The nitrates in my fish tank are too high!!! How do you get this to come down. Everything else checks fine.?
by Aquaboy on Saturday, July 17th, 2010 | 5 Comments
I use a 5 in one test strip, everything else is great. I have cichlids, and they all seem fine and growing. I do water changes, but this does not seem to help. I have learned some home remedies for ph and gh and kh. Are there any for nitrates.
Thanks!
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How high is too high? 30? 80? 150?
Water changes are the best way. If nitrates are building up faster then you can handle them then either you don’t change the water enough, or you have too many fish, or something else is contributing waste to the tank.
Plants use up nitrates, but most cichlids don’t work well with plants.
There are filter media’s that will help absorb nitrates. These are expensive and get used up, but tend to work ok otherwise.
There are chemicals that claim to neutralize nitrates. I don’t recommend using chemicals to mask out problems.
One other thing – if water changes aren’t helping (assuming you are doing them often enough), then have you tested water out of the tap for nitrates?
Get a good water filter.
It would be better for you, your family, and your cichlids.
I have the same cichlids for the last two years. (And the same family members for longer.)
Need more info. Have too many fish in a small tank, that would do it. Don’t say how long the tank has been set up and running. My advice is, if it ain’t broke-don’t fix it. In other words, if the fish are fine and have been in the tank for a period of time in this water. Well, they must be okay.
Sometimes its best not to try and change to much. The water is being filtered through an outside of tank filter/charcoal is clean. Filter is changed often. Siphon off some of the bottom water and try adding in bottled drinking or spring water. Is good to have the outside filter even if you have an under gravel one too. Don’t exchange water to often as this leads to more problems than it fixes. You need aged water to keep an efficient tank.
Sometimes in a hurry to enjoy fish, we add them to early to the new tank. And maybe to many at once also. When ever you add fish or water to your tank, always use Start Right or a similar product. Always.
Nitrates can be more difficult, here is a quote from an article of mine:
Although not generally toxic high nitrates can stunt fish growth and lead to health issues if fish are exposed to high nitrates for an extended time in freshwater.
*Perform a water change using a gravel vacuum to remove not just dirty water, but “mulm” that will decompose and enter the nitrogen cycle and eventually become nitrates.
This can be a particular problem with Under Gravel Filters (UGF), decomposing organic debris will tend to build up under the filter plate. For these filters I recommend occasionally removing the lift tubes and placing a siphon into the opening and removing as much organic debris (mulm) as possible.
Even without UGF, poor vacuuming procedures (or none at all) can contribute to high to high nitrates. Make sure and vacuum around and under ornaments as well, although be careful around live plants.
*Proper filtration and maintenance; Make sure and regularly rinse in de-chlorinated or used aquarium water (never tap water) your bio filter media. This includes bio rings and balls commonly found in wet dry filters and canister filters, sponge filters, bio wheels, or any other media that is not changed in the filter. This is especially important with filters that tend to become “nitrate factories”, which include in my experience (AND tests) to be; Canister Filters, Wet-Dry filters, and Emperor Filters. This is not to say these filters are bad, it is just important to not ignore properly cleaning these filters even though their large capacity makes it very easy to do. I will however add that for reef aquariums I do NOT recommend the before mentioned filters with the exception being the Wet-Dry and even then substituting live rock crumbles for bio balls.
I have seen nitrates in freshwater go down by simply changing filter systems (the over all health of the aquarium improved as well). The last time I did this was by removing an Emperor 400 and replacing it with a combinations Sponge filter/ Internal filter/ Fluidized Filter System.
*Add aquatic plants to freshwater especially hornwort.
Anubias will often stand up to cichlids. Also Java Fern.
Water changes, but sometimes there is nitirite in the municiple water supply, so that will be quickly converted to extra nitrate in a cycled tank. If that is the case, then you should stop using treated tap water & start using reverse osmosis- deionized water. Or half spring water half distilled if you have trouble finding ro-di water. Most purified water available at the supermarket & most good fish stores are purified through the reverse osmosis method. Sometimes the membrane needs to be replaced in the ro-di unit, which can account for less than perfect water also. Nitrates should be kept under 40 ppm and ideally at 20 ppm in most freshwater systems. In marine systems, a deep sand bed and live rock can help reduce nitrates, but that is not going to help too much with your cichlids. Are you sure that the test strips are still good? They could be old & giving a false reading as a result. I think a liquid test kits- or even better- probe type readers are generally more accurate. Instead of buying a freshwater master test kit (20 bucks) You could take the water to the fish store for a second opinion, all the pet stores in my area offer free water testing.