WTF!!! Evil Nitrates

[TankBuster]

I have a 250g. tank with 4 6 inch pbass, 1 Takifugu puffer, 1 10 inch Garrrrrr and a BGK. I do 30 to 40 gallon water changes every morning. My nitrates are off the charts. I do not over feed. The pbass get 3 feeders each on aa daily basis, the puffer gets half a market shrimp once a day and the gar gets a chunk of krill each day, the ghost gets shrimp and krill, I also alternate between food types. How can the nitrates be soooo high. I mean off the chart like 60ppm.This is insane. am I going to have to do 100 gallon water changes each day. Also I leave no food remaining in the tank. All is eaten. I have sand substrate so when i change the water I always vacuum. When I add the water I use a mag 2400 to pump the water back in so I stir up the water to loosen any lodged waste.

 

[TankBuster]

By the way, the nitrate goes from 20ppm, as low as I can get it even with a huge water change, so it goes from 20 to 60 in about 2 weeks.

 

[Gee]

Is your test still good?

You can also add some Pothos to your tank and/or filter, they really help with trate reduction.

 

[rallysman]

test your tap.

 

[TankBuster]

I tested the tap and 0 nitrates. I used a new test kit to make sure it wasnt bad. What is pothos?

 

[rallysman]

thats insane....I'm kind of confused.

 

[cbfreder]

How are your nitrItes? As I understand it, high nitrIte levels (2-4 ppm) can give false readings for nitrAtes. I checked this out on a cycling aquarium and sure enough the nitrAte test was off the charts where there were only nitrItes.

Brandon

 

[rallysman]

How are your nitrItes? As I understand it, high nitrIte levels (2-4 ppm) can give false readings for nitrAtes. I checked this out on a cycling aquarium and sure enough the nitrAte test was off the charts where there were only nitrItes.

Brandon

Good point.

 

[dodgefreak8]

also Instead of doing 30-40 gallon WC's daily try doing 1-2 50% WC's a week.. you will remove more nitrates at once. than you will in doing small waterchanges daily. I do 1 50% waterchage weekly and my nitrates stay at 15ppm

 

[TankBuster]

If I wait a week then the nitrates go to 40-60 ppm. I will test the amonia and nitraites right now, thanks for that tip.