How do you lower nitrate

Has Pothos or Devils Ivy been suggested yet? It’s a readily available plant that likes its roots in the water

and feeds directly off the nitrate, effective lowering no3 levels while adding a pleasant look to the top of the tank


Just beware that Pothos is poisonous to cats

 

Has Pothos or Devils Ivy been suggested yet?

Yes, I am going to try Pothos.

 

I have a bunch of Hygrophila (at least I'm pretty sure they are hygrophila), and they soak up everything in the water like a sponge. I might even have to take most of them out since my other plants might be getting starved of nitrates. They grow like weeds and uproot themselves and grow roots at the surface like a floating plant. They also grow really fast and one tiny clipping will grow to a giant. This is probably one of the best nitrate consuming plants you can get.

 

I didn't know that about anaerobic bacteria! I always stir my sand substrate around because I was told it isn't good for air bubbles to build up inside.

Well, most tanks don't have 3-4 inches of sand or dirt. Gravel probably isn't dense enough to develop an anaerobic (no oxygen) environment, even sand would be difficult. A dirt or clay based substrate probably works best

I missed if anyone addressed this already, and if so, I apologize. But the 6.4 pH and your mention of using RO water...are you remineralizing the RO with a percentage of the well water, or with a product used for that purpose? RO water doesn't leave enough minerals (measured with GH) in the water to keep fish and plants healthy, and the pH ... without a good buffering capacity (KH) isn't likely to stay stable long.

If you are adding minerals back into the RO water...all is good.

True RO water doesn't contain any minerals.

Has Pothos or Devils Ivy been suggested yet? It’s a readily available plant that likes its roots in the water View attachment 559339
and feeds directly off the nitrate, effective lowering no3 levels while adding a pleasant look to the top of the tank
View attachment 559340
Just beware that Pothos is poisonous to cats

Pothos is poisonous to dogs, cats, babies or anyone who eats it.
https://dengarden.com/gardening/Dan...Houseplants-to-Avoid-Around-Children-and-Pets

 

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

I have caught many a very healthy fish in very muddy water...

 

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

Test your houses water. Mine is 20 ppm out of the faucet

 

Pothos is poisonous to dogs, cats, babies or anyone who eats it.
https://dengarden.com/gardening/Dan...Houseplants-to-Avoid-Around-Children-and-Pets

No worries. In my household, there is only my fish, my husband, and myself. It's already hard enough to get my husband to eat lettuce...so I think it's safe

 

I didn't realize RO removed most of the minerals. No, I have not been remineralizing my tank water. If that is the case, should I slowly replace the RO with my tap water? The tap I have has no chlorine, and water is hard.
The pH is high 8.4

Unless there is something wrong with your hard well water, the most cost effective way to remineralize the RO, is to use your hard well water. A GH/KH test kit would be very helpful. It will help you find a hard water/RO water ratio that will work best for you. Of course all water is different, but for my soft water fish, that don't require as many minerals as other types of fish, I use a mixture of 25% of my hard well water to 75% RO. But it depends on the type of fish you keep, and how hard your hard water is, as to how much of your hard water you would need to use. A 50% hard water to 50% RO, might be what you need...or more. Live bearers generally need more minerals/harder water than fish such as many tetras for instance, and shrimp seem to require a certain level of hardness too. Most fish do well in a wide range of hardness and pH levels though, so it's far from an exact science. But it can require finding out what all your fish and inhabitants need, and then determining how much hard well water you need to use to achieve the hardness you want.

All changes should be made slowly to allow the occupants time to adjust to changing parameters. If any ammonia is accumulating, it will become more toxic as pH levels increase, so you'll want to determine if detectable levels of ammonia are present before increasing hardness and pH.

If 0 ammonia, to start out you might want to just add a little hard water to the tank every couple of days until the tank's GH/KH/pH reach approximately the same as the water you plan on using for water changes. Or just start using 25% hard water mixed into 75% RO, and do a few small water changes before increasing the amount of hard water used. But once the tank and the water you prepare for water changes are approximately the same, you can start doing larger water changes.

In other words, it's a bit of process to try not to stress the inhabitants too much. I do suspect you do have a level of hardness in the RO you are using, or I don't think your fish would still be alive. Possibly your RO system has a mineral block included...some do. But using a GH/KH test kit will help you see what you are working with.

Well, most tanks don't have 3-4 inches of sand or dirt. Gravel probably isn't dense enough to develop an anaerobic (no oxygen) environment, even sand would be difficult. A dirt or clay based substrate probably works best

True RO water doesn't contain any minerals.

RODI has 0 minerals, but many RO systems do not remove 100% of the TDS and so some minerals remain, and some as mentioned have mineral blocks as part of the filtration system so that people aren't drinking water with 0 mineral content.

 

Test your houses water. Mine is 20 ppm out of the faucet

My tap water has 0 ppm.

Unless there is something wrong with your hard well water, the most cost effective way to remineralize the RO, is to use your hard well water. A GH/KH test kit would be very helpful. It will help you find a hard water/RO water ratio that will work best for you. Of course all water is different, but for my soft water fish, that don't require as many minerals as other types of fish, I use a mixture of 25% of my hard well water to 75% RO. But it depends on the type of fish you keep, and how hard your hard water is, as to how much of your hard water you would need to use. A 50% hard water to 50% RO, might be what you need...or more. Live bearers generally need more minerals/harder water than fish such as many tetras for instance, and shrimp seem to require a certain level of hardness too. Most fish do well in a wide range of hardness and pH levels though, so it's far from an exact science. But it can require finding out what all your fish and inhabitants need, and then determining how much hard well water you need to use to achieve the hardness you want.

All changes should be made slowly to allow the occupants time to adjust to changing parameters. If any ammonia is accumulating, it will become more toxic as pH levels increase, so you'll want to determine if detectable levels of ammonia are present before increasing hardness and pH.

If 0 ammonia, to start out you might want to just add a little hard water to the tank every couple of days until the tank's GH/KH/pH reach approximately the same as the water you plan on using for water changes. Or just start using 25% hard water mixed into 75% RO, and do a few small water changes before increasing the amount of hard water used. But once the tank and the water you prepare for water changes are approximately the same, you can start doing larger water changes.

In other words, it's a bit of process to try not to stress the inhabitants too much. I do suspect you do have a level of hardness in the RO you are using, or I don't think your fish would still be alive. Possibly your RO system has a mineral block included...some do. But using a GH/KH test kit will help you see what you are working with.


RODI has 0 minerals, but many RO systems do not remove 100% of the TDS and so some minerals remain, and some as mentioned have mineral blocks as part of the filtration system so that people aren't drinking water with 0 mineral content.

I don't use hard well water anymore, because the well water here has a TON of calcium. I use to have calcium marks all over my 5 gallon tank. There are also pieces of calcium deposits.

But maybe it will be ok if I mix them...I'll try that.

I am pretty sure my RO water has no mineral block. The water is filtered with RO and then sanitized by flowing through a tube with UV.

 

I don't use hard well water anymore, because the well water here has a TON of calcium. I use to have calcium marks all over my 5 gallon tank. There are also pieces of calcium deposits.

But maybe it will be ok if I mix them...I'll try that.

I am pretty sure my RO water has no mineral block. The water is filtered with RO and then sanitized by flowing through a tube with UV.

Yeah, main water hardening minerals are calcium and magnesium, so calcium deposits are very common. But you want some calcium and magnesium in the water for fish, so doing a mix is a good way to adjust the water so that both you and your fish can be happy. I understand the hard mineral deposit dilemma, but some species of fish, such as African cichlids would probably do very well in your hard well water.

You may very well not have the extra mineral block cartridge. I am just surprised the fish have done as well as they have in RO. But you'll get them fixed up, and once you can test the general hardness (GH) and the carbonate hardness (KH), you'll have a better idea of what you are dealing g with.

 

The only thing I have to add that I didn't see yet is that live-bearers seem to produce a lot of waste. I personally prefer them in a 20 gallon and you're already battling source water nitrates. Investing in an RO system would probably make your life way easier, but you've still got little ammonia machines. Just in my personal experience versus keeping other fish in ten gallon tanks.

 

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.

This is absolutely correct! Also, it looks like you are keeping platies. You could cut back on food for a while meaning once a day or once every two days. Don't forget to vacuum the gravel.

 

Anaerobic bacteria only grow in undisturbed deep (3"-4") substrate beds.

I have one and a half to two and a half inch deep substrate that homes anaerobic bacteria in both depths. Many porous bio filter such as ceramic rings are designed to hold anaerobic bacteria with less than an inch ringed wall of media.

It takes careful oversight and can take years to establish

It requires you to do nothing special, certainly nothing that requires you to carefully oversee. It also doesn't take years for it to grow in sand at all. Where are you getting this information? Mine grow within 3 months.

Plants help some, but unless you have a heavily planted tank, not enough.

Duckweed is one of the most prolific nitrate eaters known to me. Certainly with the persons stock shown, a floating ring with duckweed would be a great media, more than capable enough to remove the excessive nitrate. I use it personally aswell.