to this stuff if it can be avoided?
ALSO Heiko Bleher (one of the most prolific collectors of fish)....The lower the conductivity the better, in nature it is hardly above 50-70 units of microseimens but tank bred rays are more used to 200 and higher. As an example you would want to keep discus at max 50 and Goldfish max 500.
This goes to show that older water with higher dissolved content (therefore likely higher Nitrate) will have a higher conductivity and best avoided.
