Archived message board.
Nitrate
My tank has been running for 15 months now with everything running
fine. That is until recently. Over the last few months the nitrate
levels have rocketed off the chart. This has lead to the plants dying
and some of the fish. To combat this I have been doing 20% water changes
ever two weeks but the level remains the same. Any help would be cool.
Thanks
- hey sid..wow not good...high nitrate levels can caused by a number
of things but most commonly is lack of maintaince....as your self
these questions first...bioload? how much fish are in the tank? often
too much for it's size...do I over feed?...yep maybe...do I vacuum
my gravel and generally clean up debris during my water changes?....How
often do I do changes and how much?..Maybe I should do more more often?...How
good is my filtration? Is it working properly and effectively?.....Do
I have natural nitrate consumer's in my tank(plants!) how many and
are they growing well?..What exactly are my levels? and is my test
kit reliable....You see what I'm getting at sid?...lotsa questions
need to be answered by yourself...when you have answered all these
grasshopper..you will see the answers clearly.....
- sid...specifically, and I believe Jeff touched on it...think about
is this way...nitrate producers, and nitrate consumers (plants)...It
isn't the nitrate that is harming the plants most likely...my guess
is that for some reason your plants are doing well and are dying,
therefore they are not using the nitrate. So on top of the things
Jeff listed to think about, try to examine it with the thoughts that
I highlighted in the back of your head.
- In a planted tank less than 10-20ppm is acceptable nitrate levels...Fish
get real stressed over 60ppm and plants will pack it in below those
levels...light is usually the key problem and if you are not getting
enough light in there the plants will not be able to photosynthesis
and burn up those nitrates....do weekly water changes of 15-20% for
now and see if that will help bring down the nitrate levels...
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