Water testing Q

[408mike]

Ok so I tested the water in both my 12 gallon nano with my octo and my 20 with my mantis.

Basically the water in my octo tank is perfect except for nitrate no3? It's at 20ppm, so not too high but it should be lower right?

My mantis tank wow it's totally acidic and the NO3 is 180pm or so. Ammonia is fine and the other nitrite test was fine but the ph is way bad and the NO3 is really really high. What should I do?

 

[Animal Mother]

20ppm in the octo tank is okay, lower would be better, but you'll never completely get rid of the nitrates. 180ppm... now that could be fatal real fast, especially for an invertebrate. I would start doing small water changes. You don't want to over-do it because the shift in your water parameters could also cause your mantis to go into shock. Also, your ph is going to shift throughout the day so you will get different readings from morning to evening. A refugium is good at stabilizing the ph if you run the lights on a reverse cycle. ph will drop after lights out at night, so lights on a refugium all night takes that out of the equation.

What kind of filtration are you running?

 

[Pea-brain]

To increase the PH try opening a window. It can work wonders Really high nitrates can cause low PH. I'd try testing it again to make sure-that level seems a lil weird. Octos have been known to stand levels up to 100 ppm with no ill effects long term, but it certainly isn't recomended.

Dan

 

[Echidna09]

While your octo may be able to handle nitrates of 100 ppm, it will not be for very long (probably hours) and your octo will probably get damaged by having them that high. I would never let Nitrates get above 30.

You are going to accumulate nitrates over time. Ammonia and nitrite will both be taken out with the nitrogen cycle, but the only export for nitrates is nitrogen gas, and the majority of your nitrates will not convert.