How do you lower nitrate

The easiest is to just up the amount of water you change. 50% isn't an issue.

 

Check your tap water for nitrates....... you never know

 

First, check your nitrates out of your tap.
What are your parameters right now? In theory, if you have (lets say 40 nitrates) and you replace 50% with tap water that has 0 nitrates, you should be down to 20 nitrates.

 

Your tank is crystal clear; it looks like a nice place for fish. I am a beginner so all I can say is that fish tolerate high nitrates without injury. Also your tank hasn't been cycling for very long. Maybe it isn't fully cycled yet. High levels of nitrites or ammonia do harm fish. In my 30 galIon tank I have a nitrate value of about 40 ppm and it has been there for about a month. I have a community tank and everyone seems to be happy. Good Luck

 

Your tank is crystal clear; it looks like a nice place for fish. I am a beginner so all I can say is that fish tolerate high nitrates without injury. Also your tank hasn't been cycling for very long. Maybe it isn't fully cycled yet. High levels of nitrites or ammonia do harm fish. In my 30 galIon tank I have a nitrate value of about 40 ppm and it has been there for about a month. I have a community tank and everyone seems to be happy. Good Luck

Unless it gets to 160+ and it literally starts burning them...

 

Water clarity has nothing to do with water quality. Remember even pure ammonia is clear.

 

I would recommend adding live plants to your tank. The plants use the nitrates for food and complete the nitrogen cycle by removing what they need to grow from your water, thus keeping everything balanced and preventing a large algae bloom from starting up due to the high plant nutrient content in the water and should help you in terms of either fewer or smaller water changes being necessary. Most algae in and of itself usually isn't harmful to fish (most natural bodies of water with fish have algae and fish do fine with it), often algae even becomes a valuable source of nutrition for baby fish...but many aquarists dislike it for decorative reasons. Anything that cuts down on chores and helps oxygenate the water is good in my book.

 

My 10 gallon tank has been up and running for around a month now. I am having a hard time getting my nitrates under 20, in fact they've never been under 20. I do 25% water changes 2x a week. Do I just need to do more frequent water changes? How else can I get the nitrates to drop? View attachment 558162

Just remember, Nitrates of 40 and below are normal and safe.

 

Your tank is crystal clear; it looks like a nice place for fish. I am a beginner so all I can say is that fish tolerate high nitrates without injury. Also your tank hasn't been cycling for very long. Maybe it isn't fully cycled yet. High levels of nitrites or ammonia do harm fish. In my 30 galIon tank I have a nitrate value of about 40 ppm and it has been there for about a month. I have a community tank and everyone seems to be happy. Good Luck

A larger water change perhaps...

 

Thank you very much. I started switching out more water according to everyones suggestion. I do believe my tank hasn't finished cycling. I thought it did because the water cleared up, but it just started fogging up again yesterday.
My levels are currently ammonia 0.25, nitrite, nitrate 20 (when not measured right after a water change)

I will keep switching out the water.

 

Water clarity has nothing to do with water quality. Remember even pure ammonia is clear.

I'm not so sure about that:

https://cals.arizona.edu/azaqua/ist...dobe 2006/5 Solids Capture/Solids Control.pdf

 

That deals with suspended solids. But even muddy water can be fish safe.

 

Everyone has pitched great info and advice. I do want to add that since your tank is relatively new, keep in mind it will take at least a month or two for your plants to settle and adjust to your water as needed. Once they do establish themselves then they will start soaking up nutrients in the substrate and water column. Keep at your water changes and soon enough your plants will start helping out a bit too.

 

That deals with suspended solids. But even muddy water can be fish safe.

Nope, that's also bad.

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/3/4/660

 

Not sure about that article. Around here they stock sediment ponds with fish.

 

He did say can be safe for fish. The only reason it would not be is due to human intervention. Otherwise, most fish we keep these days had, at one point, lived in muddied waters in the wild for a long time.

 

You could look into adding certain house plants such as Pothos to your Filter to help soak up excess nitrates till your aquatic plants settle in better as the above suggested. Or look up the potatoe experiment to help with nitrates.

 

You could look into adding certain house plants such as Pothos to your Filter to help soak up excess nitrates till your aquatic plants settle in better as the above suggested. Or look up the potatoe experiment to help with nitrates.

Never heard of the potato experiment. I shall look that up.

 

I have been using Pothos for a bit now. My nitrates are down to zip!! They are the only plants in the tank

 

If the fish look good don't worry too much. 2x a week water changes control a lot of issues.

I'm real curious what your tap water reads. That seems to be the root cause for a lot of folks. Buying water fixes that.

I see you have some plants going there. Lava rock is a common solution, and there is always the commercial chemical solution. However, if the fish are coping well, forget about it. I've seen fish live for years in terrible water, and those Mollies are super tough. Mollies are often kept in brackish tanks.

 

Not sure about that article. Around here they stock sediment ponds with fish.

Filtering organs, gills and sensitive body surfaces of animals become clogged or abraded. As most aquatic animals breathe either via gills or sensitive membranes on their body surface, this effect is deleterious for the entire fauna. Siltation quickly eradicates large mussels, as these have a limited potential to move away from the impact, and are especially sensitive to clogging of their filter-feeding and breathing organs [48]. In a survey of aquatic macroinvertebrates above and below the confluence of a stream with an erosion gully, practically all taxonomic groups showed dramatic decreases with siltation impacts, with the exception of animals that are able to dig in sand and/or to breathe at the water surface [14].

That's enough to convince me that an absolutist statement that there's no relationship between water clarity and water quality is incorrect.

 

You could look into adding certain house plants such as Pothos to your Filter to help soak up excess nitrates till your aquatic plants settle in better as the above suggested.

I have been using Pothos for a bit now. My nitrates are down to zip!! They are the only plants in the tank

Would I need a large plant for that to work? Does it have quick results?

 

I've never personally used them but if you go to a garden center you could get an already established one and rinse the dirt off the roots and drop it in the filter or tank from what i've read.
edit I believe an established root system will start working right away

 

That's enough to convince me that an absolutist statement that there's no relationship between water clarity and water quality is incorrect.

I guess the point I was trying to make was crystal clear water can be unsafe for fish since ammonia and nitrites aren't visable.

 

If the fish look good don't worry too much. 2x a week water changes control a lot of issues.

I'm real curious what your tap water reads. That seems to be the root cause for a lot of folks. Buying water fixes that.

I have only used test strips on my tap, but if they are correct it reads

nitrite 0
nitrate 0
GH ~10
KH ~20
pH 6.4

 

Are you using those same strips on the tank? Again, 20 isn't bad.

Odd your tap is 6.4 pH. Is it city water?

 

No, people from this forum suggested API master kit, so that is what I use. But before that I was using strips. It is actually RO water and it is well water.

 

Test the tap with the API kit so you are comparing apples to apples. I bet you have some nitrates there. Still you are totally in the safe range for those fish.

You will see some variation from the well water, but it isn't usually too bad. A lot of my well water friends buy water.

 

Test the tap with the API kit so you are comparing apples to apples. I bet you have some nitrates there. Still you are totally in the safe range for those fish.

Ok, I will do that. I was just a little worried because it seems many others on this forum are able to keep their nitrates under 10. I thought mine might be considered high...

 

As has already been mentioned (and what I have been told) under 40ppm is fine, lower is better but you probably don't want to be getting close to zero with the plants in the tank, or you will need to start adding nitrates

The nitrates come from the breakdown of organic matter, one way of reducing them is to get rid of that organic matter before it breaks down (regular cleaning of the mechanical media in your filter to get rid of it before it turns to ammonia). This is assuming you have separate biological media and are not relying solely on your mechanical media to house your bacteria.

Products like purigen or macropore claim to also help by binding organic matter before it turns to amonia, I have a small bag of purigen in my tank (100ml) and it does a great job of polishing the water, but I'm not sure about it actually reducing the nitrates. Possibly because I have it at the outlet end of the filter, rather than between the mechanical media and the bio-media.

Tony.

 

Thank you very much. I started switching out more water according to everyones suggestion. I do believe my tank hasn't finished cycling. I thought it did because the water cleared up, but it just started fogging up again yesterday.
My levels are currently ammonia 0.25, nitrite, nitrate 20 (when not measured right after a water change)

I will keep switching out the water.

What are your Nitrites? You didn't put a number there. Check your tap for ammonia AND nitrates. You could have ammonia in your tap water as well. That could explain the .25. This discussion seems to have veered off the topic...

 

Sorry, Nitrites are 0.25.

 

Sorry, Nitrites are 0.25.

Okay, yes, it does look like your tank isn't finished cycling. You could get some Seachem Prime and treat your tank with it every 48 hours and with every water change. It will bind with low levels (1.0 ppm total) ammonia and nitrites making them harmless to fish but still available to bacteria becoming established in the tank.

 

Check your tap water for nitrates....... you never know

I had the same issue. I keep Glassfish that are sensitive to nitrates. couldn't understand why I could never get the nitrates down. Then checked the tap water. Despite the water company insisting their levels were lower, they are consistently over 80ppm. I now condition my tap water with NitraEx before mixing with the RO for water changes. It's a faf but it works.

 

If there is spare space in you filter you can add some nitrate/phosphate removing media. This is expensive if used long term as it needs frequent replacement but I use it in new tanks when adding plants as a short term fix until the plants kick into life. This media won't remove all nitrates but it helps lower them a bit. Continue with water changes as well. If you are getting noticeable ammonia or nitrites reading your tank is NOT cycled yet. As nitrates are the next step in the nitrogen cycle after nitrites until the nitrites is under control there will be lits more nitrate formed.

 

Your tank is crystal clear; it looks like a nice place for fish. I am a beginner so all I can say is that fish tolerate high nitrates without injury. Also your tank hasn't been cycling for very long. Maybe it isn't fully cycled yet. High levels of nitrites or ammonia do harm fish. In my 30 galIon tank I have a nitrate value of about 40 ppm and it has been there for about a month. I have a community tank and everyone seems to be happy. Good Luck

I have noticed a lot more algae growth when nitrates reach 40+ so I would watch out for that also

 

Get a little plastic tube and make a floating circle and put some duck weed in it to eat nitrates. (cheaply ordered online)

Anaerobic bacteria will soon take care of it in the substrate. You could get some fine sand to fill the gaps between your gravel to create a habitat that can home even more anaerobic bacteria to eat nitrates, but your gravel looks pretty fine anyway so I'd probably not bother myself as it might be small enough, but no harm filling the gap anyway with finer sand just incase.

 

My 10 gallon tank has been up and running for around a month now. I am having a hard time getting my nitrates under 20, in fact they've never been under 20. I do 25% water changes 2x a week. Do I just need to do more frequent water changes? How else can I get the nitrates to drop? View attachment 558162

Hi. I have. 29 and a 10. Often the 10 is harder to keep than the 29. Heres what I did. For the next 2 weeks, do a 10 percent change daily then try doind a 30 percent weekly. Also make sure once a week that you vacuum the substrate. Adding easy real plants also help. Try an anubias and a cabonba. They are nice for the fish and easy to keep. Also, make sure you're running at least a 20 gallon HOB filter. Try aquaclear.

I have been using Pothos for a bit now. My nitrates are down to zip!! They are the only plants in the tank

t

 

My 10 gallon tank has been up and running for around a month now. I am having a hard time getting my nitrates under 20, in fact they've never been under 20. I do 25% water changes 2x a week. Do I just need to do more frequent water changes? How else can I get the nitrates to drop?

Keep in mind that your plants will consume a small amount of your nitrates so it’s good to have a little bit in there

 

I struggle to read the nitrate levels correctly because I'm colour blind (and rely on my 11yo to read it for me), but this post is gold. I’m Color Blind Can You Help Me Explain My Water Quality? | Freshwater Tank Equipment Forum | 404598 I wonder how many of us are worrying about high nitrates unnecessarily?

Tony.