Nitrate Been 5-10 For 2 Weeks.

In my 135g the nitrates have been at 5-10 for 2 weeks. The stocking is 4 angelfish, 5 red hump geos, 2 nerite snails, and an electric blue acara. I have a bunch of hornwort, is that the reason? Ammonia 0, nitrite 0.

 

Yes, and you likely have de-nitrifying bacteria turning nitrate into atmospheric nitrogen.

 

Eh? What are you asking? Do you want them lower? I do freshwater setups where I have to add nitrate for plants. That sounds pretty solid. Well stocked with room to grow etc. Hornwort along with all plants do well with nitrates. Sounds like you're very well established or adding good ferts tho. Good deal!

 

Eh? What are you asking? Do you want them lower? I do freshwater setups where I have to add nitrate for plants. That sounds pretty solid. Well stocked with room to grow etc. Hornwort along with all plants do well with nitrates. Sounds like you're very well established or adding good ferts tho. Good deal!

I was just confused lol. In my other tanks by water change day the tanks are usually up at least 20. I only dose seachem flourish every water change. Before I got the tank it was set up for 2-3 years if that helps prove anything lol.

Yes, and you likely have de-nitrifying bacteria turning nitrate into atmospheric nitrogen.

Where does de-nitrifying grow?

 

Where does de-nitrifying grow?

Edit: I misread the question! Denitrifying bacteria generally grows where nitrifying bacteria grow: substrate, surfaces, water column, filter media. I'd expect most of it to reside in the filter.

Nitrification is the conversion of ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. Most beneficial bacteria (e.g. Nitrosomonas, Nitrospira) are nitrifying bacteria.

Some bacteria in aquariums are capable of denitrification, the conversion of nitrate to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrogen gas. These bacteria include Pseudomonas and Nitrosomonas (which nitrifies and denitrifies).

If the rate of denitrification is close to nitrification in your aquarium, you can have a very slow rate of nitrate accumulation.

 

In places where oxygen is low. They’re mostly anaerobic.

 

That is great! What is the problem?

 

In places where oxygen is low. They’re mostly anaerobic.

Does that mean I have low oxygen in the tank?

 

Yes, and you likely have de-nitrifying bacteria turning nitrate into atmospheric nitrogen.

Highly unlikely. It takes months for it to grow. It's just a huge tank with a very low bio load.

 

That is great! What is the problem?

Just confused lol

 

Highly unlikely. It takes months for it to grow. It's just a huge tank with a very low bio load.

Agree with you there. What kind of filter?

 

Highly unlikely. It takes months for it to grow. It's just a huge tank with a very low bio load.

That's what I was thinking lol. But I just posted this to see what everyone else thought.

 

Just confused lol

Why confused? You have mainly perfect water parameters! Everything is working as it should.

 

Agree with you there. What kind of filter?

One is a rena/apI filstar xl and the other is a sunsunh304-b.

Why confused? You have mainly perfect water parameters! Everything is working as it should.

Because my other tanks by water change day, are usually at 20 or a little higher.

 

Because my other tanks by water change day, are usually at 20 or a little higher.

You have a big tank with not a lot of fish. add a common pleco and the nitrates should go up

 

You have a big tank with not a lot of fish. add a common pleco and the nitrates should go up

No thanks lol. I already have a complete stocking in mind for this tank.

 

No thanks lol. I already have a complete stocking in mind for this tank.

Hahaha I know. I was giving you a hard time since 10 nitrate didn't seem like enough. So, I thought I would help

 

Highly unlikely. It takes months for it to grow. It's just a huge tank with a very low bio load.

It takes the same amount of time to grow as nitrifying of it has somewhere to colonize (ex: pumice/Matrix). I run Matrix in all of my filters, even tanks without plants have extremely low nitrates.

 

Lots of answers all are great. Seems you're doing things right. You're completing the nitrogen cycle in freshwater. It can be done and it's how I base my tanks but I've seldom seen others do it. It happens in deep sand beds in very well planted tanks.(or other complex systems)The anaerobic bacteria required for the process in freshwater is more difficult to establish than the most sensitive of fish. Usually only saltwater tanks complete the process to any real levels. That's super awesome and it took me several years to accomplish.

Highly unlikely. It takes months for it to grow. It's just a huge tank with a very low bio load.

Shhhhh. I do it in tanks with not low bioload. I have dedicated years on perfecting the concept of completing the cycle in freshwater both with and without plants. It's a trade secret you're not quite ready for.

 

Lots of answers all are great. Seems you're doing things right. You're completing the nitrogen cycle in freshwater. It can be done and it's how I base my tanks but I've seldom seen others do it. It happens in deep sand beds in very well planted tanks.(or other complex systems)The anaerobic bacteria required for the process in freshwater is more difficult to establish than the most sensitive of fish. Usually only saltwater tanks complete the process to any real levels. That's super awesome and it took me several years to accomplish.

I do have pretty deep sand, it's not really for plants lol, mainly for my geos and acara to dig around in. Once I get my stocking done I'm moving onto plants, and I have lots of plans for plants lol. And thank you for all your help!

Thank you ALL for the help lol!

 

I have a couple more questions now lol. With vacuuming the sand kill off the bacteria if I have any? And also, I plan on removing half of the sand, putting in some caribsea floramax, and then putting the old sand back on top as a cap. Will that for sure kill the bacteria? I'm also planning on adding some lava rock because I've read that it also grow De-nitrifying bacteria. Is this true?

 

I have a couple more questions now lol. With vacuuming the sand kill off the bacteria if I have any? And also, I plan on removing half of the sand, putting in some caribsea floramax, and then putting the old sand back on top as a cap. Will that for sure kill the bacteria? I'm also planning on adding some lava rock because I've read that it also grow De-nitrifying bacteria. Is this true?

I don't think you'll have to worry about that. The majority of the bacteria is in your filter, so removing (or vacuuming) some of you sand wouldn't restart your cycle.

 

I don't think you'll have to worry about that. The majority of the bacteria is in your filter, so removing (or vacuuming) some of you sand wouldn't restart your cycle.

Well I know that lol, I said it a little confusing. Earlier in this thread somebody told me I might have a certain bacteria in my sand that converts nitrates into nitrogen gas, or somewhere along those lines, and I was wondering if the vacuum would harm that bacteria if I did have any. Sorry if that sounded rude, it's not supposed to be lol

 

certain bacteria

Most of these are anaerobic heterotrophic denitrifying bacteria. They're present in small quantities in freshwater aquarium, but generally not in sufficient quantities worth preserving.

Feel free to vacuum your gravel: it'll remove some of these bacteria, sure, but I think it's more important to remove excess food and nitrogenous waste rather than let it accumulate.

 

I have a couple more questions now lol. With vacuuming the sand kill off the bacteria if I have any? And also, I plan on removing half of the sand, putting in some caribsea floramax, and then putting the old sand back on top as a cap. Will that for sure kill the bacteria? I'm also planning on adding some lava rock because I've read that it also grow De-nitrifying bacteria. Is this true?

Yes, it will, the bacteria in question needs an environment of around 1ppm O2 to survive. Any more than that and it can't live, and any less, you get different bacteria that will produce hydrogen sulfide. It definitely lived in pumice, that's actually what I use to sustain it. And vacuuming won't kill it in pumice stone.
It's a lot to type but I'll give you the concept I came up with that worked very well. It involved 2 fish tanks(100g and 60g, a canister filter, a powerhead, a waterbridge, 2 heaters, several hobs, and some PVC. In the 100g, I piped a bunch of 1"pvc that I drilled several holes in around the entire bottom of the tank. I added the pumice to that and put a nylon window screen on top of that. Then I layered course gravel, fine gravel, potting soil, fine gravel, and finally sand on top. All in all it was about 5"deep woth the soil level being the thickest. I housed the intake to the canister filter with 1 heater in a 2.5"pvc tube. The outflow to the canister I modified to put the other heater in and had it force water straight down into the PVC, so unlike normal undergravel filters it forced water down through the PVC and up through the lava rock and substrate. I used the powerhead to pump water out of the 100 gallon into the 60 gallonwhere I had 4 hob filters running to aerate the water and the water bridge to pass it back through to the 100g.
Now my thought process lol. Warm water holds less o2 than colder water, so if I can heat it going in to the canister and again coming back out of the canister it should be mostly, but not completely depleted of o2. Many people use under tank heaters to encourage root growth so I just kinda bypassed that whole concept and used warm water to do the same thing. 2 birds 1 stone. I used the 60 gallonto create the rich oxygenated water for the fish(no heater in 60g)