Nitrate levels

[ecoli73]

If everything in the aquarium remains pretty constant, is the increase of nitrate linear?

I will be gone for a month in summer; if I say measure the nitrate from right after a weekly water change and measure it again right before I do the next one, can I assume the nitrate level will increase in close to linear fashion over a month without water changes if nothing catastrophic happens?

Thanks

 

[Pyramid_Party]

Yes.

 

[MonsterMinis]

more or less.. how much they are fed while your away will also make a noticable difference on the nitrate levels while your away.

 

[tomomothy]

more or less.. how much they are fed while your away will also make a noticable difference on the nitrate levels while your away.

Don't forget to take into account evaporation. Nitrates go up linearly with evaporation too since nitrates dont evaporate with water but evaporation isnt a clean linear relationship. As long as your water doesnt evaporate much over the course of time it shouldnt be a problem though

 

[ecoli73]

Thank you all for the input. I forgot about evaporation. I lose about .25 inch of water a week so I will lose an inch in a month. Not too bad for a 30 inch(28 effective) inch tank.

I think I will also put some porthos on top of the tank so they may suck up some nitrate

 

[tomomothy]

Sounds like you got it figured out as long as you keep your fish fed