Nitrate level

[landmineyouth]

I usually do 30gallons of water change in my 75gallon tank once a month.... so you guys are tellin me this is too much???

 

[guppy]

I usually do 30gallons of water change in my 75gallon tank once a month.... so you guys are tellin me this is too much???

IMO you should do 25 -30g every two weeks for a 75g tank.

To clarify what I meant by biomass in this case, the ammount of bacterial growth in your filter. Biomass really means is if total of living material in your tank but I misused the term here. Biowheels don't provide all that much surface area for benificial bacteria to grow on, I modify the charcoal inserts in that type filter by slitting them open to remave the charcoal and replacing it with small fragments of lavarock to provide more living space for the bacteria.
A fast growing cheap plant like elodea is good for lowering the level of ammonia products in a tank by locking it up into itself, as it grows just trim off the older parts of the plants and discard them.

 

[Jesse]

So I did a nitrate test and it was really high, and I did about a 30% water change after seeing that and its still high. Any Ideas on how I could lower it without chemicals?

Do larger and more frequent water changes. The relationship between water changes and nitrate concentration is linear. Assuming that your tap water has 0 ppm nitrates, then your resultant nitrate concentration should have gone down by 30% with a 30% water change.

I do 50% water changes on all of my tanks either weekly or bi-weekly depending on my bioload/stocking levels. My nitrate levels are usually at or below 20 ppm.