High Nitrates..

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I forgot to mention my uv has been on the past two days but i turned it off this morning. Maybe that will allow more bacterial growth to handle those little nitrites floating around.

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I was going crazy with nitrates, fighting to get them below 80 PPM in my 240. I was doing 50% water changes at least every other day and one week I did ELEVEN 50% water changes. I was using an API with an expiration date sometime in 2017, so should be good, right? I bought a Lamotte test kit and found my Nitrates at 10PPM 2 days after my last change. After a full week they were somewhere between 25-50PPM. The moral of the story, don't trust your test kit.
 
Use pothos. Cant stress this enough. The roots look amazing hanging into your tank, and the ability of a large clump to remove nitrates is mind blowing. I have a large clump of pothos on top of all of my tanks and have never had an issue with nitrates.


Just pick up a few pots at lowes, a local plant supply store, or home depot (Wal-mart is pricy in my area). After you procure it, hose the roots off as thoroughly as is possible. Do the same with the actual leaves. Do NOT allow any of the little white beads or dirt to get into your tank. The beads will spike your ammonia to unimaginable levels. I let mine soak in the kitchen sink for a few days after a thorough hosing. Never have issues there.
 
the lion who ate the sun said:
Use pothos. Cant stress this enough. The roots look amazing hanging into your tank, and the ability of a large clump to remove nitrates is mind blowing. I have a large clump of pothos on top of all of my tanks and have never had an issue with nitrates.


Just pick up a few pots at lowes, a local plant supply store, or home depot (Wal-mart is pricy in my area). After you procure it, hose the roots off as thoroughly as is possible. Do the same with the actual leaves. Do NOT allow any of the little white beads or dirt to get into your tank. The beads will spike your ammonia to unimaginable levels. I let mine soak in the kitchen sink for a few days after a thorough hosing. Never have issues there.
Click to expand...

Guess you didn't read the first page of thread?
 
Awesome guys. Thanks a ton. Ive noticed a ton of snails in the tank recently too. Im sure they dont help any but do they hurt the bioload that much? Im talking when i turn the light on 50-100 pond snails. I might try to go find some assassin snails. But also have bad news and good news. Testing my water atm and this is what im getting.. no ammonia, high nitrite and very little nitrates. Somethings not right here..

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Before you get too crazy into the problem solving process-

Have you tested your tap water from the sink? (For the sake of a control)

Have you shaken your bottles? Like for real shook them... smacked them on a counter top and swung them around like a paint mixer until your shoulder hurt?

Do you have a second opinion? Like a friend with a test kit? An lfs who does water analysis? Another test kit?





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rodger said:
Guess you didn't read the first page of thread?
Click to expand...

Just echoing previously expressed sentiments. Cody is a friend :p

I wouldn't worry too much about the snails. If those clown loaches escape the polys food range soon enough they will destroy them. Otherwise they will just be cleaning some of the more difficult to reach areas. There were quite a few in my tank until the clowns learned they were food. I rarely see them nowadays. Oddly enough, I caught my bv endli eating a big clump of them that had accumulated on a small, uneaten pellet. I was worried but nothing bad came of it.

Have your nitrites been consistent since the problem arose? They should slowly rise and then drop off entirely in the 6-8 range. Inconsistent readings might mean a test kit error is at play as was previously mentioned. Like mudbutt said--always shake the bottles. Some are prone to settling and separation. If you use one of these a handful of times without shaking you can alter the balance of chemicals in the bottle and throw off all of your future tests. I had this problem in the cichlid days.

By the way, love what you did with the pothos there, f1 vet. Tank looks great too.
 
Ill test my tap before i go to work. I shake them up pretty good too. I can take a sample to work and see if it reads any different.

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I usually dont shake any except the nitrate #2 bottle because thats the only one that says to. Ill give them all a good shake though. It tests all my other tanks fine which is weird.

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