Nitrates HIGH!

[John 5]

Nitrates in the 80 ppm range. I have cleaned both filters twice in the past week. Have been doing water changes (30%) daily trying to lower. After water change, they are about 20 ppm. Come home the next day and back to 80ppm. Have a 55g tank with Eheim 2236 and Rena XP3. Have 16 cichlids. Checked tap water, both hot and cold, and 0 ppm. Cannot figure it out. Only thing i have not taken apart and cleaned are the hoses to the filters. Here' another twist. Have 10g quarantine tank that is doing the same. Only goes up to 20ppm though. Any ideas?

[cichlid1409]

if your doing daily water changes and nitrates are not coming down you most likely have ammonia, nitrites or nitrates coming out of your tap. have you tested the tap water for these?

False readings can also be given by old test kits (just a possibility).

I believe some have used Seachem Safe to handle this, not 100% though hopefully someone will chime in with more experience with this than me.

[Sea-agg09]

Use AmQuel or prime when you do your water changes. They both remove ammonia and nitrates from the water as they dechlor.

[dustin]

Use AmQuel or prime when you do your water changes. They both remove ammonia and nitrates from the water as they dechlor.

+1

if your doing daily water changes and nitrates are not coming down you most likely have ammonia, nitrites or nitrates coming out of your tap. have you tested the tap water for these?

False readings can also be given by old test kits (just a possibility).

I believe some have used Seachem Safe to handle this, not 100% though hopefully someone will chime in with more experience with this than me.

+1

Also-Be carefull not to clean your filters and tank to well then you will have ammonia to deal with.Unlike ammonia and nitrites, the bacteria that remove nitrates do not like oxygen rich environments. Therefore, conventional filters do not harbor the bacteria that remove nitrates.
Detritus, decaying plant material, dirty filters, over-feeding, and over-stocking the tank, all contribute to increased production of nitrates.

Keep the tank clean – Waste ultimately produces nitrates. Cleaner tanks produce fewer nitrates in the first place.
Don’t overfeed the fish – Overfeeding is a significant contributor to excess nitrates and other undesirable wastes, such as phosphates.
Water changes – Performing regular Wc with water that has little or no nitrates will lower the overall nitrate level in the tank. RO/DI water is an excellent choice for keeping nitrate levels low.
Use nitrogen removing filter media – Instead of an expensive denitrator or special filter, use special media in the filter you have. Although they will not lower nitrates dramatically, if used together with other methods the net result will be beneficial.

[John 5]

Thanks for the replies!

I will see if i can find he Amquel or Prime at Petsmart. I'll try that tonight and see what happens. If no help, I will go to Kroger and fill up water bottles...UGHH

There are zero nitrites and ammonia present and I keep a pretty clean tank. As far as feeding, I use the 2 minute rule. I am feeding Ken's cichlid pellets. Could be something in them causing the issue. I am going to test that out tonight.

I am not familiar with the RO/DI water. Can you go into further detail?

I do have a water softener, wonder if that is a problem.

Also put a Purigen bag in the filter, but does not seem to help yet.

[myjohnson]

Using prime or safe is not really addressing the root of the issue.

It's like a bandaid.

What type of substrate do you have?

How old is the substrate?

How much you feeding your fishes everyday?

[John 5]

Regular aquarium rocks. I siphoned them all real good over the weekend. 1 year old.

Feed once a day.

[danielp]

after vacuuming the gravel did you see a change in your numbers?

That's where i've usually found this problem and after 2 or 3 really good vacumming's of the gravel the problem has gone away.

[dustin]

I am not familiar with the RO/DI water. Can you go into further detail?

I do have a water softener, wonder if that is a problem.

Also put a Purigen bag in the filter, but does not seem to help yet.

RO/DI- in plain terms is verry hevely filterd water (reverse osmosis/deionization)These types of filters remove nitrate, phosphate and other chemical elements found in tap water

the water softener is not good for fish, because very hard water goes through a softener and calcium ions are replaced with sodium ions. If at all possible, you really shouldn't use the water from your softener

[John 5]

Hey, came home tonight and checked both tanks and they are at 5ppm or less. I am happy with that! I did 50% water change in both tanks last night and checked them about an hour later and still high. I guess it takes some time for the water change to take effect on the nitrates...Maybe 24 hours? I did buy some Prime and put a little in to see if i can get to zero. Still would like to figure out what caused it. I have put some of Ken's fish food in a cup with water. Will test the to see if nitrates appear. If I figure anything out, I'll report back.

Thanks for all of the replies!

[Mzungu]

I'm sorry, I'm not sure when you said the readings for nitrite and ammonia were zero if you were talking about your tank water or tap water. Have you tested your tap water for ammonia and nitrites?

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