NITRATES are DEMONIZED, often times, unnecessarily ​👿​

[DaveSamsell]

The great Nitrate, debates. We all heard them 100 times over, but are we as Aquarists understanding some of the benefits of Nitrates?

If you have a planted aquarium, they are an absolute necessity.  Many times, we hear information of certain water parameters, no more than 10, 20 or 30 ppm for a certain fish species. I have always wondered if those ppm recommendations were, at least, somewhat accurate.

No doubt some fish are very sensitive and am not debating that.  But, I would bet to say that many fish do adapt to their environment, for the most part, with even higher water Nitrate levels, from my experience.

So as Aquarists, do we change water just to change water and then add a Nitrogen fertilizer back into the tanks?  Granted, water changes do more than dilute Nitrate levels, the fresh water helps in many ways, am sure.

But in reality, did you every have fish die, because of elevated Nitrate values?

Not to mention, that excessive water changes do stress fish a bit, too.

In the end, what science preaches, what we think as individuals and what the fish actually think is the best environment, is often vastly different, anyway.

All we can do is put our best FIN forward.    All the best....

 

 

 

[StephenP2003]

I tend to keep my tanks well stocked. I have one that approaches 40ppm a week depending on what I feed. I pretty much never have less than 10ppm in any given tank, except my betta tank, so I don't dose nitrogen. I add potassium, iron, and trace minerals. I add easy green to my betta tank. I've never had a tank go higher than 50 so I don't know how it would affect the fish, but the fish seem to act the same at 50ppm vs 20ppm vs 5ppm.

[Bill Smith]

While nitrates probably don't often actually kill fish, I've noticed that high nitrates do seem to increase stress levels, thus making fish more vulnerable to other things that might be more dangerous.

It's always stuck with me from having heard in one of the AC livestreams, the idea that most fish seem to handle any one stress factor pretty well, whether that's temperature, starvation, an aggressive tankmate, disease, pH fluctuation, etc. But introduce a second stress factor (high nitrates), and things can fall apart pretty fast.

And then there's the notion of long-term effects. Keep me in a smoky room all my life, and the coughing won't kill me. But my life might be shortened by lung cancer, COPD, etc.

So yeah, I demonize high nitrates. I just seem to have healthier fish when I can keep the levels low. I shoot for 20ppm in my planted tanks if I can.

Bill

[DaveSamsell]

6 minutes ago, Bill Smith said:

While nitrates probably don't often actually kill fish, I've noticed that high nitrates do seem to increase stress levels, thus making fish more vulnerable to other things that might be more dangerous.

It's always stuck with me from having heard in one of the AC livestreams, the idea that most fish seem to handle any one stress factor pretty well, whether that's temperature, starvation, an aggressive tankmate, disease, pH fluctuation, etc. But introduce a second stress factor (high nitrates), and things can fall apart pretty fast.

And then there's the notion of long-term effects. Keep me in a smoky room all my life, and the coughing won't kill me. But my life might be shortened by lung cancer, COPD, etc.

So yeah, I demonize high nitrates. I just seem to have healthier fish when I can keep the levels low. I shoot for 20ppm in my planted tanks if I can.

Bill

Bill,

All points very well taken.  I suppose everyone's aquarium is different.  My plants didn't do as well at 20 ppm nitrates.  Of course, the tank is heavily planted.  I usually run the nitrates between 40-60 ppm, with thriving plants & fish.  Nothing higher than that.  Anyway, as I mentioned, it is dependent on the fish kept as well.  I think a lot of fear is "shamed" into Aquarists today for not keeping a nitrate-free aquarium.  Just my $0.02 on the matter.

Thanks for your input...😊

[Brandy]

I really like the AC concept Bill was talking about. I think it was a 2 stress factors can be tolerated but add a third and things fall apart when I heard it, but I took that as more that there is obviously a threshold beyond which too much is too much, and we can't know exactly where that is. Maybe I can't promise my fish optimal pH, but I can do well on the rest and it's ok. If you've got perfect pH maybe you can have other parameters that are off and it works. Most people who get to fish nerd status probably can assess the health of their fish well enough to judge where they are on the spectrum, but if they suddenly have problems then they also know which factors need to be addressed first. 

I would like to be able to keep nitrates in my lightly stocked tanks! It actually is reassuring to hear that it doesn't have to be a tightrope act to keep both fish and plants happy. The few times my nitrates have jumped (usually due to accidental fertilizer od) I've worried quite a bit.

Edited August 2, 2020 by Brandy