How to lower nitate levels in a ten gallon aquarium (I need help)

[Finthusiast]

Thanks for the tip Hendre! Does seachem flourish effect fish or water in any way I should know about?
And thanks for the responses everyone, I checked my tap water and the nitrates are around 5ppm.
Also duanes , how much water changes can you do does it not effect the fish bad to change a lot of water frequently? I was told to never change more than 30% once per week. But I do want to lower nitrates in my tank and if it will not bother the fish to change 90%of the water then I would do that lol I was actually just reading online they were telling that you can do that but they showed a certain procedure to dilute the nitrates by 90% real fast

 

[squint]

The other quick and most efficient way is by doing lots of large water changes, as long as your tap water is low in nitrate.
The MCL for nitrate in any public water supply in the U.S. is 10 ppm, so unless you are on a private well in an agricultural area, your tap water shouldn't be any higher than 10.

You got your units confused again.

 

[Finthusiast]

40ppm isnt too urgent, do you know how much it increases per week? Water changes are your best bet, of course assuming 0ppm NO3 from tap.

Thanks for the ease of mind lol. But in general the less nitrates the better/happier the fish correct?
I dont know how much it increases per week. I will for now on tho I just started testing my water a few days ago.

 

[Hendre]

Thanks for the tip Hendre! Does seachem flourish effect fish or water in any way I should know about?

No, it's mostly just trace minerals and elements

 

[Rocksor]

Thanks for the ease of mind lol. But in general the less nitrates the better/happier the fish correct?
I dont know how much it increases per week. I will for now on tho I just started testing my water a few days ago.

At 5ppm from the tap, you should have no problem keeping nitrates below 20ppm everyday, basically orange on the API nitrate API test kit. Once you hit red orange (40ppm), you need to change your water maintenance habits as well as feeding regime so that it doesn't get back to 40ppm.

With a 10g tank you can easily do 25% everyday for 7 days, and then go to 50% or more every week. My preference is to split it up the 100% over the course of the week because I don't have time to change 240g of water in one day.

 

[Jexnell]

The easiest way to remove nitrates is through water changes. You chang 50% of your water and lose 50% of your nitrates.
Do a 50% water change 3 days in a row and you will be down to 5ppm.

 

[piranhaman00]

The easiest way to remove nitrates is through water changes. You chang 50% of your water and lose 50% of your nitrates.
Do a 50% water change 3 days in a row and you will be down to 5ppm.

Unless your tap has 5ppm nitrate.

I would also recommend a different NO3 test kit if that is possible for you.

 

[duanes]

I look at nitrate in an aquarium, in much the same way as coliform bacteria are looked at in drinking water, coliforms are an indicator of fecal contamination from warm blooded animals, and the action taken by a drinking water provider, is to make sure dissinfection levels are correct, to make water safe to drink.
Nitrate in the aquarium is an in dictator of organic pollution, from metabolism, and the action to take, is water changes.
We could argue about what fish can tolerate before health breaks down, or death, but is that our goal in reality, just to do enough to prevent death, or disease?
In the article below, compare what scientists see as high nitrate numbers, compared to what the general aquarium literature says is tolerable.

Nitrogen - Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studieshttps://www.caryinstitute.org › files › public › downloads › curriculum-project

 

[Finthusiast]

I will check this out when I have time later thanks very much for the link! I tested the lake water and there is 0 ppm reading for nitrate and the ph may even be a little higher than what my tanks and tap (same ph) are reading. I found like 8 ghost shrimp while I was there and added some to the tank Im cycling is that ok lol I figured it would be like a welcome home snack by the time Crash moves in thanks again everyone for the help and replys! I eill check back on another thread soon!

 

[squint]

When an aquarium test kit says you have zero ammonia and zero nitrite, is it really zero or is it just below the detection level of the test?

Are ammonia and nitrite ever really zero in an aquarium?

What's more dangerous, long-term exposure to 5 ppm nitrate or 0.02 ppm ammonia?