Nitrates high?

[mr.bigglesworth]

Hi I just tested my water. I have 20-40ppm nitrates. Is this too much? I also found out my water is soft in my 20gal mabuna tamk with 80lbs of rock. Shouldn't the rock harden the water?

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[Owain4]

thats not bad nitrates, just do a bit extra water changes if your worried. It all depends which type of rock you have, how hard or soft the water is usually depends on your tap water. i wouldnt worry on changing your hardness

 

[F1 VET]

Hi I just tested my water. I have 20-40ppm nitrates. Is this too much? I also found out my water is soft in my 20gal mabuna tamk with 80lbs of rock. Shouldn't the rock harden the water?

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40ppm isn't bad on a scale of 1-10 that's a 5-6 personally I don't ever exceed 60-80 but mine stay at 15-30 these days, feeding less helps and obviously a 50% wc will almost cut them in half. Rock alters ur ph never heard of it messing with hardness, that's just calcium and what not. I can certainly tell u water hardness isn't a big deal and ur better off keeping it the same. What kind of rock u got?

Go S. Vettel #1 rb8

 

[tomomothy]

From what Ive read, and please correct me if anybody knows this too be wrong, but the minerals (electrolytes) measured in hardness are used by the bacteria that break down ammonia and nitrates. If it gets low, the bacteria wont be able to break down these toxins in your water as effectively, so your pH may start to rise and you may even see some ammonia.

Long story short, if your pH is stable and your ammonia is 0, youre fine. If your pH starts to shift, then I'd look into your water hardness level. But I agree that nitrates around 40 arent too bad. My tap water is high in nitrates so mine can get a bit higher than 40 before a water change but it doesnt seem to stress my fish out.

 

[wpo]

Nitrates above 80-100ppm are pretty high and generally are going to lead to diseases if left there. You are ok if you are getting close to a waterchange (7-14 days) if you do 40-50% w/c at a time & fish load is normal. Hardness of water has 2 parts GH & KH. GH is how hard it is & is difficult to raise (watersofteners lower it). KH is how stable it is (R.O.,DIonizing,distilling lowers it). Don't mess with GH unless last resort, KH can be raised if below 200ppm. Use 1 teaspoon baking soda per 10 gallons water every two weeks (it will raise PH at same time). Africans are not going to do well below 7.8 PH - thats the short of it ,ask more questions if not clear.

 

[duanes]

Many rocks are inert and wont effect pH, rock with a high calcium content such as coraline or dolomite will help buffer, as will aragonite substrate.
But the best thing for any fish would be frequent water changes.