Nitrate problems

[mzhantsche]

I can never get a hold on my nitrates. Other than more water changes ( i do 50% once a week) what can i do?

180gal..one fx5...one fulvul 404.....sand....16" aro, two 11" bichirs, 6" motoro.....i feed live(cricket and mealworms) and masivor pelets.

Nitrates are ushaly between 40ppm and 160ppm

I am building a sump that will go in on friday.

Ill spend any amount of money.

Fire away with suggestions please.

 

[wilkinson]

Continuous drip it works great for me i change abouy 25% daily

 

[mzhantsche]

can you point me to where i can learn about continuous drip method? I like the idea of changing 25% daily....as long as its not me having to do it. hahahaha im assuming its from a storage tank.

 

[wilkinson]

Actually its from the tap going thru a dechorinator

Here is a link to a few pics and in that page there is also a link to a pretty inexpensive dechorinator. you will see its a pretty basic system but it works fine
Almost forgot to have the continuous drip you need a drain in your sump.

Anyway go check it out and it will give you a idea http://www.arowanaclub.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=4334

 

[flowingmotion]

Whats your nitrate reading from the tap? If you have nitrates in your tap water it wont help to do a drip system. Another thing to try is pothos. Once fully established it can have a big impact.

 

[mzhantsche]

Whats your nitrate reading from the tap? If you have nitrates in your tap water it wont help to do a drip system. Another thing to try is pothos. Once fully established it can have a big impact.

Sorry im getting to this so late. What is pothos? I will try anything.

 

[davdev]

Adding more filtration won't help, nitrate is a by product of the filtration. Really besides water changes, your only option is to heavily plant. Pothos is a type of planting method.

You could also either cut back on stock, or on feeding. While only 4 fish, they are messy (Aro and Ray), so your food could be the problem

 

[BigFishMommy]

pothos are terrestrial plants that you can 'plant' in the back of a hob filter (the roots will be very happy with the nitrate rich water passing by them), or plant in your sump. just ensure that nothing but the roots/stem ends are underwater, or else the plant will rot away. the pothos plants will suck up the nitrate and other excess nutrients in the water, and will grow like crazy. be prepared for pothos to take over a wall! lol. (they like to grow up, as a vine, so use string and tacks/nails or a trellis against the wall).

when you do your water changes, do you do a good stir of the sand? a water change without removing the mulm in the substrate isn't going to do much to lower your nitrates, because that mulm is still there, breaking down and creating more nitrate. normally sand will keep all the poop and mulm on top, but i think with a ray in the tank, it would be moving sand around a fair bit, and mulm would go under the sand surface.

perhaps increase your water change schedule to twice weekly at 50%. with those big fish in a tank that isn't all that big, more frequent water changes will be a good thing!

 

[jcardona1]

Your stock sounds pretty light for your nitrates to be that high. What's the nitrates of your tap water? And are you sure the test kit is good? Most test kits are garbage, especially when it comes to nitrate tests.

 

[Pangong_ilong]

Something else is causing the nitrate spike. How often do you clean your filters? Test your tap water for nitrates. Scoop out uneaten foods. When i was doing rays, i change my water every 2 days on a 225g tank.