We did a test last night and the nitrates are extremely high! Its been a few weeks since we did our last test and the nitrates were great. What could have caused it?? And how do we get the nitrates to go down?
I forget the exact numbers because Im not at home to look, but they were bad. We havent done anything different. Same fish we've had in there forever. 7 Platy, 3 neons, 2 headlight taillights, a snail and Otos. Its a 29gallon

help!

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Nitrates can be caused by a whole host of things, primary amongst them being overstocking (you're not, btw) and overfeeding. Nitrates can be simply and easily lowered by doing small water changes at regular intervals until they come down; just don't do too much too fast. I'd do a 25% water change every other day until they come down.

Nitrates aren't especially deadly in the short-term, but they can cause a bunch of health issues over the long run. Out of curiosity, what are your nitrates testing out at?

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Ditto. What Scuff said.

Fresh water and happy thoughts.

Got any live plants? I haven't noticed a difference since my tanks are planted, but plants eat that stuff for breakfast.

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"Have a betta day!" -Bob Vang, VangsPlakat

We actually just recently got a live plant for it. Would that have something to do with it ? They were between 40 and 80ppm. Last time we tested it was 5.0. We did a pwc last night so I should do.another one tomorrow then

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No, plants won't increase your nitrates (unless of course it's dead and decomposing, but that's another matter), they'll actually decrease them. Live plants are great biological filters for your aquarium so you shouldn't be hesitant to add them. 40-80ppm isn't horrifically high though, so I wouldn't panic just yet.

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I think i was just panicing because it made such a drastic jump between the last time we tested and now. I wish I knew why it did. We definitely dont overfeed. This is the first time we've had high nitrates like that. Once upon a time we probably overfed when we first set the tank up and we had high ammonia, but thats been under control

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Usually you need more then a single plant but there is an "odd" way adding plants can increase nitrates.


What can happen (and does in my new tanks setup as planted right from the start) is the plants actually will consume ammonia before nitrates. And in the process forego nitrates. Hence a nitrate increase.

Then as aerobic bacteria build up and consume the ammonia, the plants are forced to consume nitrates for their nitrogen. So after awhile nitrates drop down.


just a thought.


Worth at most .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Your advice is always worth far more than two cents. Never stop giving it.

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