Nitrate levels too high

[jordan2213]

So I'm in the end of getting my tank set up. It cycled for 6 weeks. It's had damsels in it for a week. Ammonia and nitrite are fine but I can't get my nitrates to go down despite multiple water changes. Help!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rover88]

So I'm in the end of getting my tank set up. It cycled for 6 weeks. It's had damsels in it for a week. Ammonia and nitrite are fine but I can't get my nitrates to go down despite multiple water changes. Help!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do more, larger water changes.

If you are overfeeding, feed less.

What level are you testing? What kit are you using? API is notorious broad band, and doesn't pinpoint levels well.

 

[nereefpat]

What are the actual numbers for:
Ammonia?
Nitrite?
Nitrate?

Any idea how high the ammonia got?

In general, yes, a bigger water change will fix it. You can theoretically do nearly a 100% water change to drop the nitrates.

 

[JUNBUG361]

Water parameter readings?

 

[mcgyvr]

A 50% water change will reduce nitrate levels 50%..
A 10% will reduce them 10%,etc..

First....What are your current nitrate readings?

Did you add ammonia or anything during cycling?
What size tank?
How many pounds of rock did you use?

 

[October Sky]

What everyone else said, but also look for static filters (sponge like filters). They are super prone to holding nitrates.

 

[gprdypoo04]

A 50% water change will reduce nitrate levels 50%..
A 10% will reduce them 10%,etc..


Bull turds.....

 

[homer1475]

A 50% water change will reduce nitrate levels 50%..
A 10% will reduce them 10%,etc..

Bull turds.....

Why bull turds? He's absolutely right.

What most people don't realize, that 50% WC will reduce say a 50ppm to 25, but the next 50% WC will only reduce them by roughly 25% as you already diluted them down with the first change.

Water changes and nutrient reduction is not linear.

 

[sde1500]

A 50% water change will reduce nitrate levels 50%..

A 10% will reduce them 10%,etc..





Bull turds.....

I mean that's pretty simple math. How's it wrong?

 

[gprdypoo04]

Simply.....water changes don't work in my experience.

 

[Rover88]

Simply.....water changes don't work in my experience.

bruh.

They do.

If they don't work in your experience, your equipment or your method isn't working right and not giving you accurate test results.

Its simple dilution.

Take a bucket of orange juice. Remove half and replace with water. Its 50% orange juice now. Remove half and replace with water. Its 50% of that amount, or 25% of the original amount. Remove half again, you reduced by 50%... or 12.5% of the original. This goes on until you get bored of it. Eventually the payoff isn't amazing if you are trying to dilute a REALLY small number, but its pretty basic math and application.

Replace orange juice with whatever your target 'problem' is. So long as the water you are adding isn't orange juice filled too, its going to work as described above.

 

[Pandagobyguy]

+1 water changes work lmao! All you need to keep a fish alive is a box, salty water, a heater, a pump and more WC's than im willing to do. I wish people started saying this because we act like entry cost is massive but really it can be fairly cheap.

Anyway to the op here are a few things i have noticed cause your issue:
Too large sand bed getting stirred up with WC
Using water with ammonia already present (my tap reads fairly high)
Decaying matter that is unnoticed

I have an unsupported belief that lr causes nitrate spikes if exposed to different salinity, air, flow etc. (Imo the bact seem weak to enviro factors and die easily)

Im sure there are other possibilities but thats all i can think of now

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[pisanoal]

Simply.....water changes don't work in my experience.

LOL. You didn't do well in chemistry I take it. At the moment you complete a 50% water change, you have successfully reduced the concentrations of things that are not replenished by your salt mix by half.

Reasons why water changes might not be successful in keeping nitrate levels down?
- Its being created faster then you are removing it via water changes - solution- do more/large wc's, or better yet, find the nutrient sink and fix it.

-You have contaminants in your source water. Maybe your water plant uses chloramines instead of elemental chlorine which a lot do now. If your RO is not setup to handle this, it could get in your tank. If you are not using RO, then it is definitely getting into your tank.

- Your 50% water change is a series of 10% water changes. Lots of people think that 5 10% water changes are equivalent to 1 50% water change. But the math says differently. If you start at 50ppm nitrates, and change 50% of water with 0 nitrates, you end up with 25. Easy math. If you do 5 10% changes, 1st one gives you a 10% reduction of 5 to 45ppm, next drops it to 40.5, 3rd to 36.45, 4th to 32.8, 5th to 29.5. Take that out to "100%" with another 5 changes only gets you to 17.4 vs a true single instantaneous 100% change gets you to an obvious 0.


Im sure there are more reasons, but these are the obvious ones.

 

[scooter31707]

Are you skimmer also?

 

[October Sky]

+1 water changes work lmao! All you need to keep a fish alive is a box, salty water, a heater, a pump and more WC's than im willing to do.

This is bs if I've ever read it. My betta didn't last a week in my tank and I was swaping out salt water every other day when he looked distressed.

 

[mcgyvr]

This is bs if I've ever read it. My betta didn't last a week in my tank and I was swaping out salt water every other day when he looked distressed.

:fun5:

Was that an attempt at humor?

 

[Papermonkeys]

Am I crazy or has he not posted his readings? I'm curious to what "too high" means

 

[Sk8r]

Nitrate from original setup sounds like maybe a ro/di problem. Worth asking---is this ro/di water?

 

[mcgyvr]

Am I crazy or has he not posted his readings? I'm curious to what "too high" means

They have not come back to respond to any questions/comments since the original post..
So yes there are lots of assumptions,etc... being thrown around along with some goofy comments from others.

 

[sde1500]

:fun5:



Was that an attempt at humor?

If so, a very poor one.