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

[duanes]

Because fish are constantlly producing ammonia and nitrite, there is always a trace, but the beneficial bacteria in filters and every surface in the tank, almost immediately convert it to "less toxic" nitrate.
Most natural unpolluted waters are very low in nitrate.
Before I retired, part of my job was to test Lake Michigan water daily, nitrate barely ever exceeded 1ppm.
And I have tested waters here in Panama where my fish and inverts (like freshwater shrimp) come from, and I have yet to get readable readings with my API kit of more than 1 or 2 ppm.

 

[Finthusiast]

This is interesting I thought a natural body of water would be much higher in nitrate I guess its different depending where you go Ill always test new waters from now on lol if I am going to use any bio from there.

 

[Hendre]

This is interesting I thought a natural body of water would be much higher in nitrate I guess its different depending where you go Ill always test new waters from now on lol if I am going to use any bio from there.

Most natural bodies have a much lower concentration of organisms (especially fish) with loads of deep anaerobic goodness for denitrifying bacteria to live, if I understand correctly.

 

[esoxlucius]

If you are guessing your nitrate is over 40 ppm on the API colour chart then it could be closer to double that, 40 ppm and 80ppm are basically the same reference colour on the chart, they are almost impossible to tell apart. So if you are closer to 80ppm i'd say that was pretty bad.

The best way by far to remove nitrate is to do water changes. Easy as that. Yes you can have plants too but to be really effective you'd need your tank to be like a jungle with minimum stocking as well for your nitrate to remain in low single figures.

I really don't see the issue with smaller tanks, water changes are so easy and quick on small set ups. Larger tanks are still easy, just time consuming.

And don't forget, if you didn't know already, WATER CHANGES ARE NOT JUST ABOUT REMOVING NITRATE, far from it. They take away other pollutants too. And whilst doing this the new water also adds trace chemicals which are beneficial to tank inhabitants.

 

[duanes]

And don't forget, if you didn't know already, WATER CHANGES ARE NOT JUST ABOUT REMOVING NITRATE, far from it. They take away other pollutants too. And whilst doing this the new water also adds trace chemicals which are beneficial to tank inhabitants.

This is a very important point.
Lets say you change 25% in a week. That means you are "not" removing 75% of metabolism (fish waste) by products, and the next week you remove 25% leaving another 75% on top of the 1st 75%, and so on.......get my drift.
Your tap water may start with 1 or 2 ppm nitrate, but after a time you have 40ppm, or 80ppm.
And remember nitrate is an "indicator" of not just nitrate, but all the other chemicals building up in the tank.
And this build up, turns you water into a veritable soup concentration of chemicals and minerals that each one, in and of themselves may not be dangerous or toxic , but together can become quite dangerous, and become a breeding ground for pathogens.
For me a 30%- 40% water change every other day is what I consider minimal for my fish, meaning a 120% water change per week in order to flush out all that excess chemical and mineral buildup.
And that is not really excessive, I know certain breeders that do 80% per day.

 

[squint]

Do you believe nitrate levels in a tank will rise indefinitely if you don't do sufficently large water changes?

Where are these breeders who do 80% water changes a day located?

 

[Schniz]

Finthusiast

I appreciate your enthusiasm in the hobby and i appreciate you wanting to learn as much as possible to provide a healthy environment for your fish but the people here at MFK aren't giving you advice based on their "research" they are giving you sound advice based on their years of experience. There are a lot of things to learn and at first they can be overwhelming so take advantage of the advice you get on here. If you ask a question and the first two replies give you basically the same advice and multiple people like that advice it's pretty safe to assume they gave you sound advice and it will save you some time and headaches if you listen to that advice. You keep posting that you need help and keep getting great advice but then do the opposite of the advice you are given. You were told multiple times by multiple people on multiple threads that your 1 fish will create the same bio-load no matter what tank he is in and since the filter that is used on the tank he is currently in is established enough to process that bio-load all you needed to do was move that 1 fish and the filter to the new tank and he would be ok. Instead you decided to do it your way based on your research. Then you mentioned using plants to help lower nitrates and someone suggested learning how to take care of fish first and once you've got that figured out then learn about plants and the next day you went and added plants to your tank. Now you're asking how to lower the nitrates in the tank you don't even need up and running if you had just listened to the advice you were given. Like I said, I really like that you are putting so much time into trying to create the healthiest environment you can for your fish but I strongly suggest heeding the advice you get from the knowledgeable fish keepers here at MFK.

BTW - I found it much more difficult keeping plants alive in an aquarium when I first tried growing plants than I did keeping fish alive when I fish started keeping fish. I couldn't imagine trying to learn both at the same time.

 

[twentyleagues]

When you use plants to consume nitrate they also need other stuff. If this other stuff isnt in abundance then the nitrate wont get used and the plants will fade causing more nitrate not less. Plants that are planted outside the aquarium but have their roots in the aquarium will help more then plants in the aquarium at least will help more with less work/worry. The biggest hindrence in plants in the aquarium taking in nutrients is co2. Without enough co2 the plants wont metabolize enough of the nutrients you want out. Potassium is another one that is lacking alot. So if you dont want to be dosing all the time change more water more often.

 

[Finthusiast]

Wow what a load of info this is! Thank you for taking the time to help me understand better. I will start doing more frequent water changes on the ten gallon. What is the proper procedure for removing a large % water? Is it any different than doing a lesser % water change? I was hoping if I could use enough plants I wouldnt have to do as many water changes. Again, I very much appreciate the time you all spend reading and responding to my questions. I just like to know as much about what Im doing as possible before doing it.

 

[Schniz]

Other than putting a few stalks of lucky bamboo in my HOB filter I have not tried using plants with the roots in the tank and the plants growing outside the tank like twentyleagues mentioned. I have started reading up about it and the plants are able to utilize the CO2 in the atmosphere much more readily than the CO2 from the water column, thus creating quicker growth that should result in more nitrates being used by the plant. Sounds like a more efficient way to have plants help with removing nitrates from your tank.
As far as the subject of more frequent water changes goes my suggestion would be to make sure you aren't doing a gravel vac every time you do a water change, a small amount of the beneficial bacteria growing in the gravel will be removed with each gravel vac. In a large tank I gravel vac half the substrate each water change to leave half of it undisturbed and then rotate which half I vac each water change. In a 10 gallon you don't have much gravel surface area so you don't want to vacuum half the tank each water change. i would just get the siphon fairly close to the gravel on most water changes to cleanup any debris without digging into the gravel. Also, I don't know what kind of filter you have but don't rinse the filter media in tap water, again it will kill off BB, instead rinse it in a bucket of water that has been removed during the water change.