Jump to content

Elevated Nitrate


Recommended Posts

Hello everyone, hope everyone has had a great week,

I just finished testing my water parameters in my 30 gallon fish tank but my Nitrate levels are elevated and they haven't come down despite me doing a 50% water change yesterday and another 50% water change this morning. I also added some Aquarium co op Easy Fertilizer after todays water change for the plants.

Are these Nitrate levels toxic? How can I bring it down?  Will FritzZyme 7 help?  

I have a few hideouts, guppy grass as a floating plant and about 4 small anubias. What can I do to bring these levels down?  
 

What causes Nitrate to elevate? 

Water parameters (Used the Freshwater Liquid Test kit) :

Ammonia:  0.25 ppm

Nitrate: Either 40 or 80 ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Ph: 7.4

Gh: 125.3 ppm (7 drops)

Kh: 53.7 ppm ( 3 drops)

 

Thank you in advance 🙂

 

image.jpeg

Edited by Tropicalfishkeeping201
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/25/2022 at 8:23 PM, Katherine said:

How old is your test kit? I have trouble with the API nitrate well before the expiration date no matter how much I shake the bottles.

Oh wow, yeah I got it not so long ago maybe two months ago and I just checked and these bottles aren’t expired. I don’t understand what’s happening, it can be possible that something could be wrong with the Nitrate bottle than because I did two big water changes and its still elevated 

On 8/25/2022 at 8:42 PM, anitstuk said:

I'm sorry to tell you mate, but that ain't healthy

I don’t understand what’s wrong because I do water changes weekly and I did a 50% water change yesterday and today, I don’t know what to do

Edited by Tropicalfishkeeping201
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/26/2022 at 10:42 AM, Tropicalfishkeeping201 said:

Oh wow, yeah I got it not so long ago maybe two months ago and I just checked and these bottles aren’t expired. I don’t understand what’s happening, maybe something is wrong with the test kit than because I did two big water changes and its always elevated 

I don’t understand what’s wrong because I do water changes weekly and I did a 50% water change yesterday and today, I don’t know what to do

Do you have test strips because they might provide a different result.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/25/2022 at 8:55 PM, Katherine said:

Was this test before or after the fertilizer? How much did you put in?

This test was after the fertilizer. I did my water change this morning and added the fertilizer an hour later of the water change and I tested my water parameters about an hour ago.

I added 3 pumps like it says in the bottles to add 1 pump per 10 gallons since I have a 30 gallon tank. I add fertilizers about twice a month

Edited by Tropicalfishkeeping201
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/25/2022 at 9:28 PM, Katherine said:

When was the last time you changed water before yesterday? When was the last time you tested before yesterday?

Last time I changed water before yesterday was last week on Tuesday and on this same day I tested my Nitrate and it was 10 ppm. I did a 50% water change last week

Edited by Tropicalfishkeeping201
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/25/2022 at 8:50 PM, Tropicalfishkeeping201 said:

Last time I changed water before yesterday was last week on Tuesday and on this same day I tested my Nitrate and it was 10 ppm. I did a 50% water change last week

My best guess at this point is something wonky with your test, or something died and didn't get removed from the tank. Let us know what your test strips say!

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/25/2022 at 10:03 PM, Katherine said:

My best guess at this point is something wonky with your test, or something died and didn't get removed from the tank. Let us know what your test strips say!

Thank you, I gravel vac last week and yesterday and there was nothing dead. It is possible that something is wrong with my freshwater test kit because from what I see In the API test strip I got 0 ppm for Nitrate. I tested my water parameters using the API strips and this is what I got:

-Ammonia: 0 ppm

-Ph: I would say its between 8.0 or 8.5, its hard to tell 

-Alkalinity: 180 close

to 300 ppm

-Hardness: 150 ppm

-Nitrite: 0 ppm

-Nitrate: 0 ppm

DF6BF424-33F3-47E8-9DF7-D3F1947265C2.jpeg

90427888-0FC4-4361-87EF-52A1491A2072.jpeg

Edited by Tropicalfishkeeping201
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/25/2022 at 7:26 PM, Katherine said:

Wow, that's a big difference! Do you have any distilled water you can test?

I know, its a big difference, I don't have distilled water but I'm going to purchase some to test it. I will keep you posted. Thank you so much for your help 🙂

 

Edited by Tropicalfishkeeping201
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, just text it with the liquid test kit. Distilled water should come up 0 nitrates so if it doesn't you can be pretty sure the test is faulty.

One other possibility is that you suddenly have high nitrates in your tap water, that could be worth a test as well.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/25/2022 at 8:05 PM, Katherine said:

No, just text it with the liquid test kit. Distilled water should come up 0 nitrates so if it doesn't you can be pretty sure the test is faulty.

One other possibility is that you suddenly have high nitrates in your tap water, that could be worth a test as well.

I will test it, and I will also do that of testing my tap water with the liquid test kit, Thank you so much!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...