Nitrate problems???

Question

We have a 2 month old 75 gallon auarium, and the amonia and the nitrites are fine... but the nitrates are way too high! How do we get it back down??? We are on well water at our house, and not sure if the nitrates are coming from the well-water? or if they're from the tank itsef. And we are not overfeeding the fish! we feed them 1 time a day, and they consume it all in about a minute. hardly any of the food falls to the bottom. We have a clown knife, and he gets that stuff.

Please help???

Any suggestions would be great, too.

Answer 1

I think what is going on here as one of your other posters mentioned, it's the well water. Why don't you run a nitrate test on a sample of that well water. A reason your well water might be high in nitrates is if there is any type of farm nearby. Many farms are using fertilizers in the soil, which among other nitrogen compounds are high in nitrate. Water changes on a regular basis are going to keep your nitrates low as well. We don't need to use any fancy chemicals for this. Just nice regular water changes. I'd still use the conditioner because not only will it neutralize the chlorine/chloramine, but it will also stress coat it as well. I use the Aqua Clear Conditioner myself, a nice large bottle is about $10.00 and is enough to last a couple weeks for all my tanks. Well water may also from time to time get some protozoans and unwated bacteria in it, so I'd really stress testing your well water periodically. Please do a test on your well water for the nitrates and let us know how it turned out :)

JV

Answer 2

Let the green algae grow on everything you can stand to look at will help. Plant the tank will also help.
The main thing is you are going to have to change the water to get it down. Do test your well water though, it could very well be coming from there. You may have to switch to buffered reverse osmosis water that you buy from the store if that's the case. It does seem odd that the nitrates are so high so soon. You didn't mention what the reading actually was but any nitrate reading over 20 ppm indicates you need to change water. BTW less than 50% water changes will do very little in reducing nitrate. Its a myth that changing too much water will harm your fish. Putting water too cold or too hot will affect the fish, so always keep the temperature the same. The ph should also be kept consistant through out the water change. THese are the only two things that will stress fish during a water change. Clean water at the same temp and ph will never ever harm your fish, no matter how much water you change. The beneficail bacteria live in the filter and substrate not in the water column, so changing water does not in any way hurt the biological system. So if your nitrates are sky high try a 75% water change with nitrate free water. Check nitrate levels again the next day after the water change. If they are still too high, change 75% of the water again and retest.
If the nitrate is coming from your well then you are no longer going to be able to use well water. You will need 5 gallon water containers, buffering agents (don't skip them what ever you do) Plain reverse osmosis water is dangerous with out buffers, the ph will fall quickly causing acidosis. RO Right by Kent Marine will help hold PH, you should also use a ph stabilizer like Neutral Controller. There are different products out there that can make the water either neutral or alkaline. They have 7.0 and 7.5 and 8.0. There is even be something out there that holds the water to an acidic ph if your fish require that. (discus) Test your well water to see where you are starting from. When I tested the tap water here where I live I was shocked to find the Ph was over 8.0 and there was 1ppm ammonia! Talk about not good for fish! So I lug 5 gallon jugs to and from the store weekly. Reverse osmosis is plain h20 with nothing else in it. Same quality as distilled water just different process to achieve the same result. Ph of h20 is 6.8. 6.8-7.2 are considered neutral. Above 7.2 alkaline and below 6.8 acidic. Hope this helps you.

Answer 3

If your doing your weekly or bi-weekly water changes then it's the well water. I base this on that if your doing the water changes it should lower the nitrate levels right away as you do the water change and it seems it's not working.

An easy way to be sure is to just test the well water directly.

If the water tests from the well are good then you don't really have a problem in your tank, actually for a high nitrate lvl your nitrogen cycle must be running pretty well.

I would suggest buying some easy to care for plants that you can cut away after they start to grow. This will effectively remove nitrates from your tank. You have to be carefull that you don't let any of the older dying leaves of a plant stay in your tank or your just adding up the nitrates again.


Here is a easy plant:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=780

And here are a couple of articles to read on the nitrates:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/watercare/a/nitrates.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishkeeping#Nitrogen_cycle

But for sure if your well water is the problem then I would go with the RO water that was suggested and see how things go for a few weeks. Later if your water tests come out ok then try a few gallons of well water. If the problem comes back you will probably want to invest in a RO system for your home. In about a year it will pay for itself.
.

Answer 4

First,test your well water,if the Nitrates are OK then you are not doing water changes frequently enough. The way to lower the Nitrates is to do water changes weekly,maybe 40%.
There is another method(well,more than one,actually)Try Googleing the term "de-nitrating coil". It's a simple way to lower Nitrates,but requires frequent attention to maintain the proper flow through the coil.
There are chemical resins that will remove Nitrates,they are moderately priced,and "rechargeable" usually with brine.Look up pet supply catalogues on-line.
The most complex,and reliable method is to create aa anaerobic "plenum" under your existing gravel. It's a little complicated and has a lot of microbiology involved,but it really works.

Answer 5

Test your well water and see what you are putting into your tank. Everyone should know what quality water is going into the tank, not just what's there afterward. You might need to be treating your well water, you might not. Plants will use some of the nitrates but not a lot of them. Your best bet is frequent water changes but if you well water is high in nitrates then you still have the problem.

If it is the well water, you might want to try purigen.

Answer 6

you need to make sure you are doing a 25% water change each week and putting a water conditioner in there for the new amount of water you added. you are going to want to take about 19 gallons out each weak with a python gravel cleaner and clean the gravel out really good. you also want to treat the tank for 19 gallons with conditioner. most conditioners are like a teaspoon per 10 gallons, you can use two teaspoons to treat the new water.
40% is a lot of water, 25% is the recomended amount so as the amount added in will not stress out the fish.

Answer 7

Simple answer: Change out 40% of the water. You should do this weekly as regular tank maintenance . Be sure and get a tap water conditioner that will take out the chlorine from the tap water before adding the new water to your tank.

Edit: Didn't see the part about well-water. In the case of using well-water, you probably wouldn't need a water conditioner, but in any case, a 40% water change should solve your problem.

One problem with using well-water is that tap water has nutrients added to it that benefit the fish- but it also has chlorine that is harmful to fish and removes the beneficial bacteria from your tank as well. So you probably don't have the chlorine problem with well water, but you could be missing some nutrients that you would otherwise get from tap water. There might be chemical additives you can buy to make well water better for your tank... I wouldn't know since I've never had to deal with that problem. Try going to: http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/index.php and register with this forum. There are tons of extremely knowledgeable and friendly people on there who would be more than happy to help you out. It's quite simply the best place on the web to get expert advice very quickly. But in any case, I still say doing a 40% water change will solve your problem (and keeping up on your weekly water changes). ;)

Answer 8

try replacing one third of the water in the tank once a week with some boiled water. if you have gravel in your tank reduce it till the gravel is only a very thin layer on the bottom about one quarter of an inch as the gravel will hold it in. try fresh aquatic plants like elodea or valanceria and do not put plastic plants in the tank as your tank is only 2 mts old you may also want to try some cycle

Answer 9

Water cahnges are only a temporary fix, you need to get a bacterial colony to grow on the filter so treat the tank with a live bacteria cycling aid. Get some plants in there, anubis java fern and java moss are good as they don't need a substrate.
There are chemical treatments for water to remove nitrates (which are most likely from the well), or you could buy/produce RO water.

Answer 10

I would do a water change about 33% is a safe water change.