Nitrate levels

[Tracyjs]

Hello first time poster. So I asked an aquarium group on Facebook about a tank with sick guppy fish. I posted my water parameters and currently that tank is showing 0 nitrates. Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, ph 7.6.

It's a heavily planted tank running a sponge filter. The tank has been running for 10 months. So they tell me a planted tank should show nitrates and my cycle has crashed. So I took samples from two other of my tanks and they show 0 and 10ppm nitrates as well. Again all been running 10 months and all planted with added mopani or spiderwood for ph and tannins. 

I'm running 16 tanks and I started most of them with cleaning a running filter of longer than a year and a half into the tank. Putting food in the tank. Then I discovered fishless feul and added that also when starting a filter.  I water change using python hose sifting the substrate, use a mag float to clean the glass as needed and otherwise try not to upset tank Balance to much. 

So I guess my question is realistically what should my nitrates be?  How dangerous are no nitrates and what's the best action now? I added a picture of one of my tanks so you have an idea of my tank setup. 

[Katherine]

Are you using fertilizer at all? It's possible the plants are consuming all the nitrates if you either aren't using any or are only using a little. I would expect to see some ammonia at least if your cycle had actually crashed.

[Wrencher_Scott]

Ideally nitrates should be low, zero would be nice. We change water to get rid of them. 

My guess is your tank is fine and the plants are using the nitrate. 

There are a thousand reason a fish could get sick but no nitrates is not one of them!

Sometimes people mistake nitrIte and nitrAte, is this the case here? Nitrites should always be zero. 

[Cinnebuns]

It is possible to get 0 nitrates in a heavily planted tank. Sometimes people on Facebook only know 1 answer and don't think outside the box. The only concern would be for the plants as nitrate is food for them. I'm no plant expert so I won't pretend to know it all, but if it were my tank I might consider using more fertilizer till I show some nitrates. 

[Tracyjs]

Ok I was wondering if the group was steering me wrong as they were saying with plants it should have nitrates and if not my cycle has crashed. I do use fertilizers probably  not as regularly as I should mainly because of cost. 

Does anyone know of a cheap alternative for aquarium fertilizers?

Edited June 12, 2022 by Tracyjs

[DaveO]

I can tell at a glance that your plants need fertilizer. The easiest to use and buy is right here from Aquarium Co-Op. Easy Green. It's like 20 bucks a bottle. The cheapest route would be to get dry ferts and make your own. Just Google "dry aquarium fertilizer" to find it. Or better yet ask @Mmiller2001. He is a wealth of information on the topic. 

[Mmiller2001]

On 6/12/2022 at 2:24 PM, DaveO said:

Or better yet ask @Mmiller2001. He is a wealth of information on the topic. 

Thank you.

Ideally, you want a fish load and plant load such that the plant load can lower Nitrates. Then you add Nitrates via fertilizer.

I always suggest maintaining 20ppm NO³ as it seems to be a safe number to shoot for. However, these days I'm shooting for 16ppm. Seems like I scrape glass less at 16ppm.

But fertilizing is more than just Nitrates, make sure you use something comprehensive.

[Tracyjs]

Not sure if I mentioned it but I was using flourish currently as I was able to buy in bulk large containers but I will look up how to make dry fertilizers for future cost saving. 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Tracyjs