# Battling High Nitrates



## Taiko (Jul 9, 2010)

I've been doing 15% water changes bi-weekly and am still battling high nitrates. I rather not change the water more frequently as I may be removing too much of the healthy bacteria. Here's my tank setup:

80 Gallons (about 10 yrs old setup - bought from a friend)
Aquaclear 110 (sponge, 2 carbon bags, biomax media, floss) , Eheim Classic 2217 (1L matrix, 1L substrate pro, floss, ceramic tubes, eheim fix) - only 1 month old, Aquaclear powerhead with sponge on the intake.
6 Goldfish, 8 female Guppies, 1 Chinese Golden Algae Eater, 10 Japonica Shrimp, 1 Bristlenose pleco, 1 Full grown regular pleco.
Temp 24 degrees Celsius
Coralift 48" lamp on for 3 hours a day for night viewing.
Some logs and rocks, no plants (the goldfish devour everything)

Water Values one day after 15% water change.
PH = 6.4
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = > 40ppm (API kit, test sample is dark red)

What am I doing wrong I tested the tap water and there's less than 5.0ppm nitrates in the water, and I use conditioner for all the water anyways.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Don't seem like you're doing anything wrong, but since you have goldfish and huge plecos; yet no plants, then nitrate will accumulate. I can think of two ways to eliminate nitrate buildup:
1. Plant some big echinodorus sword plant or anubias so the goldfish won't chomp on it too much. The plant will soak up nitrate.
2. Continue doing regular water changes. Perhaps do 20-25%.

Bare in mind that due to the low pH, acidic,is what's keeping the nitrate toxicity level low. If the pH increase, it may become a fatal issue for the fish. Good luck.
I'm sure others can add to what I have suggest.


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## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

Jobbers filled in the info. If you are worry about goldfish chomping on plants, go with Anubias or java fern tied to driftwood. Increase the light from 3 hours to 6 so the plant can grow. tying plants onto driftwood will help quite a bit since goldfish likes to sift through the gravel a lot.


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## kelownaguy (Jan 1, 2011)

Change more water more often or feed less.
Nitrates in your tap water doesn`t help.
"Conditiner"(whatever that is) won`t lower nitrates.
I`m lazy too.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Taiko said:


> I've been doing 15% water changes bi-weekly and am still battling high nitrates. I rather not change the water more frequently as I may be removing too much of the healthy bacteria.


What the other guys said, but I just wanted to point out what you stated there is not true. There is ZERO healthy bacteria in the water so you can do 99% water changes without removing the bacteria. I would change 50% every week or even more. I do 60% water changes 2x a week in my 125 gallon and 3x in my 100 gallon discus setup. As long as you are matching temperature and dechlorinating the water, it's not really a problem.


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## Dunbar_Painting (Aug 8, 2010)

You should do a 50% water change when you do one to remove enough of the nitrates.


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> What the other guys said, but I just wanted to point out what you stated there is not true. There is ZERO healthy bacteria in the water so you can do 99% water changes without removing the bacteria. I would change 50% every week or even more. I do 60% water changes 2x a week in my 125 gallon and 3x in my 100 gallon discus setup. As long as you are matching temperature and dechlorinating the water, it's not really a problem.


Taiko,
This is completely true. You will not harm your bacteria with water changes as long as you are not scrubbing down your filter in tap water. Your pH is very low for keeping Goldfish and Guppies incidentally, they thrive in harder water. A water change of 15% biweekly will likely not lower your NO3 at all but rather maintain the level you are at. Goldfish produce a lot of waste and contribute to high NO3. Adding plants will not solve your problem as NO3 levels are really a guide for you to gauge weather you are performing enough water changes. Regular water changes are still mandatory in any aquarium as it is a closed system. There is actually little evidence of high NO3 being directly harmful to fish but it is a means of monitoring accumulated waste and depletion of other elements we are unable to test for. I would strongly agree a regimen of no more then 50% water change every other day until your NO3 target is met. From that point you can determine through NO3 monitoring how much water and how frequent you need to change on a regular basis.
I strongly recommend you look into our sticky on water hardness, your fish would do a lot better with some hardness to the water and a higher pH.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

do a higher % change, think of it this way, if your nitrates is 30ppm and you remove 15% of that your only taking out 4.5ppm worth, so youl still test over 25ppm nitrates

if you do a 50%, your down to 15ppm, can do another when you get to 30 again or do it when you get to 20 if you want to keep it lower, up to you

dont worry about removing bacteria theyre attached to surfaces and in your filter not the water


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## BCAquaria (Apr 24, 2010)

I usually do 40-50% water changes in my insanely stocked planted tanks. Only once a week though.

Like the others said, if you have a filter thats been running for awhile uncleaned then there should be plenty of bacteria on it to get you by.

Just make sure you get the new water temp as close as possible to the tank temp


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## Taiko (Jul 9, 2010)

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. What I did was change 50% of the water three times leaving a day between each change and finally my nitrates are down to 20ppm, yeah ! It was a lot of lugging water around, just think, I changed 120 gallons of water (that's actually 240 gallons considering the water I removed). I really need to get a tap mounted water changer, I'll break my back keeping up this routine.

I also vacuumed all the gravel in the process. But now the water is quite cloudy, it's been like this for two days, hopefully it will clear up in a few days.

Current Water parameters:

pH: 6.8
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 20ppm


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Taiko said:


> Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. What I did was change 50% of the water three times leaving a day between each change and finally my nitrates are down to 20ppm, yeah ! It was a lot of lugging water around, just think, I changed 120 gallons of water (that's actually 240 gallons considering the water I removed). I really need to get a tap mounted water changer, I'll break my back keeping up this routine.
> 
> I also vacuumed all the gravel in the process. But now the water is quite cloudy, it's been like this for two days, hopefully it will clear up in a few days.
> 
> ...


Wait until you start changing 500 or 600 gallons a week like the discus people.  Get a python, your back will thank you.


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## aquafeet (Jan 18, 2011)

I think frequent, small water changes are best. I think 10% a day to be about optimal for removing harmful nitrates while exposing fish to less shock of large water changes. Why should discus only get great water quality? Just because they can survive the poorer water quality doesn't mean they should. They will live a longer, healthier life in clean water. That said, I don't often get to the 10% a day but certainly feel pangs of guilt if I do less than 2 changes a week.

This will be a good exercise regime too...a little bit of water-lugging every day, although, as mentioned, pythons are great. But if you use treated tap water (city provided) you still have to house/treat the water before it goes into the tank so there's still lugging (I miss my well).

I always warn people about this hobby by saying fish require more work and care than any other pet. They are totally dependant on you for every aspect of their lives. The reward for your care are beautiful, healthy fish.


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## fan4guppy (Jan 31, 2011)

aquafeet said:


> I think frequent, small water changes are best. I think 10% a day to be about optimal for removing harmful nitrates while exposing fish to less shock of large water changes. Why should discus only get great water quality? Just because they can survive the poorer water quality doesn't mean they should. They will live a longer, healthier life in clean water. That said, I don't often get to the 10% a day but certainly feel pangs of guilt if I do less than 2 changes a week.
> 
> This will be a good exercise regime too...a little bit of water-lugging every day, although, as mentioned, pythons are great. But if you use treated tap water (city provided) you still have to house/treat the water before it goes into the tank so there's still lugging (I miss my well).
> 
> I always warn people about this hobby by saying fish require more work and care than any other pet. They are totally dependant on you for every aspect of their lives. The reward for your care are beautiful, healthy fish.


I think that the poster 2wheelsx2 was referring to the fact that discus are exceptionally fussy about water conditions, considering they prefer very acidic black water (Amazon River) that it is a must to keep their water clean to maintain those water conditions.

Where I am from originally the land of HARD ROCK WATER lol (Calgary) most aquarists were very challenged by keeping the Discus Species as there was no such R/O units in the 60s and 70s when I began keeping fish. I kept discus back then but it involved Peat Moss, Tannins, Rain Water/ Distilled water and many other issues in keeping those fish. Having to have big containers gather rain water was interesting back then. Now with R/O units this has become simplier so water changes for Discus people tend to be higher along with some other species that demand that kind of water chemistry in the Aquarium.

The Discus Species basically have benefitted by the advancements in Technology due to reverse osmosis so therefore the species have been easier to spawn with this development. Imagine back in the 60s and 70s when it was replacement by rain water, distilled water, etc. And Yes in Calgary some aquarists were successful in breeding Wild caught specimens with the technique mentioned above.

Now a days with that technology it is much simplier.

Granted all fish benefit by water changes I do a 25% water change on my aquariums at least 3 times a week and the fish benefit by clean conditions.

Nitrates also are beneficial to plants however Goldfish tend to dig around the gravel like Cichlids do, so the suggestion of tying the plants to driftwood etc.

Plants and water changes are very good for controlling water chemistry of Nitrates and other issues involved.


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## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

Water change % should be dependent with the amount you feed, type and number of fish, and size of the tank. 

If you keep discus and feed them 3-4 times a days if not more, then 10% will not make a dent in controlling water quality. 

When I kept a heavily planted discus tank, I was doing 50%-75% water change daily because plants alone was not enough to control the nitrate and phosphate, but plants did reduce the nutrients so they are not bathing in 30 ppm NO3 daily. 

If you keep 1-2 small fish in a 10 gallon and feed them once every 2 days, 10% daily should work.

There is no one rule fixed all scenario unless people do huge daily water change without a conscience of conserving water when possible.


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## DBam (Aug 9, 2010)

I'd like to point out that you will cut the nitrates down faster with fewer, larger waterchanges than with frequent, small water changes. Not to say that small waterchanges are a bad idea; they're not. My point is just that you will require less water to reduce the nitrates X-% with larger w/c's than with smaller w/c's.


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