i have been doing 50% water changes everyday on my 150g grow out tank with no results? The tank's param. are 0ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, and 40-50ppm nitrate at about 80 degrees. the tank is filtered with 2 fx5's which should be more than enough and a sand substrate. i currently have 4 fish in the tank... 1- 12" arrowanna, 2 - 10" gar, and 1- 8" irredecent shark. the water out of the tap is at 0ppm nitrate. i have done everything i could think of from cleaning out the filter's to sifting the sand with no results at all! any ideas?
nitrate not coming down?
- Thread starter fastestrx7
- Start date
If the tap tests good, and you are doing 50% WC, there has got to be something driving it up. Have you checked the filters? Cleaned them? Have you lost any fish?
Carbon and coral will not help in this instance, FYI...
Carbon is for removing impurities in the water, i.e. medications
Coral is for buffering the PH of the water.
Carbon and coral will not help in this instance, FYI...
Carbon is for removing impurities in the water, i.e. medications
Coral is for buffering the PH of the water.
Also, what is your cleaning schedule. How oftern do you vac the tank. Do you feed too muchbut forget to clean out the excess. That could be a contributor.
i nave not lost any fish nor do they look stressed in the least... i even bought a new test kit because i thought mine might be bad but with the same results? Do i just have to much bio load on the tank or what? when i feed i only add what they eat while i am standing there so i know there is no trapped food any where...
i do 50% water changes everyday. clean the filters once a month and sift the sand about twice a month. i have no rocks or anything in the tank for waste to get trapped its just sand and nothing else?
How long have you had these filters running? The reason I ask is, bio balls tend to get clogged and become nitrate factories. Have you ever rinsed the bio balls? When I used to keep saltwater tanks I would never use bio balls for filtration because of their tendency to release nitrates. If you see a lot of the saltwater filters now days, they tend to not use bio balls and use a refugium with algae to control nitrates and they do a good job keeping nitrates at 0ppm. You can also use plants in a freshwater setup to help control nitrates because that is one of their main food source. If you have not cleaned/ rinsed the bio balls, try doing it. Don't do it all at once, do some today and then some more 5 days from now and then the rest 5 days from that.
Pharaoh;2837063; said:
The only reason I asked about the carbon and crushed coral is that with time these can release nitrates back to the tank once they have become "saturated" and can no longer do what they are meant to do. Carbon is great for removing meds but once it is "saturated" it will release chemicals back into the tank, and usually it is nitrates. Crushed coral can do the same but it will take way longer to do it.
i think you might if just hit it with the bio balls.... i normally just put them in a 5 gallon bucket with tank water while i clean the rest of the filter.... i will try that and see if that does the trick...