assuming you have nitrate free water, water changes alone will not remove all the nitrates. In order for that to happen you must consume the nitrates being generated. IME the best way is with fast growing plants.

But even with plants it is possible during cycles for nitrates to spike high because the plants actually prefer to consume any ammonia the bacteria don't. But that is actually a good thing as having nitrates is better then ammonia.

Once the bacteria consume the ammonia then nitrates drop down to unmeasureable levels.


my .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

Unfortunately my last attempt with live plants did not go well. None of them rooted properly. There's a possibility that some of the ammonia came from the plants dieing off. This tank is just not in a position to have live plants. My cray ate many of them and uprooted even more. Later I would like to attempt a planted tank, just not this one.

Otherwise I will make a few more water changes and see if the levels go down more. Hopefully the bacteria will remove some as well.

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46 Gal Bowfront:
It has fish....
Please don't post things in my thread that could get it locked, It is NOT appreciated.

One thing you could try is a partition so the plants are in a small area and the cray and other fish are on the other side.
my .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

Here's today's water parameters. I think I'm out of the woods now. I'm gonna do a water change later tonight after they have had a chance to eat. So here it is:

02/14: Temp- 77.4; pH- 7.0; Ammonia- 0.25 ppm; Nitrite- 0 ppm; Nitrate- 40 ppm; Corrective Measures- Water change.

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46 Gal Bowfront:
It has fish....
Please don't post things in my thread that could get it locked, It is NOT appreciated.

Amazing what water changes can do if other things in your tank aren't helping you a more natural way.

Say what?? WHat kind of BS is this?? Do 50% water changes 3 days in a row and tell me your Nitrates didn't go down!! Are you kidding me man!!!


Your .02 isnt' going very far these days Beasl......

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http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums/...eefingMadness/

Here we go again with the partition crap. Dude, your killing me with this garbage. I saw you tell a guy that, and he had a 10g tank!!!! REALLY????

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http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums/...eefingMadness/

Take a chill pill.

what I actually stated was:Sure nitrates will be lower assuming a lower amount of nitrates in the replacement water.

but that is not what I stated.

What happens is:
assuming
1) some constant daily increase in nitrates is occuring. (Nincrease)
2) replacement water has some levle of nitrates (Nreplacement)
3) you change a certain fraction of water (fractionofwater change)
4) every certain amount of days. (days)
5) enough water changes have occurred so that the nitrates before water changes (Nbefore) is constant.

What is the nitrates before each water change?

Ans:

Nbefore=Nreplacement+(Nincrease)*(days)/((fractionofwater change)

If if you are increasing nitrates at 1 ppm/day, change 1/10 of the water every 7 days with water that containes 30ppm you get:

Nbefore=30ppm+(1ppm)*(7days)/(1/10)=30ppm +70ppm=100ppm

With 0 nitrates in replacement water you get 70ppm.

If the fraction of water changes is tied to the frequency water change where you do 10% every 10 days, 20% every 20 days etc etc, and you have 0 nitrates in the replacement water you get 100ppm nitrates before each water change in any of the schudles.

If you have a constant water change equal to 1%/day with 0 nitrate water you have a constant 100ppm nitrates.

So sure you can lower nitrates You just can't remove all of them through water changes alone.

But if you have nitrate consumers like the various algaes you can maintain unmeasureable nitrates regardless of what water changes are being done and the nitrates in the replacement water.

And this also applies to any linear concentration of anything. like phosphates, calcium, carbonate, magnesium, iron, and so on.

my .02






nitrates before

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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

Hmmmm....algaes, huh? I don't want those in my planted tanks and since we are in the freshwater section, I would rather have plants do anything like that.

Aside from that, you DON'T want 0 nitrates in any planted tank. In a non-planted it won't matter much, but if the plants run out of nitrates then they have a deficiency and don't grow as well. I know you will say that enough nitrates is being generated in the tank, but that is not true if the net of nitrates at the end of the day is 0. The very few low light species of plants that you keep may grow okay in it, but from what I have seen of them they don't look so healthy. Grow some plants that people will actually like to look at that have just a tad more requirements and they will look horrible.

I have yet to see one of your tanks that show "healthy" plants. Then again, your definition of healthy/not healthy, thriving or not, I am sure is much different.

Chill pill aye.
Welp if you actually knew what you were talking about before you opened your mouth, we would not have to jump in here.
You did your normal copy and paste to fix your mess again. You were caught dishing out BS again, and got it big time. Your starting to take a hit if you ask me, as to wether your name means BS or is actually worth anthing anymore.......

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http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums/...eefingMadness/

This has gotten totally out of hand, this may have scared any new user away from the forum.

This thread is now locked

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220 Tank build
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