Here I am - concerned about the FISH... you have some fish that will very likely end up on the floor very soon... have you replaced the lid?
Lid-less tank w/o nitrates
- Thread starter AnDr3w
- Start date
i agree with the others that is is highly improbable on the order of impossible that you have 0ppm nitrates.
unless you are living in an area where chemistry doesnt work, in which case congradulations no water changes for you.
unless you are living in an area where chemistry doesnt work, in which case congradulations no water changes for you.
Don't give up on the water changes. Nitrates are not the only driving force for them. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because your test kit doesn't test for it that it is not there. If you were to take a water sample to a lab for an exhaustive list of things in the water, the list would be longer than your arm.
With that said, do not start with doing a large water change on your tank. The sudden reduction in gunk can kill your fish. Start small. Begin a regimen of 10% water changes twice a week. Do not replace all of the water at the same time. Add about 1/4, wait about ten minutes and add another 1/4 until the tank is full. After about a month, start doing larger water changes.
As far as the open tank, the absense of the lids is not what is removing the nitrates. There are bacteria along with your plants that are doing it. Anaerobic bacteria are what is responsible for nitrate reduction in denitrators. Denitration has been documented in aerobic conditions and I have also had two bacteria cultures that would do this too.
With that said, do not start with doing a large water change on your tank. The sudden reduction in gunk can kill your fish. Start small. Begin a regimen of 10% water changes twice a week. Do not replace all of the water at the same time. Add about 1/4, wait about ten minutes and add another 1/4 until the tank is full. After about a month, start doing larger water changes.
As far as the open tank, the absense of the lids is not what is removing the nitrates. There are bacteria along with your plants that are doing it. Anaerobic bacteria are what is responsible for nitrate reduction in denitrators. Denitration has been documented in aerobic conditions and I have also had two bacteria cultures that would do this too.
I should add that I do not just have one tank. I do not really know how many I have. I know my test kit works because it reads normal on predictable tanks. By moving filters, I was able to figure out that it was the bacteria culture in two of my filters. Which ever tanks had those two would have zero nitrates the following week.
I have a fairly planted 220 with more bioload than you and my nitrates stay very low as well. Lower than my tap water. It could be that your plants are using the nitrate at a rate equal to that of it's production. Also the open lids might actually help as they will let more Co2 interact with your water possibly. This in turn allows your plants to use the lighting and fertilizers such as nitrate more efficiantly.
santoury;727209; said:
You butt hole. You cursed me!! I found my peacock bass on the floor this morning. lmao. Im sad but that is so Ironic.
On the other hand tho I did bring my water to the LFS. And can anyone guess what it came out to be? Oddly enough, 0 ppm, again.
