Move to safe stay with prime
- Thread starter Jeff5347
- Start date
Ok so I'm trying to wrap my head around all the parameters of the water which I was sure I had previously but I'm learning more now. Ok so bear with me. I'm gonna get the chlorine tests today and check those readings and from The superintendent he doesn't use any unless necessary. So in that aspect if the test come back 0 I'm good there. I checked my water again today and nitrates I have but less than 10ppm. I checked nitrites and on those 0. Checked amm. and the readings are below. To me amm looks higher than 0 but less than .25. You take a look and see what you think.
So here's were I need clarification. If chlorine comes back 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates are present and amm is slightly present....this to me would mean safe will detoxify the nitrates and amm and will have something to break down other than o2 since there are other chems present. Am I correct in this thinking?
So here's were I need clarification. If chlorine comes back 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates are present and amm is slightly present....this to me would mean safe will detoxify the nitrates and amm and will have something to break down other than o2 since there are other chems present. Am I correct in this thinking?
Correct, but you will have to play around a bit to find how much water conditioner is required to render free ammonia (NH3) into a safe form for your fish. I would advise buying a Seachem Ammonia Alert, and/or their Multitest kit which tests for free ammonia, not just total ammonia, which is what your test kit is showing. Your kit will give you false positives for ammonia when using Prime or Safe. As far as nitrate reduction, personally I wouldn't bank on Safe resolving that much, if any.
Hello; I have been following the water chemistry threads for a few years with the hope of improving my understanding. I will attempt to summarize a bit about the nitrates.
In an established tank with a balance of the various types of beneficial bacteria (bb) this is referred to as a "cycled" tank. Fish and the decay of organic material in a tank produce metabolic waste that includes ammonia. The bb are part of a naturally evolved process that will convert the ammonia first into nitrites and then the second team of bb convert nitrites into nitrates.
My take is there is not a group of bacteria that can further process the nitrates and these nitrates will accumulate in a closed system such as an aquarium.
Live plants can use these nitrates in their growth process and remove some. To be effective the plants need to have constant growth and overall increase in size. The nitrates becoming locked up in the plant structures. It apparently requires that a lot of the plant parts need to be harvested and removed from the tank on an ongoing basis. To me this means clipping a lot of old leaves and removal of such plant parts from the tank. I no longer allow old leaves to decay in a tank. I also have been harvesting whole plants from my tanks and taking them to a fish shop for store credit.
Another way to take advantage of live plants is to grow plants outside of the aquarium but with the roots somehow in the tank water. This way the roots can take up the nitrates and incorporate them into the plant body. I think a plant called pythos is popular for this.
I think a third way may be the use of what is called an "algae scrubber". I have not tried one of these as yet. A type of light arranged outside the tank with tank water flowing thru a plumbed system so that the light encourages growth of algae on some type of mat. I guess the mat has the algae cleaned off from time to time. There are threads about this.
The most common method of removing the nitrates is the Water change (WC). Some folks go to both ends of the extremes on WC. Some change near 90% water every day or two while others go for weeks between WC. A local area shop suggests two week intervials.
I have very light stocking density and lots of live plants so tend to go somewhere between a week and two weeks. One exception in my fry tanks which get up to three WC a week.
Hope this helps.
RD I don't know if I mentioned it but those tests are straight from the tap. Actually surprised it looked like there was a small amount of amm ....I'll have to test again to make sure I didn't somehow mess up. The nitrates I'm not worried about as I do have a hob filter which has some filter floss, lava rock and pothos growing on it for some cleanup.
It may sound weird but I don't get any smells from my tap such as sulfer, bleach, amm or such ( some places íve been taste weird or smell sulferish) . To what you stated on free amm whenever I test my tank though the amm is always a nice yellow
It may sound weird but I don't get any smells from my tap such as sulfer, bleach, amm or such ( some places íve been taste weird or smell sulferish) . To what you stated on free amm whenever I test my tank though the amm is always a nice yellow
The "Safe" won't get rid of nitrates, as Skjl47 said, only water changes and plants (unless you have a specific and dedicated nitrate reactor).
In salt water aquariums with deep sand substrates, plenums are used to aid the process by providing an anoxic zone under the substrate where nitrate is "challenged" (redux).
I tried one of these a couple decades ago, but my cichlids kept digging holes down to the fabric, which basically cancelled out the anoxic zone. I built a plenum with PVC and garden fabric for under a fairly deep sand substrate.
Google Bob Goemans/plenums if interested
In fresh water aquariums we generally only think about the nitrogen cycle, because ammonia and nitrite are acutely toxic, nitrate not so much.
In nature there is also the sulfur cycle, photosynthesis, natural fractionation, and other factors that neutralize other all the other "stuff".
I used fractionation many times to rid the water of nitrate precursors, but it can be fidgety, and needs much more agitation from pumps in fresh water to accomplish than many aquarists are willing to provide.
In salt water aquariums with deep sand substrates, plenums are used to aid the process by providing an anoxic zone under the substrate where nitrate is "challenged" (redux).
I tried one of these a couple decades ago, but my cichlids kept digging holes down to the fabric, which basically cancelled out the anoxic zone. I built a plenum with PVC and garden fabric for under a fairly deep sand substrate.
Google Bob Goemans/plenums if interested
In fresh water aquariums we generally only think about the nitrogen cycle, because ammonia and nitrite are acutely toxic, nitrate not so much.
In nature there is also the sulfur cycle, photosynthesis, natural fractionation, and other factors that neutralize other all the other "stuff".
I used fractionation many times to rid the water of nitrate precursors, but it can be fidgety, and needs much more agitation from pumps in fresh water to accomplish than many aquarists are willing to provide.
