1. Welcome to Aquarium Space! We are a friendly online community for aquarium owners all over the world who love their tanks including their fish, reefs, corals, invertebrates and their aquatic livestock. If you haven't joined yet, we invite you to register and join our community!

need help with high nitrates

Discussion in 'Aquarium Equipment & Decor' started by Anonymous, Mar 16, 2009.

  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

    Top Poster Of Month

    Nitrates

    My nitrate level's have sky rocketed in my tank, and I am not really sure why. Today I cleaned my tank really good, I scrubed my decore becasue it has feathery algea all over it and a 20% water change. I added a few plants to the tank and am hoping that my fish will leave them alone because they never leave them alone, but they have been in there for 2 hours now and they haven't attacked them yet which is a first. How often should I do water changes to get this down? I am also wondering if this spike could have anything to do with my changing from gravel to sand in my tank? any advice would be great.
     
    Anonymous, Mar 16, 2009
    #1
  2. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

    Messages:
    5,728
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    38
    Re: Nitrates

    What's the nitrate reading ?
     
    Anthony, Mar 16, 2009
    #2
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

    Top Poster Of Month

    Re: Nitrates

    It is hard to tell the color difference on my thing but between 40-80
     
    Anonymous, Mar 16, 2009
    #3
  4. James0816

    James0816 New Member

    Messages:
    1,199
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: Nitrates

    What is/was your standard maintenance on the tank? (I.e. water changes and chems, etc.)
     
    James0816, Mar 16, 2009
    #4
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

    Top Poster Of Month

    Re: Nitrates

    I have always done a once a monthe 20% water change but have to add water weekly because I have a fire place in the same room so it evaporates quickly and as far as chemicals I only use a water conditioner
     
    Anonymous, Mar 16, 2009
    #5
  6. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

    Messages:
    5,728
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    38
    Re: Nitrates

    You'll want to increase that to weekly water changes, that's what most of us do. In the mean time you'll want to do several large water changes to get the nitrates down.

    When water evaporates nothing is removed from the tank (nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, etc).

    Also, read this thread. This user had high nitrates as well and this is what she's done to get them down.

    Green Spot Algae & High Nitrate Reading in Planted Tank
     
    Anthony, Mar 16, 2009
    #6
  7. James0816

    James0816 New Member

    Messages:
    1,199
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: Nitrates

    Ok...this is an issue. At bare minimum, wc's should be bi-weekly depending on stock but highly recommend 25%/wk.

    Top offs are a recipe for disaster. OTS (Old Tank Syndrome). Depending on the water from your tap, ickies like nitrates, ammonia and such just sit there building until you do a water change. With the little amount that you do, you are retaining quite a bit of them in the water.

    Thus they build up over time until now where you see high levels.

    Do 50% wc's for the next couple of days and see where that gets you. Definately consider bumping up your maintenance routine.
     
    James0816, Mar 16, 2009
    #7
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

    Top Poster Of Month

    Re: Nitrates

    I have always only done a water change once a month when I had gravel in my tanks and never had a problem, is the sand in my tank holding the nitrates more then what my gravel would have? Also would it be safe to do 2 water changes a day untill I get the levels down?
     
    Anonymous, Mar 16, 2009
    #8
  9. James0816

    James0816 New Member

    Messages:
    1,199
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: Nitrates

    No difference in sand as referring to nitrates. I would not do two wc's a day. Only in extreme cases would i consider it.
     
    James0816, Mar 16, 2009
    #9
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

    Top Poster Of Month

    Re: Nitrates

    thanks for the help
     
    Anonymous, Mar 16, 2009
    #10