stubborn nitrates.

[hag]

60 gallon tank


Ammonia- 0
nitrites- 0
ph- 8.0
nitrates- 30

some plants

NovAqua + AmQuel...... as my water conditioners.

5 discus
3 cory cats
2 small angels
7 rummy tetras

I do a 50% wc every 3-4 days (Tap and there are no nitrate in it) and I sill have an overload of nitrates! what can I do??? I'm just so frustrated and worried about my fish. I just cant get them down! should i use stress zyme? should i do an 80% wc?

[Scribbles]

I would start knocking out some big daily wc if your PH is stable. If you have substrate then vaccuum the gravel really well. Also, make sure that you are not over feeding. JMO

Chris

[hag]

how much is overboard? what can i take out that will not upset my biological? what do i do?

[akumastew]

Maybe you could take a water sample to your local pet store.

There could be an issue with your test kit.

I just had such an issue with my test kit. It said I had 12.5 ppm NItrate in all my tanks and my straight RO; one trip to petco and I found out that it was really <5ppm in my tanks and 0 in my RO.

I f you can do a 50% water change, you should see a ~50% drop in nitrates. At least it should if I can do my math correctly.

[Darrell Ward]

Yes, I would make sure the test kit was accurate before I panicked. For what it's worth, I use to volunteer at a public aquarium. They had several freshwater display tanks over 1000 gals. representing various parts of the world. Water changes were done once a week on all the tanks, but some of them constantly had nitrate readings of 60 or higher. I'm not suggesting this is ideal, but I never saw any unexplained deaths either. Nitrate is far less toxic in freshwater than ammonia or nitrite. I have also found that over time in tanks with substrate, dissolved organic materials build in the substrate. The only way to completely get rid of it, is to remove the substrate. This is why you will no longer find any substrate in any of my tanks.

[Jhhnn]

Maybe you could take a water sample to your local pet store.

There could be an issue with your test kit.

I just had such an issue with my test kit. It said I had 12.5 ppm NItrate in all my tanks and my straight RO; one trip to petco and I found out that it was really <5ppm in my tanks and 0 in my RO.

I f you can do a 50% water change, you should see a ~50% drop in nitrates. At least it should if I can do my math correctly.

Yep- it's always good to calibrate the instrumentation...

that's part of why I like the Seachem kits- they include calibration solutions...

I like Scribbles POV as well. If nitrates bounce back up quickly after a water change, that means excess organics in the tank for the nitrifiers to feed on, to make more nitrates...

[Don Trinko]

Use the lquid test kits, the test strips are terribly inacurate. One thing for sure ; if your nitrates are 30 and you do a 50% WC your nitrates are 15 emediatly after the WC. They will grow after the wc but 50% wc = 1/2 the nitrates . Don T.

[hag]

I use the API test kit. I do a 50% wc and the next day its just as high. when doing a wc i clean the substrate as best i can. will fluval lab work?

[hag]

thanks everyone for the help!

[jaykne]

This is all normal nitrates are the byproduct of of you biological system not toxic, the nitrates build up really fast thats why if your going to have discus you have to lots of large water changes, bucause unlike other fish discus do not do well in high nitrates and will get stunnted. You will always have some nitrates in your water if not than you have no biological system the whole Idea is to keep them low so your fish grow faster and are more healthy. Larry