Can’t Get Nitrates Below 40 Ppm!

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  • #151
I'm kind of lucky because my boyfriend is just as obsessed lol. We both have put a lot of money into the tank and if I ever want to get something like ordering another nitrazorb or getting plants online he just tells me to go for it. When I first decided I wanted a tank I got the Texas holey rock because I loved it and ended up spending almost $130. Well I decided I didn't want it anymore and wanted a big piece of driftwood. Which I went and picked out while he was at work
 

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Do you have high nitrates? Nitrazorb helped mine lower significantly
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Sure do. We made similar posts around the same time. I've just been following yours lol I added hornwort and Marimo balls several weeks ago. Had been using Algone which is similar to Nitrazorb but not as effective. I'm now impatiently waiting on my nitrazorb lol I plan to get the matrix as well but I will be getting a new tank Thursday so I want to wait until I get my new filter. I love your tank! How are you liking the pennywort? How's the care?
 
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  • #158
How long have you had the nitrazorb in? I saw results within 3-4 days of having it in. I'll also be adding matrix since it doesn't have to be recharged at some point as well. I don't mind the pennywort I originally got them because I found floating plants also help with nitrates. Haven't really done anything with them yet just letting them grow lol. Do you have a lot of plants?
 
How long have you had the nitrazorb in? I saw results within 3-4 days of having it in. I'll also be adding matrix since it doesn't have to be recharged at some point as well. I don't mind the pennywort I originally got them because I found floating plants also help with nitrates. Haven't really done anything with them yet just letting them grow lol. Do you have a lot of plants?
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I haven't received the Nitrazorb yet. Should be here tomorrow. I only have the hornwort which I added to help with the Nitrates. I don't have much of an aquatic green thumb haha
 
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  • #160
You should definitely get more plants! They help soak up more of your nitrates as well my second nitrazorb will be in tomorrow as well! I'm hoping I'll be at 0ppm by the end of the week
 

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  • #162
As previous comments on this thread say my tap does have nitrates
 
Better late then never, but I here ya about the work on the tank just melting the stress of my day away.
 
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  • #164
I could literally lay in bed for hours and watch them swim around... and have a tendency to do that
 
I could literally lay in bed for hours and watch them swim around... and have a tendency to do that
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When the kids watch sponge Bob I watch my fish. Then on Sunday I watch football and the kids watch my fish.
 
No. Pristine. I saw it advertised on Dr Foster and Smith while purchasing Nitrazorb. Sounds like a great product. I ordered a bottle. Was hoping someone had some feedback
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It looks mostly like an organic decomposer but definitely let us know if it helps!
 
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  • #168
When I read the directions for the Pristine it sounds confusing as to how much you have to add. It's not like the others where you add so much like once or twice a week.
 
When I read the directions for the Pristine it sounds confusing as to how much you have to add. It's not like the others where you add so much like once or twice a week.
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1 capful per 20 gallons with water changes, addition of fish or medications. I got my nitra-Zorb today. Rinsed it real well (or so I thought) put it in and now my water is pretty cloudy. Did this happen with yours?
 
Yes it did and it turned out fine in an hour or two!
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Yep. Looks good now! I know you said it took a couple days to work so it must be that Pristine I got.
 

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  • #172
That's awesome!!!

I received my second nitrazorb the other day but by the time I got home didn't have the motivation to put it in
 
That's awesome!!!

I received my second nitrazorb the other day but by the time I got home didn't have the motivation to put it in
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I ordered 2 but only put the one in at the moment. I will be getting a 60 gallon tank @ petsmart Black Friday. Thought it would be better to wait until I had the new tank and filter. I'm so excited!
 
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  • #175
Alright so this may or may not be a dumb question but you know I now have two nitrazorb. I have yet to put the second one in my HOB cause I just don't feel like it. I am currently doing one 50ish% water change per week. If I were to switch out the nitrazorb could I do a water change every two weeks? Why or why not? My parameters I believe would stay the same but if the answer is no please explain in detail. Thanks!
 
I would never skip or space
a water change out unless I was less then 50% stocked and even then there are other considerations.

A few things are going on. 1: the nitrogen cycle is acidic and uses up your carbonates and can lower PH so my first question would be what are your tap carbonates? KH. They should well be over 100. 2: There are also other mineral salts that keep the osmotic pressure in your fish healthy namely your GH. So I am wondering what your General hardness is? 3: Fish put out hormones in addition to waste. Some of these will keep your fish from growing in a tank that doesn't have enough fresh water.
Bottom line imho is its not worth it unless you are under stocked and have a highish GH and KH.
 
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  • #177
That makes sense. And I have a KH tester but not a GH. Guess I'll have to get one so I know lol
 
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  • #178
So I have another question. I am on my second week of using nitrazorb and here is a small obstacle I am slightly concerned about.
My room is not 100% level but my tank isn't off by that much. You can tell the difference in how much water is put out on my HOB from the left side (more powerful) and the right side (slightly less powerful). When I put the Nitrazorb in I put it in on the right side and when I took it out to recharge I noticed a slight difference in the water output. I have checked my nitrates throughout the week and they have been fine. The HOB I currently have outputs 400GPH and I also have two three-tier sponge filters. Is it gonna be okay that my filter isn't outputting as much water? I am also considering putting it on the left side to see if that will make a difference. Opinions please!!

Also, when I am soaking one bag of Nitrazorb and I rinse it out can it dry before I put it back into the filter?
 
I would just put it in a container with salt and rinse it right before you use it It can stay that way semi-permanently. The salt will only do so much re-charging and it will prevent it from growing mold.

What has your nitrate readings been at?

Yes, its not surprising the outflow is slowed down by the nitrazorb.
 
It won't effect much. It sounds like your a bit over filtered any way. That's not a bad thing anyway.
 
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  • #181
I would just put it in a container with salt and rinse it right before you use it It can stay that way semi-permanently. The salt will only do so much re-charging and it will prevent it from growing mold.

What has your nitrate readings been at?

Yes, its not surprising the outflow is slowed down by the nitrazorb.
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Well I change it out every week so can it stay in the container for a whole week? And they've been at 10 or 20

I just wanted to make sure about the filter cause that kind of worries me. I figured it would be okay but it doesn't hurt to ask

Also, do you ever have to clean your filter out? Where the water comes out it looks like it has some build up but I don't know if you just leave it on there? Or how do you clean it?
 

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I scrub the insides and outside of my canister filter, including all the hoses and pipes, about once a month. The parts have a tendency to clog up with normal marine growth. Also, don't use tap water to clean your filter media, that kills the bacteria since tap water is chlorinated.
 
Yep, I used to just store mine for a week, take it out rinse it and use it again, then use the same container with new salt and water for the one I removed.

I take my hob off once a month and take it apart and clean it. What kind of hob do you have?

I use a bottle cleaner on the intake tube, and remove the impeller and use a tootbrush to remove any buildup of gunk that will slow it down. I rinse my media and sponge weekly. You can do that in old tank water or dechlorinated tap.

As long as your water isn't going over the bypass area (instead of through the sponge/foam) then its ok. And as long as there is no worry about the water coming out the top which it shouldn't because most filters have a bypass area for overflow.
 
I set up my new fish tank and got it all cycled I let it cycle for a month+ because I couldn’t decide what fish to get and I gave the bacteria a little bit of fish flakes so they would grow so it was all cycled.. at least I thought, I wondered why I couldn’t get my nitrite weren’t going down even thought did couple water changes a day trying to get them down I thought it was fine because they were lower than 20ppm and I thought the nitrate were good but once it was too late and I got the fish and realized that my nitrites are high too (1-2.0 ppm) but the color was pretty faint on my stupid test strips so I didn’t see it (I’m getting an api master test kits in a day or so because I also forgot the test strips didn’t have ammonia) so I thought it was new tank syndrome but it STILL wouldn’t lower the nitrites by water change so I tested the tap which is well water ( I realized I should’ve done this from the beginning) and the nitrites are 1.0-2.0ppm in the TAP water so I tried putting in Algone in the filter but it hasn’t lowered the nitrites at all so we put a second one in the filter and crossing my fingers it works SO PLS I NEED HELP I have two Neocaridina shrimp three grown up endlers AND I guess my fish came pregnant so I have five BABY endlers to try and help. a possibility is that my test strips (tetra brand) are just awful or I need major help (I’m kinda new to the hobby and I feel really bad and hope to heaven my fish won’t die) I do have a couple plants in the tank and an air pump I took the rocks I had out thinking they were the cause so please help I don’t know if the algone will help or not any advice is well appreciated and again it’s the tap that is the problem so water changes aren’t going to help
 
i had a problem with nitrates once being really high. thankfully i was using SAFE did a water change and they were still high. sometimes you just need to do a billion water changes
 
Well I have the api water conditioner which i don’t think rids the water of nitrite but I don’t have those do they get rid of nitrites? I’ll give those a try thanks for the help

Yeah I think I need something to help like break down the nitrite tho because it’s in my tap thanks tho
 
Yeah I think I need something to help like break down the nitrite tho because it’s in my tap thanks tho
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as far as conditioners go: Seachem Prime is good. i never tried api but id imagine its mud in comparison . i hope you meant Nitrate in your tap
 
Oh yeah nitrate sorry lol and yeah I think I I’ll try Seachem it sounds like a lot of people agree and I don’t think I’m going to get more api products they haven’t really helped anything and are very vague on information on the actual product on how it works if it works at all :/
 

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Oh yeah nitrate sorry lol and yeah I think I I’ll try Seachem it sounds like a lot of people agree and I don’t think I’m going to get more api products they haven’t really helped anything and are very vague on information on the actual product on how it works if it works at all :/
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if you have nitrates in your tap. it might be good to look into learning about planted aquariums someday which would would help mitigate the nitrates you introduce to the tank somewhat since i assume the ammount is verry little. just a thought for another day i guess
 
I set up my new fish tank and got it all cycled I let it cycle for a month+ because I couldn’t decide what fish to get and I gave the bacteria a little bit of fish flakes so they would grow so it was all cycled.. at least I thought, I wondered why I couldn’t get my nitrite weren’t going down even thought did couple water changes a day trying to get them down I thought it was fine because they were lower than 20ppm and I thought the nitrate were good but once it was too late and I got the fish and realized that my nitrites are high too (1-2.0 ppm) but the color was pretty faint on my stupid test strips so I didn’t see it (I’m getting an api master test kits in a day or so because I also forgot the test strips didn’t have ammonia) so I thought it was new tank syndrome but it STILL wouldn’t lower the nitrites by water change so I tested the tap which is well water ( I realized I should’ve done this from the beginning) and the nitrites are 1.0-2.0ppm in the TAP water so I tried putting in Algone in the filter but it hasn’t lowered the nitrites at all so we put a second one in the filter and crossing my fingers it works SO PLS I NEED HELP I have two Neocaridina shrimp three grown up endlers AND I guess my fish came pregnant so I have five BABY endlers to try and help. a possibility is that my test strips (tetra brand) are just awful or I need major help (I’m kinda new to the hobby and I feel really bad and hope to heaven my fish won’t die) I do have a couple plants in the tank and an air pump I took the rocks I had out thinking they were the cause so please help I don’t know if the algone will help or not any advice is well appreciated and again it’s the tap that is the problem so water changes aren’t going to help
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If I were you, I would get some fast-growing plants like hornwort and guppy grass to suck up the excess nitrates.
 
It is a bummer that your have nitrite in your tap water. The good news is that it's not necessarily a toxic amount. When taught the basics we say nitrite and ammonia bad, nitrate ok. When you get into the nuts and bolts of specificity ammonia and nitrite have a toxicity threshold that varies based on pH, and they are roughly inverse and not linear but curved. Temperature doesn't play as large of a role in the nitrites as ammonia but an extreme it would need to be accounted for.

Here are some numbers I have seen for nitrite:
pH/Toxic level
6.5/1ppm
7.0/2ppm
7.5/4ppm
8.0/6ppm
8.5+/8ppm

Of course there are certain species that may be more sensitive but that data is very specific and would need to be researched in depth per species.

More good news though, if you are doing 50% water changes you will only be spiking to 1ppm at the highest according to your testing. And your aquarium should cycle that down to nitrate in no time.

Also good news: 1 ppm ammonia --> 2.7 ppm nitrite --> 3.6 ppm nitrate. So you should only be making about 1.5-2ppm nitrate from the conversion of your tap water. A small plant or two could easily convert that to oxygen and plant mass.

I think the most important take away in your situation is that plants can help drastically, they can and will even take nitrogen by-product in the form of nitrite from the tap, and you should have very little to worry about. And less to waste money on every month.
 
if you have nitrates in your tap. it might be good to look into learning about planted aquariums someday which would would help mitigate the nitrates you introduce to the tank somewhat since i assume the ammount is verry little. just a thought for another day i guess
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I have a few plants that are doing good I think my Anubias is sprouting more leaves, my banana plant (i think that’s what you call it) is growing well, and a piece of hornwort that came with the plants is growing pretty fast, and I have a java fern, a sagittaria, and a crypt. wendetti ( i think that’s how u spell it) but I hope to get my tank densly planted but that will take a bit of time my inspiration is foo the flower horn on YouTube but Ik it will take a bit to get on his level
 
I have a few plants that are doing good I think my Anubias is sprouting more leaves, my banana plant (i think that’s what you call it) is growing well, and a piece of hornwort that came with the plants is growing pretty fast, and I have a java fern, a sagittaria, and a crypt. wendetti ( i think that’s how u spell it) but I hope to get my tank densly planted but that will take a bit of time my inspiration is foo the flower horn on YouTube but Ik it will take a bit to get on his level
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sounds more planted than mine. i just have a ginormous sword and some dwarf sag
 
Before i got to worried I would wait until I had a reliable way to run the tests. It is possible your test strips aren't telling the truth. It wouldn't be the first time.
 
Haha I got a variety to see what works out

Before i got to worried I would wait until I had a reliable way to run the tests. It is possible your test strips aren't telling the truth. It wouldn't be the first time.
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Yeah I’m getting an actual test kit in a day or so but I did see my fish show some symptoms of ammonia burn that’s why I’m trying my best to get the levels down, thanks though
 
Yeah I’m getting an actual test kit in a day or so but I did see my fish show some symptoms of ammonia burn that’s why I’m trying my best to get the levels down, thanks though
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The very best thing you can do for your fish while waiting for your test kit is water changes. If you think there is ammonia in the water don't be afraid to change out 50% of the water daily. Just be sure you add your water conditioner and temp match the fresh water.

If you don't already have it i also highly recommend you get a bottle of Prime. It is first and foremost a concentrated water conditioner designed to remove chlorine/chloramines but goes one step farther and detoxes low levels of ammonia. It isn't going to remove the ammonia. It will still show up in your test tube but it will be in a safer form that will be safer for your water pets.
 
Yeah I did a forty yesterday so I did a smaller one today and I have been pretty consistently doing them. I won’t be using the test strips after I get a kit, the results seem a bit far from what I feel would be accurate and they don’t seem very reliable at all.
 

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