What nitrate levels do you keep your tank at?

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gutted

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jun 19, 2012
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What's your nitrate levels before you do a water change, how much do you change and what's your stock?

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But how would you know you're overfeeding if you don't check your nitrate levels? Unless you're doing 80%+ water changes then I think its good to know what your nitrates are at.

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Depends on the tank. Some run about 5 before or after, some more like 20-30 before. Water changes and stock also varies between tanks, too much to list all the details. But tanks vary by the combination of number and type of fish, specific substrate (all are sand, but different types of sand), and other tank details. For example, one tank has Eco_Complete sand and a patch of long flowing moss/algae on the back wall. Another has PFS and a few plants. Etc.
 
gutted said:
But how would you know you're overfeeding if you don't check your nitrate levels? Unless you're doing 80%+ water changes then I think its good to know what your nitrates are at.

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Personally, I judge that totally by fish appearance and adjust feeding accordingly. I simply don't have fat fish. Nitrates can be an indication of overfeeding, but it's not always that simple. Filtration, stock level, and what's in your tap water to begin with are some of the other factors. Also, some tanks will naturally process nitrates. Depending on plants, mosses, algae, bio-film on driftwood, chemistry, substrate, etc, each tank can be a little different.

So, for example, you could have a low stocking level, big filtration, low or zero nitrates from your tap, lots of plants, mosses, etc., and overfeed your fish, but nitrates might still be low. Or you could have lean fish, lightly fed, but lots of nitrates from your tap and a tank that does little nitrate processing and have high nitrates.

Bottom line for me is feeding depends on the fish, not the nitrates. Nitrates are more about the bigger picture, including your water supply, water changes, overall balance and health of the tank, etc.
 
I test rarely, when I do, im under 20ppm on most tanks give or take.

Depending on the tank I do 60-80% changes every week. The Exception being my Oscar tank which gets water changes twice a week Some times.

I've got a 90/40 sump moderately stocked african tank which stays around 5-10ppm after a week of no water changes, and then you know what I do at the end of that week? Change 70-80% of the water and knock that number back down as close to 0 as I can lol.

I'm sure there's other bad stuff besides nitrates that accumulate between changes that we don't test for, but I'm no biologist.

IMO. nitrates are a bad indicator to do a water change. By the time they show up in high concentrations you've already lost the game. Shoot for keeping them as low as possible. If your nitrates are low, that's good, change your water, keep it that way. That's how I do it anyway.

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neutrino said:
.....what's in your tap water to begin with....
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this factor is often overlooked, make sure you are testing the nitrates of your water source. I use the API Freshwater Master test kit Nitrate test and my tap water measures just under 5 ppm from what I can tell.

typically I am sitting above 10 and below 40 ppm, my ability to determine what shade of orange the results are may skew my results :)
 
Nitrates? What are Nitrates? :confused:

On established tanks I check on occasion but mostly just do water changes and not worry unless something seams to be going wrong with the fish. On new tanks I get a little obsessive about checking everything tell I am comfortable it is running right.
 
Drip system, keeps them at 5
 
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