Nitrate levels in planted tanks

[TankedUp]

I'm trying my hand at a full planted tank. I use flourish tabs and Easy-green twice a week with a Fluval 3.0 on the preset planted lighting. I've been reading about wanting to keep 20ppm of nitrates but after three doses of easy-green i still only have 5ppm. I only do 30% water changes weekly to keep my Ph stable for German blues. Am i doing something wrong or do i just need to keep dosing twice a week for longer?

[Jennifer V]

I'm interested to know more too! I have a new planted tank and I can't get the nitrates above 5 ppm but I don't do water changes as often as you do. 

[gardenman]

You get nitrates one of two ways typically. As a byproduct of the nitrogen cycle, or by adding it as a fertilizer. If you want higher nitrates the easiest thing is to stop doing water changes, add more bio-load (within reason,) and feed more often. Adding more bio-load is fun as it lets you go fish shopping. Just don't go too nuts as your biofilter still needs to be able to handle the increase in bio-load. As a general rule, fish like being fed more often. More fish, more food, means more waste, which becomes more nitrates. (Eventually.) 

[TankedUp]

My bio load is low and I have a HOB and a sponge filter so my bio filter can handle much more so I'll get some new fish! Any suggestions? I have a 46g bowfront with 1 large angel, 4 glow tetras, 4 German blues, 5 corydoras and 1 bristle nose pleco

[Colu]

I would increase the group of glow tetras

[TankedUp]

I'm kinda over the glowfish. I was thinking maybe another angle because the one I have keep laying eggs. Or maybe a dwarf gourami?

[TankedUp]

I got 4 new fish today. 2 more German Blue Rams from my local supplier and 2 neon blue dwarf gouramis. Hopefully this will help my nitrates. I tested today and my nitrates almost 0.

[FishyThoughts]

On 1/7/2021 at 3:09 PM, TankedUp said:

I've been reading about wanting to keep 20ppm of nitrates but after three doses of easy-green i still only have 5ppm. I only do 30% water changes weekly to keep my Ph stable for German blues.

I’m not sure why it’s recommended to keep 20ppm of nitrates. Maybe so that there’s a reading for people to see that nitrates are present for feeding the plants? And I don’t recall the preset settings, but the more light the faster plants many plants grow and use nutrients. So your levels could be lower due to that, low bio load and anaerobic bacteria (if present with your setup). 

The nitrates on my tank show as around 0, and the plants are healthy and growing. So if you find the balance of bio load and nutrients being used why wouldn’t that be considered good. 
 

While it’s important to monitor ammonia/nitrites/nitrates, if they are stable (ammonia and nitrites at 0 ideally) it decreases the concerns for a potential issue and indicates the frequency of when maintenance is needed. Personally I would be looking into why water changes are needed to keep the PH stable. Do you test you GH and KH? Have you tested the ph of your tap water? You can put some tap water in a bucket, test the ph,let sit for a period of time and test again. If you have a change in ph between the test the tap water is off gassing. If off gassing is the cause of the changes it may be better try and maintain the ph level once the water has out gassed as the initial ph is basically a false reading. 

[TankedUp]

These are my light settings for this 46g bowfront.