I can't seem to get the nitrates in some of my tanks to drop below mg/l in some of my tanks. These are all tanks that are lightly stocked, decent to heavily filtered, and fed sparingly. Depending on what the tank is holding I do 25 to 45 percent water changes weekly. There is no ammonia or nitrites. I clean the filters every couple months. Last time they were cleaned was two-three weeks ago. Any thoughts?
Sick of nitrates
- Thread starter fishaddiction
- Start date
I had the same problem, turns out my tap is at 5ppm. As long as it doesn't go over 20-30, don't stress it too much. If possible, grab some plants to help.
My tap water is also 5ppm and I keep my tank at around 8ppm. Under 20ppm is fine for pretty much every freshwater fish.
japes;1674827; said:
All I can say is Huh? or WTF people why do so many people go nuts with the whole Nitrate thingy in fresh water. For freshwater I have 2 test kits wanna guess what they are? And in marine tanks I use 2 test kits also. I see no reason to have so many test kits. Again all I can say is WTF. But I don't know what fish your keeping and where your at your local water conditions etc, so I could be wrong here but I dought it, for most people that is.
Tequila;1674902; said:
I've tested both of my tanks about 10 times each since I've been keeping fish. I cannot understand why you're so curious as to why people test Nitrates, especially when it's the most important indicator of whether or not you're keeping up with maintenance on your tank efficiently or not. After a few tests on a regular feeding and waterchange schedule you will have a pretty decent idea of the rate in which your Nitrates increase, but it's far from useless having the test kit.
Nitrates are poisonous to fish just like Ammonia and Nitrite, they can just be tolerated at higher levels. I'm confident that keeping Nitrate levels as low as possible promotes quicker growth and much healthier fish.
Why wouldn't you care about that?
This Q is usless without numbers. What actually is your nitrate level? If cleaning your filter every couple of months isn't working, clean it more often. If doing 25% WC isn't working, do larger ones.