The nitrate levels in my tank are maxing out my test kit every time.
The water I use when I do water changes have very low levels of nitrate.
I try to do 20% water changes every week or every other but nitrates still rise.
I was thinking of putting in plants to help but then I would have to buy a new lighting system. So my question is,
Would there be a big difference in nitrate levels after adding plants to my aquarium?
I dont want to buy a $200 lighting system and the plants dont help lower nitrates much.

Plants would definitely help. I am looking to put plants in my 10 gallon (when I get it up and running ), and everyone has continuously suggested that I use live over fake plants.

#1 -- Live plants will eat up harmful toxins in your tank.
#2 -- They look better. Every time I compare a planted tank vs. fake plants the planted tank always looks better.

As far of lighting goes you may not need to buy a $200 lighting system. Depending on your current lighting situation and what plants and lights you want to put in determines what you need. Low light, low tech, and low maintenance plants require different lights than high light, high tech, and high maintenance plants.

You may just need to switch out the bulbs you use for lighting.

Again I am a first goer at live plants too, but everyone has highly suggested them and I personally think they look better and they are proven to help the tank in terms of removing harmful toxins.

I am sure someone with more experience than I will recommend a fantastic course of action.

Good luck and welcome to the forums.

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As I understand it your tap water has Nitrates in it, correct? If this is the case I suggest getting a large barrel to hold water for your WCs. Fill it and let it sit for a couple of days and the chlorine with dissipate and hopefully the nitrates will die off. Plus you won't have to use dechlorinator anymore. Have you tested for anything other than Nitrates? I would at least google your towns annual water report and see what it reports is your local water supply as well.

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75 Gallon Planted

Hello nun...

The following will help: You need to be removing a minimum of half the tank water every week. If you're going to the trouble of getting out the equipment for a water change, then change it! A 20 percent change is about as good as no change at all. The more water you change and the more often you change it, the better. IMO, you don't need to be concerned with testing if you do your large, weekly water changes. Again, if you faithfully remove and replace at least half the tank water weekly, testing isn't necessary.

When you've removed half the water, add a couple of stem plants like Water wisteria and Pennywort. These will feed on the added nitrates and don't need expensive lights to grow well.

I want to beat this drum again...

Your only responsibility is to be a good "waterkeeper", so flush a lot of clean, treated water through your tank weekly and your plants and fish will be healthy.

Tank keeping is really as simple as that!

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

The only issue I see with BBradbury's suggestion with large WCs(50%+) is a PH issue. The last time I did a 60% WC is the PH swing was so great that I lost about 15 fish due to PH shock. Fortunately they were only $1 each.

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75 Gallon Planted

If that is true, you have some other issue going on with your water. You should test your kh and see where it sits. If your ph is crashing just from a water change you have to have a very low kh, but you should be sure. Crushed coral will hold it steady but will also raise your ph some.

Definitely need some large water changes to get the level down. A 20% change will not make an impact on what the level is currently. You need to do a couple of 50% changes a couple of days in a row. Cut your feeding level some.

What does your tap test out to?

Here is a calculator to help figure out how much water to change to get down to an acceptable level

Effective Water Change Calculator

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http://joefish.me

Plants can/will maintain nitrates at unmeasureable levels unless you have an ammonia spike. Which that ammonia spike is being consumed by the plats nitrates can bump up. then return to 0 after the spike is taken care of.

You should not need $200 worth of lights to grow plants. I don't spend more than $50 (max) on any of my tanks which include 10g, 20g, 30g, and 55g.

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

Plants definitely make a difference. I've been lazy about water changes on my technically overstocked, heavily planted 20 gallon long tank lately, but I was pleasantly surprised to find 0 nitrates after 2 weeks of no water changes. Just topping off once a week. My 10 gallon fry tank always has some level of nitrates and I've had to maintain the weekly 25% water changes to keep it under control. I may have to up that to twice a week. I do have plants in it, but only a couple of floating plants for the fry.

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20 gallon long:Amazon Swords, Ruffle Swords, Red Flame Swords, Fanwort, Wisteria,8 Lemon tetras,
6 otos, 11 Amano shrimp, 3 mystery snails, 3 Bolivian Rams, 3 black skirt tetra and 2-3 lemon tetra fry
10 gallon: 30 lemon tetra fry, give or take...1 gallon Anubias, Fish: 1 betta

Thanks for all of the help. But my tank is still messed up. Im gonna post up some water parameters of my tank, my water from garden hose, and what Ive been noticing the past couple days. Any info that can help me with this tank would be greatly appreciated!

So I have a freshwater 55 gallon tank with 4 four inch gouramis and a 1 inch oscar. I did 50% water changes for 3-4 days straight to get my nitrates down. But about a week later my nitrates maxed out my test kit at +100ppm... ( I fed them very little in this time to see how my nitrates were reacting.)

I cleaned my magnum 350 canister and HOB filter, then did a 50% water change. Next day +100ppm nitrates...

Tests from 2 days after cleaning filters

garden hose
pH - 7.5
Nitrates - 10

Tank
pH - 7.5
Nitrates - +100

I never got to test ammonia because my test leaked everywhere. I might buy one today and let you guys know the levels.



Does anyone have any ideas to why my nitrates rise really fast?

because your tank is producing nitrates that fast.

With no plants consuming nitrates that is to be expected.

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

I only have about 3 java ferns in my tank, and the only light it gets it from the patio door and the cieling light, so those would even be a good alternative. I only do 30% water changes about once a week and normally I'm at 30-40 Nitrates. Imo, you need to stop feeding for a few days and do water changes. With a tank that size with those fish, You might be overfeeding. Plants would def. help though.

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Frontosa Fanatic

with live plants it is entirely possible (expected even) after the cycle to have unmeasureable nitrates and phosphates. regardless ofthe water changes or the nitrates in the replacement water.

You also should not require a $200 fixture unless you have a very very large aquarium.

check out the link in my signature.

still just 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

I just dont get it. I dont have a lot of fish and if anything Ive been underfeeding them for the last two weeks. Nitrates shouldnt rise that fast should they?

I always heard about java fern but I never seen any for sale. I guess im gonna put a bunch of that in my tank and see if they survive.

How do people get away with fish only tanks? Like people that only have oscars?

To avoid any Nitrate contamination from your tap water, make all water replacements and water changes with Bottled Drinking Water or Distilled Water. Both these sources should have zero Nitrates.

There is nothing that is expected when it comes to nitrates continuously rising as long as decent sized weekly water changes are occurring as they should be. 35-50% should be done and if you have a high bio-load for your tank size you should be doing the higher level. Plants can help for sure.

Are you sure of your water source? I would test your water daily before your water change to make sure it is still reading zero. I would also do a 75% water change everyday until my nitrates got down in the 40ppm or so range. If you do a few of those and it can't get there, your source has to have nitrates in it. RO or distilled water is an option but doing for every water change can make your tank dangerous in maintaining a stable ph.

Not to mention that no fish can survive in completely distilled water. Are you using an API liquid test kit? If so, are you sure that your following every step to a tee when testing the nitrates, it is the most complicated test out of the kit. You sure your shaking the bottle and test tube as long as you should be? Honestly, from what you have said, it doesn't make sense for you to have such high nitrates.

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Frontosa Fanatic

Well JCCACLIMBERS post would make alot more sense to me if I would of payed more attention in Math class all those years ago.

Start by doing some huge water changes to get the readings down to 10-20 range then see how long it takes to build up again, could be your just not changing enough water. Also eventually that Oscar is going to want the tank to himself, but you got some time till then.

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90 gallon, 1 Iridescent shark, 2 Pleco, 3 Goldfish, 5 Cory cats, 2 Nerite snails
5 gallon hex, Blue Crowntail Betta, 1 nerite snail,

Throwing in some anacharis or other floating plants could definitely help, plus the gouramis will love them and there's no worry about the oscar rearranging anything planted in the substrate. Even my local petsmart has anacharis bunches. Also, as stated, make sure you are using the test properly. Shake for the instructed amount of time, and hold the cap on the test tube tightly (mine leaks if I don't hold it tightly).