how do you control nitrates?
- Thread starter yemista
- Start date
With HOB filters the faster your tanks turnover is the more effective your nitrifying bacteria will be.
I would upgrade to some AC110's - if you look on Drsfostersmith.com and replace the item numbers letters with YL- you will get them for somthing like $40 a peice.
If you just recently saw nitrite there are probably still trace amounts being processed and that's why you're getting large spikes in nitrate - once nitrate making bacteria start to colonize it's a catalyst sort of effect. In a week or so you should have everything under control, but until then it's a good idea to keep changing out water as needed.
Keep in mind that unless you're dealing with sensitive fish, anything under about 120 ppm is acceptable. But you should really shoot for 20 ppm after a water change, preferably under 10 ppm.
I would upgrade to some AC110's - if you look on Drsfostersmith.com and replace the item numbers letters with YL- you will get them for somthing like $40 a peice.
If you just recently saw nitrite there are probably still trace amounts being processed and that's why you're getting large spikes in nitrate - once nitrate making bacteria start to colonize it's a catalyst sort of effect. In a week or so you should have everything under control, but until then it's a good idea to keep changing out water as needed.
Keep in mind that unless you're dealing with sensitive fish, anything under about 120 ppm is acceptable. But you should really shoot for 20 ppm after a water change, preferably under 10 ppm.
No-One is listening to a word the OP SAID!!
The question is how to handle /reduce/comntrol/NITRATE.
Unfortunately the answer is only water changes/denitrification./ reduce feeding that i've found over the 25+ years I've been keeping aquariums
The OP does NOT need more filtration as the tank is cycled, and adding MORE filtration will not help that issue. If anything it wil exacerbate it if the filters are not being cleaned often enough.
Filtration does not fix everything, especially when its the END result of the nitrogen cycle. I would know as i have a bit of the same problem with a heavily fed Midevil. All that HELPS is cutting back on protein rich foods (I've STOPPED FEEDING MASSIVORE), and feed more sparingly 2-3 times a week instead of 3-5 times a day.
I was initially trying to boost growth, but it's just NOT worth the extra water changes now that I have 7 tanks instead of 1 currently running, not to mention 2 more that I havent even set up yet(and might NOT).
Having a Fish room has turned out to be more expensive than I thought it would...
The question is how to handle /reduce/comntrol/NITRATE.
Unfortunately the answer is only water changes/denitrification./ reduce feeding that i've found over the 25+ years I've been keeping aquariums
The OP does NOT need more filtration as the tank is cycled, and adding MORE filtration will not help that issue. If anything it wil exacerbate it if the filters are not being cleaned often enough.
Filtration does not fix everything, especially when its the END result of the nitrogen cycle. I would know as i have a bit of the same problem with a heavily fed Midevil. All that HELPS is cutting back on protein rich foods (I've STOPPED FEEDING MASSIVORE), and feed more sparingly 2-3 times a week instead of 3-5 times a day.
I was initially trying to boost growth, but it's just NOT worth the extra water changes now that I have 7 tanks instead of 1 currently running, not to mention 2 more that I havent even set up yet(and might NOT).
Having a Fish room has turned out to be more expensive than I thought it would...
This is how I deal with all of my tanks:
I leave algae that has accumulated on the bottom of the tank as I have bare bottom tanks. I have two massive power heads that are aimed at the bottom, in other words the bottom of the tank is a huge algae scrubber. So my maintance is as followed, I do a 90% water change every two weeks and nitrates stay between 20pmm-30ppm between water changes.
Your specific problem seems to be organic material somewhere in the tank diluting the clean water. In theory if you do a 50% water change it will cut the nitrates in half but you have to account for organic material inside of your tank/filter media continuously breaking down and polluting the newly added water rising the nitrate levels. If your water has lets say 20ppm then organic materials will break down faster and pollute the water faster than water that has a nitrate level of 80ppm.
Its like adding sugar into water. The higher concentration the sugar the harder it is to dissolve newly added sugar, but note the sugar is at the bottom of the glass. If you take half the volume of water out and add new water then the undissolved sugar at the bottom of the tank can then dissolve into the newly added water.
I hope that makes sense.
As noted above feeding 3-4 times a week sparingly will help with the production of nitrates. I even made a thread a while back just to see how many people caught on to this idea.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/who-else-feeds-3-times-a-week.644064/
It seems that nearly half of the community has found this out. Fish dont need to be fed every day like a dog does. Fish go for weeks in the wild without eating and there perfectly fine.
I leave algae that has accumulated on the bottom of the tank as I have bare bottom tanks. I have two massive power heads that are aimed at the bottom, in other words the bottom of the tank is a huge algae scrubber. So my maintance is as followed, I do a 90% water change every two weeks and nitrates stay between 20pmm-30ppm between water changes.
Your specific problem seems to be organic material somewhere in the tank diluting the clean water. In theory if you do a 50% water change it will cut the nitrates in half but you have to account for organic material inside of your tank/filter media continuously breaking down and polluting the newly added water rising the nitrate levels. If your water has lets say 20ppm then organic materials will break down faster and pollute the water faster than water that has a nitrate level of 80ppm.
Its like adding sugar into water. The higher concentration the sugar the harder it is to dissolve newly added sugar, but note the sugar is at the bottom of the glass. If you take half the volume of water out and add new water then the undissolved sugar at the bottom of the tank can then dissolve into the newly added water.
I hope that makes sense.
As noted above feeding 3-4 times a week sparingly will help with the production of nitrates. I even made a thread a while back just to see how many people caught on to this idea.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/who-else-feeds-3-times-a-week.644064/
It seems that nearly half of the community has found this out. Fish dont need to be fed every day like a dog does. Fish go for weeks in the wild without eating and there perfectly fine.
You will only cut you nitrates in half in a 50% WC if the water you add has 0 nitrates, which is unlikely, nitrates are not like sugar, as per your example refering to saturated solutions, your nitrates will continue to climb as they are formed from organic waste coverting to nitrates, be it in your tank or as a result of poor filter maintainance, quite right feeding less may help, but algea may still grow because of low light, CO2 fluctuations, silicates leaching into the water, no plants to absorb the nitrates available etc
LOLLol, 7 years later, I don't think anyone else is listening. But I guess we can still learn here.
