Here is more information about water parameters. Definitely worth a look if you are trying to learn all you can about the subject! What exactly is the nitrogen cycle? ua-cam.com/video/dFpN4wXgmfI/v-deo.html What is Water Hardness? ua-cam.com/video/xRYdtvakfv0/v-deo.html How Does pH Impact Fish Health? ua-cam.com/video/d9N-JliqsJg/v-deo.html How to Lower Ammonia: ua-cam.com/video/5l-POiCc0dI/v-deo.html How to Lower Nitrites: ua-cam.com/video/3t8yq-ydOaE/v-deo.html What Does Water Quality Really Mean? ua-cam.com/video/TkPwQGG1LMQ/v-deo.html
Prime Time Aquatics I have ? what else can I do to drop Nitrates. tank just tested (Ammonia 2.0ppm) (Ph 6.5ppm) (Nitrates 80-160ppm) this is a 75gallon aquarium with 1 sponge filter, 1 marineland 350 filter , and a canister filter . tank holds a 13inch red tail catfish
Always need to hear/see this. Although I’m entirely aware of the cycle, I still need to be reminded. We get lazy sometimes once things are breathing on their own and smoothly. Guilty as charged slacking on testing.
I hardly test my tanks. I do if my fish start to act weird or notice a clogged filter. But I usually don't test and just jump in and do a 50 percent water change after the clog has been removed. I mainly go by what my fish are doing and acting like. My breeding discus splash me as I walk by to let me know they are hungry, so I feed them. But if I notice any of my fish not looking to well or discover a dead fish I always do a full set of tests before resorting to medication at all. My nitrates, well all of them never read anything more than 0 and I have all my plants to thank for that. I really only do water changes when I cut plants back and do a tank clean up and I keep hard to keep species of fish. A good fish keeper can pick up the signs that something isn't quite right.
Even though this is an older vdeo, I wanted to thank you for all your help with my aquariums. I have had at least one aquarium for 25 years. Always had higher nitrates. Now? No! Thanks to your help and also Cory, Aquarium Co op. You are both great and i appreciate your time and the efforts you make to help others. I have gobs of plants in my aquarium for the past 8 months and i can't believe how it's nixed the nitrate problem. I have a 29 gallon with 17 small fish and several snails. It's been 10 days since my last water change and my nitrates are registering 0 ppm (API test). Thank you so much! I'm going to get a ten gallon tomorrow to start a Nano tank! YAY.. Big bunches of thanks again.
All this time I thought the goal was to have 0 nitrate reading which has been almost impossible for me. I am above 40 ppm in both tanks and now confident I have the right scheduled water changes. I love this guy!
Thank you. After rescuing a neglected guppy a couple of weeks ago & rushing around trying to set up his tank, your videos have been invaluable & the guppy (so cute) is looking better than ever. 😊
So many conflicting reports about nitrates,it gets confusing,but i do check and do wayer changes every week,so really shouldn't effect me,very good show.
Have a small 10g aquarium. 4 platies and a male mollie in it. Without fail, when the nitrate level gets up to 60ppm, the mollie starts glass surfin. Up and down he goes til I do water change, then he goes back to normal behavior. He's a live in test kit.
Hey Everyone, a couple people asked why I didn't talk about denitrifying filtration systems. They're certainly available, but I geared this more towards the average hobbyist and some of these system can be expensive and require more knowledge about water parameters in general, because other parameters still need to be monitored.
Ok. It's fine. I sent my dad this vid because he doesn't know if he should do water changes on my fish tank. I'm happy when my fish are happy😊. Thanks again
Prime Time Aquatics I started my fishless cycle last week and when I tested my water today it said that it was a 6.3. I was wondering if it’s normal for pH to to drop considering that my Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates are all really high. Any advice would help
Sometimes the tiniest bit of info is the very best thing ever. You said to check the true color of the test water, you hold it up to your aquarium. Using the aquarium lighting. Wow ! Not sure how to do it, I was holding it up against a white painted wall. When testing PH, I always showed a dark blue. Indicating 8+ or higher. Thinking it was too high, I was always trying to lower it. Tested using your method, against the aquarium glass, and it is at 7. Right where it should be. Same with nitrates. On the white wall, I show dark red, 40 or higher. Trouble. But against the glass, the true reading is 20. In the safe zone. I went from panic to "yes", all my work, all the videos I watched are paying off. This little bit of info was such a great help. Thank you !
Great video..I've got a rather odd 50 gal aquarium w over 30 random fish..majority came from my job that were very ill/dying, and surrenders etc..trust I know its overcrowded AND it almost always tests high for nitrates no matter how much I clean..BUT... most of my fish were horribly ill when i got them (huge lesion down to the spine on a brilliant rasbora and a rosy whitefin whose tail was gone past the scales were a few examples) that healed beyond better and are doing fantastic as are the other 30 or so and I'm so so thankful for that, for them and giving them another chance and a better life.
Everyone who keeps fish should watch this video.....best analogy and walk through I've ever heard. Hey man not all hero's wear capes, keep up the good work. 👏
Fantastic way of explaining this issue, relating it to smoke in a room. I'm going to remember that for my explanations. Thanks again buddy, live your content
This was such a good reminder for me today. In my Goldfish/ Denison barb (Roseline Shark) tank I have a great filtration system with beautiful crystal clear water, large Amazon Swords, Pathos plants hanging on the back. Then I noticed the fish weren't quite themselves. The Goldfish just weren't quite as obnoxious as normal and so I did a water test. Almost O Ammonia and O Nitrite, and I was thinking whats to worry about until I saw the Nitrate (KO3) was at 80. Then I realized I skipped the weekly water change I normally do on Tuesdays and this is Sunday or five days beyond what I normally do. So today the get an extra large change...My Bad!
Finally a video explanation I fully understand, ive been trying to fishless cycle for over a month and not really know what I was doing, superbly explained, brilliant ...Thank you !!
I have nitrates in my tap water. I believe it tested around 40 ppm. Ill check again, when I test the aquarium but another video mentions how your water changes may not be the success you wish for. I always thought we couldn't use distilled, so maybe spring water? I'll keep after it. TY for this information. I have a whole lotta plants and some beautiful Java moss I threaded to a piece of manzanita! I am so happy with all these fish channels.
From not clued up to well clued up especially after seeing your vid on the nitrogen cycle you explained it very well even a I understood it and that is saying something,so I would like to thank you for that .Now there is another genius who knows all about the nitrogen cycle.....looking forward to your next vid....please keep them coming....good luck
Hi friends @ Primetime aquatics I’ve been getting back into the hobby within the past year with all this extra Covid time on my hands & have found your UA-cam very helpful & knowledgeable in being successful in the hobby. I recently set up a planted 125 gallon tank & have a few 29s set up as quarantine tanks to introduce new fish & treat them for ich with salt & temperature treatment. The 125 has been set up for @ 6 months now & is well cycled. I performed routine weekly water tests for the 1st few months which have been perfect so I switched to checking the water 1x/mo @ the 4th mo. & went another 2 months til I checked it thinking all was going well since my fish have been acting fine & I have 2 sets of Electric Blue Acaras that spawn regularly in the tank. I could not believe what I found. Nitrate levels through the roof 160ppm or better? I checked the water twice to ensure proper testing. Checked the 29s & 2 other planted tanks that I have. All the planted tanks read extremely high 160ppm?! So I did some UA-cam research. I checked my tap water which was fine 0ppm. Then I got to thinking @ what I’ve been doing to my planted tanks & I’ve been adding fertilizer from Aquarium Co-op the iron supplement & All-in 1 supplement. So I did a little test to see what I would find. Filled up 2 API test Tubes w tap water & added 1 drop of iron fertilizer in a tube. Conclusion 5ppm Nitrates. I added 1 drop of the All-in-1 in the other test tube. Resulted in 160ppm Nitrates. I’ve been adding the proper recommended amount of fertilizer to the tanks 1 pump/10 Gal for the past couple of months. I perform 25-40% weekly water changes then add the fertilizer into the water for the plants. What have I done?!? Looking @ the label it lists Nitrates as an ingredient but I thought they would be low amounts since the label also says fish tested & safe. Well now I’ll be doing water changes w/o adding the fertilizer & hopefully I don’t shock my fish when they have Nitrate withdrawals. I’ll have to do some more testing/research & see how much fertilizer I can add w/o spiking my Nitrate levels. Nitrates @ 5-10ppm I can live with if I have to to keep the plants happy but 160ppm defeats the whole purpose of having live plants in the 1st place. Another thought some iron additives make your water hard-very hard. I just wanted to share this information since I didn’t see anyone mention this Nitrate killer on the UA-cam. Hope it saves someone some headaches. Thx for sharing your knowledge & passion for the hobby. Ryan
Sounds like you can back off the ferts. I know for a lot of our tanks we don't add them anymore and just rely on the fish to produce the food for the plants!
Filters are nitrate factories - that is their purpose. But if you clean your prefilter every few days before waste starts to break down, it will slow down the accumuation of nitrates. Your 'training' videos are very informative and spot on. Nice work. As others have said, where were you when I was getting into this hobby?!
I added golden pothos on the back of my tank. Just stick the clean roots in water and give it a grow light. Pothos is a beast at removing nitrates. Low cost and permanent solution. If you have fish that will eat plants, just lower the root system in a plastic basket. If you don't like the look of that, you can add it to the filter reservoir of one of your HOB filters or even create your own nitrate filter by housing them in a homemade mini sump. I've got two Oscars in a 125 and believe me, this really helps. Even with this, keep testing and keep up your water changes.
Love coming to your video's when I have a question... always feel better educated after listening to them. Thanks for all the time you put in to make these... they are vital to many of us out here so thanks!!
I've been rockin 160ppm nitrates for over a year. Horrible well water and didn't learn about it until a few months ago.. explains my explosive B.H algae and fields of Hydra.
Very helpful video! I discovered that even with regular water changes in my betta fry tank there was some fin curling going on. I did some research and read that nitrites can couse it it, or hard water etc so I tested the water and in the end it came out that the nitrates are high. No fish died ever, or got ill but their fins were developing odd shape as they reached a size of a 3 cm. This probably started to be a problem when I changed their food. They would grow rapidly from it and look healthy but.. I possibly ruined their finnage because I didnt know Ive had this problem in the tank. I am going to do water changes every day from now on (I did it every other day) and add some fast growing live plants. Hope it will help. Thank you again for these useful informations!
I have nitrates in my tap water, so i don't bother testing for nitrates anymore. I put pothus plants in each tank, clean the filters once a month, do gravel vacs and water changes once a week, and hope for the best. So far so good.
Nitrates in your tap water is not a good thing. What else is in your tap water that should not be? I would contact your local water utility board and enquirer about that issue (and possibly others).
Here in Southern California (Orange County) I get about 7 - 10 ppm NitrAte coming out of the tap. Bit of a shock when I first tested the tap water here after moving from Connecticut.
I have found that the API test kit is inaccurate for Nitrate levels over 9 ppm. In my own experience it shows up red when it gets to 10, not some gradation to orange as the card suggests. So it always showed red after multiple water changes and I only discovered the true value when I diluted my tank sample 50:50 with tap water, and the measurement on the API card dropped to 5 ppm. So the nitrate concentration in my tank was actually 10 ppm, not 40 ppm as the red had indicated.
Wow! Really great comprehensive explanation:) After reading the api test solution bottle warnings, I learned to: • Wear gloves. Nitrate test bottle#2 is particularly dangerous to use without them. • Fill the tubes using a pipette & test away from the tank preventing any residue from contacting the aquarium water. • Have a test site with a cleanable or disposable surface. Tubes eventually leak. I do not think api does enough to promote safety in this way but their tests are precise and we all use them often. Thanks again for the great info. Really enjoy your channel! 👍😃👍
You'll need to replace your Nitrate Test Kit well before any of the other tests in an API Master Kit. 1) Coat the 5 ml line on the test tube with a clearcoat nail polish. 2) I wrap the tube in a paper napkin before I shake. This will absorb any leakage. 3) A 5 ml Medicine Syringe, available free at any CVS / Walgreens pharmacy, makes a great tool for filling the test tubes. I keep a 1 cup pyrex measuring cup to pull a small water sample from my Tank which I also use as rinse water for the tubes. I also keep a disposal cup handy at my test area which I cover with an old hand towel. PS: I generally only test for pH and NitrAte. If either test gives an Unusual or Unexpected Result, then I will test for Ammonia and Nitrite. Properly and Timely maintained Tanks will always test 0.0 ppm Ammonia and Nitrite.
In my 55gal. heavily planted,fair amount of driftwood, I have a 4 to 5" gravel substrate. All I have been running for about 7 months now is some air through a bottle of crushed lava rock. I purposely did very little maintenance while monitoring the water quality. The only thing I thought might be a problem would be hydrogen sulfate but with enough surface agitation and only half a lid it seemed to be fine. The tank is heavily stocked but my nitrates basically went to barely even readable after a few months. My next big challenge will be to somehow integrate this idea with an RO system in order to bring down water hardness a bit in a 90gal.
I recently entered the fish keeping realm with my first betta and things were going great with my water until my amateur self added a brand new sponge filter to the tank. I got a nitrite spike! Your videos really make this easier for me to understand!
i needed this video. i hear so much that Nitrates should be at 0 but ive been getting 10-20 and i get 5 straight out the tap. looking forward to adding fish this weekend since my cycle is over.
I have watched sOoOOOo many videos from all over UA-cam on how to take care of an aquarium and fish and I ended up having the biggest aquarium style crush on Jason =D
Great video. I also would like to add that sometimes with the right media and amount of media you can obtain a full cycle which is also the removal of nitrates from your aquarium but water changes are the easiest way and foolproof
Ya, I didn't focus on the specialized media too much due to cost, and the fact that other substances can accumulate in the tank that are not removed by nitrate removers.
Great video! I personally think the API test kit reads high. I compare it to a tetra strip test kit and the API always reads higher. Strip reads in the safe range. My tap water does have around 10 ppm. My 125g African cichlid tank always reads over 40 but under 80. I run 2 FX6 filters stuffed with biohome ultimate and sponges. 50% per week water change. I have 19 young cichlids and 8 - dwarf synodontis which should be fine for a 125g tank. I don’t think I’m over feeding them they gobble it up so not much waste. My fish are healthy and are coloring up nicely as they grow. I don’t trust that API kits reading correctly. However I would feel much better if it read 10-20 ppm!
Mine reads 30-40ppm nitrites righ now on my 75... hoping it's just API kit, tap is 0-5ppm... ammonia is 0, nitrate was 0, then a bright red result of at or just below 40ppm. Everyone looks healthy fast swimming, colored etc...
Sir you are a lifesaver of fish I was the one who did the filters and probably did not change water as often as I should does my algae eater outgrew my tank and probably killed my fish with ammonia and nitrates now I have switched to a bigger octagon tank tall and put GloFish in it I have a heater the water is warm I do have a LED light blue I hope it does not bother them too much and I just have a water filter system with no filter in it and I have a gravel sucker and I will be trying to add live plants or at least changing water a lot and I will leave the algae for I never knew how she was a good thing makes sense thanks a lot
i have a 30 gallon. It had 4 white spade tetras, and 2 red tetras, then my brother brought over half a dozen giant danios this tank i have has been going for almost 2 years now. when the fish were smaller, it was fine, now they're big. and i started a planted tank, which i would use water from the big tank to fill a small 10 gallon. of course after this amount of time, i had noticed algae growing pretty rampant, but i thought it was a sign of a healthy tank, water was crystal clear, filter modified and upgraded. but when i went to put fish into my small planted 10 gallon, they'd croak (it's okay i was testing with bait fish ;D) but that's when i took a sample to the store. alk 23 (not sure if this is good or bad tbf) pH was 6.4 G hardness was 227 (that's austin water for ya) phosphates were .01 nitrites were .01 and those glorious nitrates oh those nitrates, were 168 ppm and ammonia was .3 so the lesson here is exactly what he said. you can have all the filtration in the world, the tank can look crystal clear. but if i hadn't tested the water i would have never known the algae bloom was a sign that my fish tank was about to turn toxic. (baby fish were already DoA or Food on Arrival)
Your water quality parameters videos are super helpful and very well explained, I feel a lot more confident when it comes to taking the correct action to keep my fish healthy and happy- so thank you!
I was so right on the plants and algae in the tank. I tried to explain to my boss that some plants help your tank. She thinks she doesn't have to do much to her tank cuz it's one of them self cleaning tanks that are a few hundred bucks. I told her just cuz her water looks clear doesn't mean anything. She said she has a algae issues. I told her why and what to do to help with it. I offered her some of my plants for free. I told her about the benefits of some land mosses that can and will grow under water. They provide cover for fry and a secondary food source for fry, shrimp, and snails. I have the basic commercialized filtration systems that have come with the tank or I bought for a tank. All have plants, and miss, shrimp, and snails, with fish. My water changes are few and far between. A few even have no substrate, mosses do not have roots. Most have made lava rooks their stations. Some plants with roots are in DIY pots out of clear plastic bottles, which I like better than actually pot. You can see what's going with your plants better and not only that it's cool to see my fry hiding. I have learned so much from you and this channel. Thank you so much. I wish I was closer to your state.
Thank you for that awesome information. I wasn't aware that plants help to keep those parameters under control. Very detailed information and it helped me very much. Thank you for taking the time to post that.
@Prime Time Aquatics There are so many differing opinions in the hobby about nitrate toxicity. Do you have any sources for the numbers you gave? It’s not that I don’t believe you, it would just be super helpful to have.
Wow my best healthy cichlid tank that made my fish color up and made them really healthy nitrate is at 10. My wife just tested the water right now and it’s at that level!
Thanks Mate, you explained it very plain for me to understand how to look after my Fish. Now I know for sure that I have done my job looking after them the right way. Used to worry if the Nitrate lever was showing 20 and changed to much Water. Thanks again.
Thanks for the great video! Side note of interest. I did a water change today, and after putting in Seachem Prime, I decided to test it. Nitrates still came out between 10 & 20 PPM. It's almost like I'm fighting a losing battle here!
The thing is if you do lots of water changes to remove nitrates, your also going to be raising the ph which is deadly for your fish especially if they like a low ph around 6.5. So what I recommend is a ph stabiliser which you add to the bucket filled of water before tipping it into your aquarium. This way you can do lots of water changes to lower your nitrates but also ensure your not raising your ph to much.
That generally only happens if water changes are infrequent, allowing the pH to drop due to excessive waste in the tank and the KH is low. We don't have pH swings in any of our tanks.
Very new at fish keeping, I keep goldfish - Found my butterfly black moor dead at the bottom of the tank today :( Gutted. Ended up doing a 25% water change, tested the water, it came out fine, but I'm paranoid for my other fish now. I figure the problem was nitrite poisoning, my tank probably isn't fully cycled yet. Gonna go 25% water changes daily for about a week to level it out.
I'm sorry to hear that. : -( Keep testing the water. Both API and Marineland make ammonia/nitrite absorption media if you start to see it spike. If there is any chance of getting used filter media that would be a more permanent solution.
Everyones experience is different, but in my heavily planted tanks, it is difficult to maintain nitrates and the plants begin to suffer because of it. Plants are excellent at cleaning the water in general, you just have to make sure to buffer the water up because the plants will consume all of the nutrients in the water over a long period of time and will cause you PH to drop significantly. Of course, many factors come into play when you are talking about plants such as the intensity of light you are using, nutrient substrate or root tabs, C02 injection, liquid fertilizer and bio-load to plant-load, but generally speaking, if you have a coarse and deep enough substrate to allow plants to root well, a decent light and some liquid fertilizer, you should do well. Of course you need plants as well, lol. Oh yea, I keep a heavily planted goldfish tank all by himself and he eats all of the plants, but it is okay because hornwort exists and he will not eat that.
Seachem claims it lasts forever but we'll see. It takes at least a month for the denitrification bacteria to get going so I've had to be patient with the setup.
My ammonia and nitrite are non existent but my nitrates are high. I’m using live plants in my tank I got some driftwood and a moss ball. There’s algea growing on the glass. Is a 25% water change and a filter clean the best way to go to lower my nitrates?
Idk why I feel so happy after watching the video lol... I tested my water and both ammonia and nitrite are 0 but the nitrate I had a reading of 0 but then I shook bottle 2 really hard and bam! I’m at around 20-30 ppm... I think I’m doing the right thing if I have the first two at 0 and nitrates at that ppm level. I have a tall 20 gal with 6 Pygmy corys, 3 kuhli loaches, 4 gold minnows, 3 danios and 1 purple emperor tetra. ima remove the danios and tetra cause I have 6 clown killifish coming in tomorrow!... I wanna be ready for them.
Hi, love your videos. I am having trouble since few months ago having Ich in my 125 g mostly African cichlids tank. Only lost one fish but when trying to remove the Ich x etc I flushed all the good bacteria and had trouble last couple weeks. Transferred 30 gallons from another tank and mostly fish seem to react great. Just prior to that I did 50% water change. Now everything’s good except high nitrate. Water I transferred was low on nitrate. Will the tank level itself out do you think or should I water change again? Appreciate any advice from anyone. I’m a newbie and a big compulsive with things. Have a great collection of fish and don’t want to lose them. Any newbies I would recommend getting small tank and starting with low maintenance fish. Live and learn. My head is 😵💫
Several weeks ago I set up my first dirted tank with plants. I have one inch of organic dirt and 2 inches of black sand. I have several plants and one piece of wood with java moss on it. My water parameters are all good. No Ammonia, No Nitrites, and Nitrates. All Zero. PH is 7.4. I added my fish back in and so far lost 4 fish. I sword, 1 neon, and two rasboras. I 5 fish remaining. The sword and neon were 1 year, and the rasboras were 2.5 years old. I have been told it may be the stress of the new environment. I did put some API stress in the water a week ago. I have a sponge filter and a hang over filter in the tank. Any other thoughts what I need to look at?
My filter does help with nitrate. I have a sump and the sump has a refugium filled with floating plants (Frogbit) with long roots hanging down into the water column. So in short some filters can help a bit with nitrate.
Just a thought, l hardly ever hear anybody in the fresh water side of our hobby mention sulphur denitrators, no idea, why reef keepers use them. They really do work, l use one in my 200g mbuna tank. They take a while to get going but they really are simple & easy to use and l wouldn't classify them as advanced equipment! Paul UK
Not sure why either, but maybe fresh water keepers like the lower cost and maintenance of fish keeping? Also, other water parameters still have to be monitored if a denitrification system is used. Finally, fresh water fish seem to be more tolerant of nitrate than salt water and because water changes are so much easier with freshwater, elevated nitrate levels are easily corrected.
Jason, some pointers. Hold the reagent bottles exactly vertically upside down (it's the only way to get precisely the size of drops that are required), do it slower so you get a more accurate count, and finally, there is no point in measuring your nitrates until you measure your nitrites because when using the Griess assay like the API master test kit uses, you need to deduct the nitrite level from the nitrate level. Sorry that the API instructions don't mention that. You probably know this now since it's three years later that I'm watching this.
Hi Mark - I'm actually an Associate Professor of Biology and Microbiology and have worked with these types of reagents for 20 years. Holding the bottle on an angle as I did is not going to have an impact of these test results (you also get used to dropping drops very quickly when working with reagents for decades). If the tank is cycled, as is the case 99% of the time when registering nitrates, the nitrite concentration will be zero, so it isn't going to impact the results.
Hi, My RTG Arowana, was spotted gulping for air. Did the water test and there was nitrate spike along with nitrite and ammonia. Unfortunately I added paracidol since the fish was not feeding for about a week. Did water change and fish got stable after overnight ideal. My question can this be due to change in water parameters or Paracidol can have aggravated it. Please enlighten, it will be really helpful
I find it comical when folks with the big Enheim filters brag about how they went from doing water changes weekly to every 6 months or so because of that filter - one joker even said 9 months.
@Chewy Ltd Yeah, but who'd want to be in the same ole stale water, even if the water tested ok. It's still stale water. Rivers flow and new water comes and goes. Even lakes get fed fresh water. Just because they can, don't mean they should. It's not fair to the fisheeees.
What is a good media to encourage anaerobic bacteria to deal with nitrates please. I understand these will deal with nitrates and reduce water change requirement. Thanks so much.
In the average set-up I'm not sure there is a good media. Some of the media that is out there (i.e. biohome) usually requires a huge amount of filtration capacity and has mixed results. For me - I like a more simple solution - aquatic plants and/or pothos growing out of a filter or tank.
Thank you so much! Even though I am no novice when it comes to healthy water parameters, I still learned a great deal from this video. Nice to see one on just nitrates. I have heard of nitrate filters...do these work at all?
There are a number of other variables on this subject which haven't been highlighted here... Firstly, and most importantly, test the nitrate levels in your tap water(!) as well as your aquarium: you would be surprised how high tap water nitrate levels are legally allowed to be; depending on what country you live in. EU and UK 'acceptable' nitrate levels are 50mg/l (50 parts per million) 😬 My tapwater is about 20mg/l... so NO amount of water-changing is going to get my aquarium nitrate levels down to 10mg/l... Secondly, factors such as stocking density (and the size of the fish), filtration efficiency, substate and plant health have a big impact. I have two tanks: one has a low fish stock level consisting of small fish only, very efficient filter, and lush, fast plant growth. The nitrate levels in that tank are almost too low to register. This tank gets no water-changes. Ever. (The only water I ever remove is what I need to clean the filter media) It would be pointless to take that water out and add water with 20mg/l nitrate in it 🤣 It is an open top aquarium: so the litre or two of water I have to add daily to compensate for evaporation loss is the only 'water-change' it gets (these top ups are probably the reason for the tiny nitrate readings that I do register because of the 20mg/l in the declorinated tapwater used for the top ups). The fish inside are healthy and breed regularly. The cherry shrimp too - I can no longer count how many I have from the original six I put in. I have had bigger tanks with bigger fish in the past, and yes, water-changes were useful then (using RO water because of the high nitrate levels in the tapwater there too...)
Not to be a nudge, but in all honesty I haven't done a water change in over 2 years on my 72 gallon tank. I just top it off. The fish that are in it are fine but they are gouramis that can gulp air from the surfaces that doesn't say much. I'm certain my nitrates are through the roof but I don't have any sort of an algae problem or even live plants. What I know is I can't add any new fish because they will die within the first 12 hours I won't even try anymore and I know for a fact I've got a lot of solids in the substrate from waste over the years that I'd assume is basically nitrate fertilizer at this point if I stir it up it will cloud up the tank and in 8 hours settle and disappear into the gravel again. I do have great filtration, so I am "one of those guys" but realizing at this point if I want to add new fish that aren't labyrinth fish, I'll need to do water changes and get the nitrates under control. I don't agree that it will kill the fish in the tank, my experience with it is if the fish were in it they will adjust to it as it builds,, but its the new additions that can't adjust and will die. And if you move fish from tank to tank for various reasons, they can't make the adjustment to the tank with high nitrates after adjusting to normal conditions. I will get it under control I just hate lugging 10- 20 gallons of water and being up to my armpit in the fish tank for an hour every week. Theres got to be a better way to manage it. My tank is well cycled and 5 years old. I never leave zero for ammonia or nitrites. I kind of dead stopped the water changes when covid popped up and now realizing I've got "old tank syndrome".... high nitrates from not doing the water changes and vacuuming. Do you think planting would really help or is that just more work to trim and prune and not really enough to accomplish much? I'd assume there must be a balance point somewhere, it works for lakes right? As far as my tank its a 72g its got 4 fish in it, kissing gouramis, and they are large and about 14 years old since I've had them. Filter is a 150 wet/dry and a 300g per hour pump, pre-filter sponge gets washed out a couple times a week the filter floss changed once a month. I'd do plants if it would avoid water changes and not be just as much work. Not sure about that though. I'm careful with lighting to not promote algae growth. There some algae but its really minor. So yeah. Water changes. I hate them and don't want to do them. On my 10 or 20 gallon tanks its a 10 minute job per tank and easytwo gallons out,, 2 gallons back in.. the 72 gallon tank is a pain to do 10-20 gallons a shot.
GH can actually go unnoticed, which makes it worse...dealing with it to bring it down can be tricky as well. As far as nitrates go in my first planted aquarium with at least 2 plants per gallon....I never got an ammonia or nitrite reading once....I got a 5 ppm nitrate reading yesterday and that held this morning....With how the plants handled the first 2/3 of the process, I dont believe I will ever get a dangerously high nitrate reading....but will remain objective as I follow my parameters daily.
Very nice and clear video! I do have an issue though and I'd like some advice. I have a 10gal with originally 6 zebra danio but I recently inherited 4 more zebra, 2 white clouds, 1 male guppy and 8 guppy babies (waaaay overstocked, I know) but I have a 30 gal that's gonna be ready by next week. I currently have a 10gal HOB and a 20gal sponge filter running and they've all been doing fine for the past week they've been added. Since yesterday my fish are suuuper stressed out and I've done two 40% water changes as I suspect it's an ammonia spike. I live in Jamaica and none of my local fish stores have test kits. I just ordered one but it won't be here for another 2 weeks. What else can I do in the mean time to control the ammonia without knowing the actual values?
Keep up with water changes, reduce feeding, etc. Not sure if it is available, but if you can find some Fritzyme 7 that will add beneficial bacteria to the tank and reduce the issues too. Hope everything works out well!
@@PrimeTimeAquatics Thanks much! I'm not sure about that brand but there's a lot of API products here. I have the API quick start, could that also help?
Man I wish my LFS had the time to explain this process to me. I was wondering why they were looking at me like I was an idiot when I told them ThIs NeW FiLtEr hAs DoNe A gReAt JoB kEePiNg My NiTrAtEs DoWn. Thanks I appreciate the knowledge. Subscribed!
Here is more information about water parameters. Definitely worth a look if you are trying to learn all you can about the subject!
What exactly is the nitrogen cycle? ua-cam.com/video/dFpN4wXgmfI/v-deo.html
What is Water Hardness? ua-cam.com/video/xRYdtvakfv0/v-deo.html
How Does pH Impact Fish Health? ua-cam.com/video/d9N-JliqsJg/v-deo.html
How to Lower Ammonia: ua-cam.com/video/5l-POiCc0dI/v-deo.html
How to Lower Nitrites: ua-cam.com/video/3t8yq-ydOaE/v-deo.html
What Does Water Quality Really Mean? ua-cam.com/video/TkPwQGG1LMQ/v-deo.html
WOW, Thanks 👩🏫👩🎓☯️🧝♀️💖👩🔬👑
Prime Time Aquatics I have ? what else can I do to drop Nitrates. tank just tested (Ammonia 2.0ppm) (Ph 6.5ppm) (Nitrates 80-160ppm) this is a 75gallon aquarium with 1 sponge filter, 1 marineland 350 filter , and a canister filter . tank holds a 13inch red tail catfish
PS.... thanks for putting up with all my comments LOL. But I feel so blessed to get such great advice and help.
What’s a safe effective way to lower the nitrates in my cichlids tank I have srgonite sand everything is good??
So nitrite and nitrates are two different things?
What happens when you put too much food in the tank?
Always need to hear/see this. Although I’m entirely aware of the cycle, I still need to be reminded. We get lazy sometimes once things are breathing on their own and smoothly. Guilty as charged slacking on testing.
We're all prone to it. : -)
I hardly test my tanks. I do if my fish start to act weird or notice a clogged filter. But I usually don't test and just jump in and do a 50 percent water change after the clog has been removed. I mainly go by what my fish are doing and acting like. My breeding discus splash me as I walk by to let me know they are hungry, so I feed them. But if I notice any of my fish not looking to well or discover a dead fish I always do a full set of tests before resorting to medication at all. My nitrates, well all of them never read anything more than 0 and I have all my plants to thank for that. I really only do water changes when I cut plants back and do a tank clean up and I keep hard to keep species of fish. A good fish keeper can pick up the signs that something isn't quite right.
Wow, that's the best analogy I've heard on this. (about the smoke)
Thank you!
Even though this is an older vdeo, I wanted to thank you for all your help with my aquariums. I have had at least one aquarium for 25 years. Always had higher nitrates. Now? No! Thanks to your help and also Cory, Aquarium Co op. You are both great and i appreciate your time and the efforts you make to help others. I have gobs of plants in my aquarium for the past 8 months and i can't believe how it's nixed the nitrate problem. I have a 29 gallon with 17 small fish and several snails. It's been 10 days since my last water change and my nitrates are registering 0 ppm (API test). Thank you so much! I'm going to get a ten gallon tomorrow to start a Nano tank! YAY.. Big bunches of thanks again.
Really appreciate you being here!
All this time I thought the goal was to have 0 nitrate reading which has been almost impossible for me. I am above 40 ppm in both tanks and now confident I have the right scheduled water changes. I love this guy!
Ya, 20ppm will be a lot easier to achieve. :-)
The goal is to have nitrate readings but not a high volume of nitrates.
Thank you. After rescuing a neglected guppy a couple of weeks ago & rushing around trying to set up his tank, your videos have been invaluable & the guppy (so cute) is looking better than ever. 😊
So many conflicting reports about nitrates,it gets confusing,but i do check and do wayer changes every week,so really shouldn't effect me,very good show.
Have a small 10g aquarium. 4 platies and a male mollie in it. Without fail, when the nitrate level gets up to 60ppm, the mollie starts glass surfin. Up and down he goes til I do water change, then he goes back to normal behavior. He's a live in test kit.
That is an interesting observation!
A super analogy to a smoke filled room. Excellent video. Extremely helpful. Thank you from the U.K.
Hey Everyone, a couple people asked why I didn't talk about denitrifying filtration systems. They're certainly available, but I geared this more towards the average hobbyist and some of these system can be expensive and require more knowledge about water parameters in general, because other parameters still need to be monitored.
Ok. It's fine. I sent my dad this vid because he doesn't know if he should do water changes on my fish tank. I'm happy when my fish are happy😊. Thanks again
Prime Time Aquatics I started my fishless cycle last week and when I tested my water today it said that it was a 6.3. I was wondering if it’s normal for pH to to drop considering that my Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates are all really high. Any advice would help
Veltroks Sorry I missed this. Yes, as organic build in an aqueous environment the pH will often decrease.
Sometimes the tiniest bit of info is the very best thing ever. You said to check the true color of the test water, you hold it up to your aquarium. Using the aquarium lighting. Wow ! Not sure how to do it, I was holding it up against a white painted wall. When testing PH, I always showed a dark blue. Indicating 8+ or higher. Thinking it was too high, I was always trying to lower it. Tested using your method, against the aquarium glass, and it is at 7. Right where it should be. Same with nitrates. On the white wall, I show dark red, 40 or higher. Trouble. But against the glass, the true reading is 20. In the safe zone. I went from panic to "yes", all my work, all the videos I watched are paying off. This little bit of info was such a great help. Thank you !
Good to hear!
Great video..I've got a rather odd 50 gal aquarium w over 30 random fish..majority came from my job that were very ill/dying, and surrenders etc..trust I know its overcrowded AND it almost always tests high for nitrates no matter how much I clean..BUT... most of my fish were horribly ill when i got them (huge lesion down to the spine on a brilliant rasbora and a rosy whitefin whose tail was gone past the scales were a few examples) that healed beyond better and are doing fantastic as are the other 30 or so and I'm so so thankful for that, for them and giving them another chance and a better life.
Good to hear it all worked out!
Everyone who keeps fish should watch this video.....best analogy and walk through I've ever heard. Hey man not all hero's wear capes, keep up the good work. 👏
Fantastic way of explaining this issue, relating it to smoke in a room. I'm going to remember that for my explanations. Thanks again buddy, live your content
Thank you!
This was such a good reminder for me today. In my Goldfish/ Denison barb (Roseline Shark) tank I have a great filtration system with beautiful crystal clear water, large Amazon Swords, Pathos plants hanging on the back. Then I noticed the fish weren't quite themselves. The Goldfish just weren't quite as obnoxious as normal and so I did a water test. Almost O Ammonia and O Nitrite, and I was thinking whats to worry about until I saw the Nitrate (KO3) was at 80. Then I realized I skipped the weekly water change I normally do on Tuesdays and this is Sunday or five days beyond what I normally do. So today the get an extra large change...My Bad!
thanks , finally someone that explains this without all the theatre and b.s .like in your local fish shop . they only want to sell you something.
Thank you :-)
Finally a video explanation I fully understand, ive been trying to fishless cycle for over a month and not really know what I was doing, superbly explained, brilliant ...Thank you !!
Glad it helped. Thanks for watching!
I have nitrates in my tap water. I believe it tested around 40 ppm. Ill check again, when I test the aquarium but another video mentions how your water changes may not be the success you wish for. I always thought we couldn't use distilled, so maybe spring water? I'll keep after it. TY for this information. I have a whole lotta plants and some beautiful Java moss I threaded to a piece of manzanita! I am so happy with all these fish channels.
You can use RO water, but you would have to remineralize.
From not clued up to well clued up especially after seeing your vid on the nitrogen cycle you explained it very well even a I understood it and that is saying something,so I would like to thank you for that .Now there is another genius who knows all about the nitrogen cycle.....looking forward to your next vid....please keep them coming....good luck
Very cool! That's what it's all about. : -)
Hi friends @ Primetime aquatics I’ve been getting back into the hobby within the past year with all this extra Covid time on my hands & have found your UA-cam very helpful & knowledgeable in being successful in the hobby. I recently set up a planted 125 gallon tank & have a few 29s set up as quarantine tanks to introduce new fish & treat them for ich with salt & temperature treatment. The 125 has been set up for @ 6 months now & is well cycled. I performed routine weekly water tests for the 1st few months which have been perfect so I switched to checking the water 1x/mo @ the 4th mo. & went another 2 months til I checked it thinking all was going well since my fish have been acting fine & I have 2 sets of Electric Blue Acaras that spawn regularly in the tank. I could not believe what I found.
Nitrate levels through the roof 160ppm or better? I checked the water twice to ensure proper testing. Checked the 29s & 2 other planted tanks that I have. All the planted tanks read extremely high 160ppm?!
So I did some UA-cam research. I checked my tap water which was fine 0ppm. Then I got to thinking @ what I’ve been doing to my planted tanks & I’ve been adding fertilizer from Aquarium Co-op the iron supplement & All-in 1 supplement. So I did a little test to see what I would find. Filled up 2 API test Tubes w tap water & added 1 drop of iron fertilizer in a tube. Conclusion 5ppm Nitrates. I added 1 drop of the All-in-1 in the other test tube. Resulted in 160ppm Nitrates. I’ve been adding the proper recommended amount of fertilizer to the tanks 1 pump/10 Gal for the past couple of months. I perform 25-40% weekly water changes then add the fertilizer into the water for the plants. What have I done?!? Looking @ the label it lists Nitrates as an ingredient but I thought they would be low amounts since the label also says fish tested & safe.
Well now I’ll be doing water changes w/o adding the fertilizer & hopefully I don’t shock my fish when they have Nitrate withdrawals. I’ll have to do some more testing/research & see how much fertilizer I can add w/o spiking my Nitrate levels. Nitrates @ 5-10ppm I can live with if I have to to keep the plants happy but 160ppm defeats the whole purpose of having live plants in the 1st place.
Another thought some iron additives make your water hard-very hard.
I just wanted to share this information since I didn’t see anyone mention this Nitrate killer on the UA-cam. Hope it saves someone some headaches. Thx for sharing your knowledge & passion for the hobby.
Ryan
Sounds like you can back off the ferts. I know for a lot of our tanks we don't add them anymore and just rely on the fish to produce the food for the plants!
7:45 to get to how to help...
ThAnkS
Thank you for breaking it down in a way I can better understand. Love all my fish and want the best for them 🐠
I am new to the hobby. I really appreciate the way you explain things. Thank you!
Filters are nitrate factories - that is their purpose. But if you clean your prefilter every few days before waste starts to break down, it will slow down the accumuation of nitrates.
Your 'training' videos are very informative and spot on. Nice work. As others have said, where were you when I was getting into this hobby?!
Very true, the more organics we remove the less time there is for nitrates to accumulate! Thanks for watching 😀
I added golden pothos on the back of my tank. Just stick the clean roots in water and give it a grow light. Pothos is a beast at removing nitrates. Low cost and permanent solution. If you have fish that will eat plants, just lower the root system in a plastic basket. If you don't like the look of that, you can add it to the filter reservoir of one of your HOB filters or even create your own nitrate filter by housing them in a homemade mini sump. I've got two Oscars in a 125 and believe me, this really helps. Even with this, keep testing and keep up your water changes.
Love pothos - have it growing on many of my tanks as well. : -)
Simple.Basic and True for the most part. The key to success is in the water/about the water and what you put into the water.
Something few hobbyist ever talk about or, as you suggested, pay much attention to. Thanks for bringing it to light.
Love coming to your video's when I have a question... always feel better educated after listening to them. Thanks for all the time you put in to make these... they are vital to many of us out here so thanks!!
Thank you for watching!
The 5ml fill line on the first shot was too impressive....
I doubt I could do it twice in a row.😃
I've been rockin 160ppm nitrates for over a year.
Horrible well water and didn't learn about it until a few months ago.. explains my explosive B.H algae and fields of Hydra.
Very helpful video! I discovered that even with regular water changes in my betta fry tank there was some fin curling going on. I did some research and read that nitrites can couse it it, or hard water etc so I tested the water and in the end it came out that the nitrates are high. No fish died ever, or got ill but their fins were developing odd shape as they reached a size of a 3 cm. This probably started to be a problem when I changed their food. They would grow rapidly from it and look healthy but.. I possibly ruined their finnage because I didnt know Ive had this problem in the tank. I am going to do water changes every day from now on (I did it every other day) and add some fast growing live plants. Hope it will help. Thank you again for these useful informations!
Glad it helped! Good luck with your betta spawns!
@@PrimeTimeAquatics thank you! There is always something new to learn :)
Thanks for your videos. I've gone down rabbit holes with some other you tubers. I'm coming back full circle.
Glad you are here!
I have nitrates in my tap water, so i don't bother testing for nitrates anymore. I put pothus plants in each tank, clean the filters once a month, do gravel vacs and water changes once a week, and hope for the best. So far so good.
You're doing the right things. : -)
Nitrates in your tap water is not a good thing. What else is in your tap water that should not be? I would contact your local water utility board and enquirer about that issue (and possibly others).
I believe the federal guidelines are
Here in Southern California (Orange County) I get about 7 - 10 ppm NitrAte coming out of the tap.
Bit of a shock when I first tested the tap water here after moving from Connecticut.
I have found that the API test kit is inaccurate for Nitrate levels over 9 ppm.
In my own experience it shows up red when it gets to 10, not some gradation to orange as the card suggests.
So it always showed red after multiple water changes and I only discovered the true value when I diluted my tank sample 50:50 with tap water,
and the measurement on the API card dropped to 5 ppm. So the nitrate concentration in my tank was actually 10 ppm, not 40 ppm as the red had indicated.
Wow! Really great comprehensive explanation:) After reading the api test solution bottle warnings, I learned to:
• Wear gloves. Nitrate test bottle#2 is particularly dangerous to use without them.
• Fill the tubes using a pipette & test away from the tank preventing any residue from contacting the aquarium water.
• Have a test site with a cleanable or disposable surface. Tubes eventually leak.
I do not think api does enough to promote safety in this way but their tests are precise and we all use them often. Thanks again for the great info. Really enjoy your channel!
👍😃👍
Great suggestions!
You'll need to replace your Nitrate Test Kit well before any of the other tests in an API Master Kit.
1) Coat the 5 ml line on the test tube with a clearcoat nail polish.
2) I wrap the tube in a paper napkin before I shake. This will absorb any leakage.
3) A 5 ml Medicine Syringe, available free at any CVS / Walgreens pharmacy, makes a great tool for filling the test tubes.
I keep a 1 cup pyrex measuring cup to pull a small water sample from my Tank which I also use as rinse water for the tubes.
I also keep a disposal cup handy at my test area which I cover with an old hand towel.
PS: I generally only test for pH and NitrAte.
If either test gives an Unusual or Unexpected Result, then I will test for Ammonia and Nitrite.
Properly and Timely maintained Tanks will always test 0.0 ppm Ammonia and Nitrite.
You guys really have one of the best Aquarium channels. Informative, professional, and concise. Well done.
Thank you!
In my 55gal. heavily planted,fair amount of driftwood, I have a 4 to 5" gravel substrate. All I have been running for about 7 months now is some air through a bottle of crushed lava rock. I purposely did very little maintenance while monitoring the water quality. The only thing I thought might be a problem would be hydrogen sulfate but with enough surface agitation and only half a lid it seemed to be fine. The tank is heavily stocked but my nitrates basically went to barely even readable after a few months. My next big challenge will be to somehow integrate this idea with an RO system in order to bring down water hardness a bit in a 90gal.
Very interested in how this project proceeds. Keep me posted!
I recently entered the fish keeping realm with my first betta and things were going great with my water until my amateur self added a brand new sponge filter to the tank. I got a nitrite spike! Your videos really make this easier for me to understand!
Hope everything turns out ok!
Thanks for this video someone finally explained nitrates in a way that I understood it!
Appreciate you watching!
You explain it so well and my tank is just how you say it should be. Smiling love these vids good work man.
Thank you for watching!
Huge change, but huge relief honestly. I look forward to your changes.
Hopefully it works out well.
Not new to the hobby, but watching all of your videos. These are GREAT!
Thank you for being here!
i needed this video. i hear so much that Nitrates should be at 0 but ive been getting 10-20 and i get 5 straight out the tap. looking forward to adding fish this weekend since my cycle is over.
It's very hard to get nitrates to zero and they don't need to be. If you can keep them at under 20ppm you are good!
I have watched sOoOOOo many videos from all over UA-cam on how to take care of an aquarium and fish and I ended up having the biggest aquarium style crush on Jason =D
Appreciate you being here!
Goddess
Great video. I also would like to add that sometimes with the right media and amount of media you can obtain a full cycle which is also the removal of nitrates from your aquarium but water changes are the easiest way and foolproof
Ya, I didn't focus on the specialized media too much due to cost, and the fact that other substances can accumulate in the tank that are not removed by nitrate removers.
Great Explanation. I dig the water chemistry. When you know it, your tank is healthy all the time
Thank you!
Load up a HOB filter with pothos they'll take care of nitrates but not as much as weekly water changes.
I have pothos in a lot of my tanks too - love it!
Great video! I personally think the API test kit reads high. I compare it to a tetra strip test kit and the API always reads higher. Strip reads in the safe range. My tap water does have around 10 ppm. My 125g African cichlid tank always reads over 40 but under 80. I run 2 FX6 filters stuffed with biohome ultimate and sponges. 50% per week water change. I have 19 young cichlids and 8 - dwarf synodontis which should be fine for a 125g tank. I don’t think I’m over feeding them they gobble it up so not much waste. My fish are healthy and are coloring up nicely as they grow. I don’t trust that API kits reading correctly. However I would feel much better if it read 10-20 ppm!
Mine reads 30-40ppm nitrites righ now on my 75... hoping it's just API kit, tap is 0-5ppm... ammonia is 0, nitrate was 0, then a bright red result of at or just below 40ppm. Everyone looks healthy fast swimming, colored etc...
Sir you are a lifesaver of fish I was the one who did the filters and probably did not change water as often as I should does my algae eater outgrew my tank and probably killed my fish with ammonia and nitrates now I have switched to a bigger octagon tank tall and put GloFish in it I have a heater the water is warm I do have a LED light blue I hope it does not bother them too much and I just have a water filter system with no filter in it and I have a gravel sucker and I will be trying to add live plants or at least changing water a lot and I will leave the algae for I never knew how she was a good thing makes sense thanks a lot
Appreciate you watching!
Tank you! Explained clearly and great advice.
Your videos are really helping me understand the more confusing aspects of keeping healthy aquariums + fish. Thank you!
Thank you!
i have a 30 gallon.
It had 4 white spade tetras, and 2 red tetras, then my brother brought over half a dozen giant danios
this tank i have has been going for almost 2 years now.
when the fish were smaller, it was fine, now they're big.
and i started a planted tank, which i would use water from the big tank to fill a small 10 gallon.
of course after this amount of time, i had noticed algae growing pretty rampant, but i thought it was a sign of a healthy tank, water was crystal clear, filter modified and upgraded.
but when i went to put fish into my small planted 10 gallon, they'd croak (it's okay i was testing with bait fish ;D) but that's when i took a sample to the store.
alk 23 (not sure if this is good or bad tbf)
pH was 6.4
G hardness was 227 (that's austin water for ya)
phosphates were .01
nitrites were .01
and those glorious nitrates
oh those nitrates, were 168 ppm
and ammonia was .3
so the lesson here is exactly what he said.
you can have all the filtration in the world, the tank can look crystal clear.
but if i hadn't tested the water i would have never known the algae bloom was a sign that my fish tank was about to turn toxic.
(baby fish were already DoA or Food on Arrival)
Hello! Thank you for this wonderful video and sharing your knowledge!!!
That's was a fantastically clear explanation of the issue. Thanks so much!
Thank you!
Your water quality parameters videos are super helpful and very well explained, I feel a lot more confident when it comes to taking the correct action to keep my fish healthy and happy- so thank you!
Thank you!
I was so right on the plants and algae in the tank. I tried to explain to my boss that some plants help your tank. She thinks she doesn't have to do much to her tank cuz it's one of them self cleaning tanks that are a few hundred bucks. I told her just cuz her water looks clear doesn't mean anything. She said she has a algae issues. I told her why and what to do to help with it. I offered her some of my plants for free. I told her about the benefits of some land mosses that can and will grow under water. They provide cover for fry and a secondary food source for fry, shrimp, and snails. I have the basic commercialized filtration systems that have come with the tank or I bought for a tank. All have plants, and miss, shrimp, and snails, with fish. My water changes are few and far between. A few even have no substrate, mosses do not have roots. Most have made lava rooks their stations. Some plants with roots are in DIY pots out of clear plastic bottles, which I like better than actually pot. You can see what's going with your plants better and not only that it's cool to see my fry hiding. I have learned so much from you and this channel. Thank you so much. I wish I was closer to your state.
Sounds like you're doing the right thing. Keep trying to educate. : -)
Thank you so much for these videos! I'm a newbie and have had success in my two tanks thanks to these videos! So much to learn!
Hi Melissa - I glad they helped! : -)
Thank you for that awesome information. I wasn't aware that plants help to keep those parameters under control. Very detailed information and it helped me very much. Thank you for taking the time to post that.
Appreciate you watching!
@Prime Time Aquatics There are so many differing opinions in the hobby about nitrate toxicity. Do you have any sources for the numbers you gave? It’s not that I don’t believe you, it would just be super helpful to have.
I don’t anymore. They were studies presented in some of the lectures done in my Aquaculture and Fish Health Masters Cert program.
Best explanations about nitrate and whole cycle on UA-cam... big big thanks. You are the real master ...☺
Thank you! Appreciate you watching.
This helped alot just tested my water after a couple days of my angle not eating and the nitrites and ammonia were threw the roof
Good to hear!
A very nice video and well done explanaitions to a difficult Term in aquaristic ...thx for the time you spent in and to this video
Thank you!
Wow my best healthy cichlid tank that made my fish color up and made them really healthy nitrate is at 10. My wife just tested the water right now and it’s at that level!
Thanks Mate, you explained it very plain for me to understand how to look after my Fish. Now I know for sure that I have done my job looking after them the right way. Used to worry if the Nitrate lever was showing 20 and changed to much Water. Thanks again.
Awesome! Thanks for watching
Thanks for the great video! Side note of interest. I did a water change today, and after putting in Seachem Prime, I decided to test it. Nitrates still came out between 10 & 20 PPM.
It's almost like I'm fighting a losing battle here!
10-20ppm is ok
So what's the problem?
Excellent job of explaining the science of the effect of nitrates in the aquarium! Thank you!
Brian Arreguin Thank you! Appreciate you watching!
The thing is if you do lots of water changes to remove nitrates, your also going to be raising the ph which is deadly for your fish especially if they like a low ph around 6.5. So what I recommend is a ph stabiliser which you add to the bucket filled of water before tipping it into your aquarium. This way you can do lots of water changes to lower your nitrates but also ensure your not raising your ph to much.
That generally only happens if water changes are infrequent, allowing the pH to drop due to excessive waste in the tank and the KH is low. We don't have pH swings in any of our tanks.
Very new at fish keeping, I keep goldfish - Found my butterfly black moor dead at the bottom of the tank today :( Gutted. Ended up doing a 25% water change, tested the water, it came out fine, but I'm paranoid for my other fish now. I figure the problem was nitrite poisoning, my tank probably isn't fully cycled yet. Gonna go 25% water changes daily for about a week to level it out.
I'm sorry to hear that. : -( Keep testing the water. Both API and Marineland make ammonia/nitrite absorption media if you start to see it spike. If there is any chance of getting used filter media that would be a more permanent solution.
Everyones experience is different, but in my heavily planted tanks, it is difficult to maintain nitrates and the plants begin to suffer because of it. Plants are excellent at cleaning the water in general, you just have to make sure to buffer the water up because the plants will consume all of the nutrients in the water over a long period of time and will cause you PH to drop significantly. Of course, many factors come into play when you are talking about plants such as the intensity of light you are using, nutrient substrate or root tabs, C02 injection, liquid fertilizer and bio-load to plant-load, but generally speaking, if you have a coarse and deep enough substrate to allow plants to root well, a decent light and some liquid fertilizer, you should do well. Of course you need plants as well, lol. Oh yea, I keep a heavily planted goldfish tank all by himself and he eats all of the plants, but it is okay because hornwort exists and he will not eat that.
Thanks for sharing!
On my 55 gallon African cichlid tank I have a small SunSun canister filter filled with seachem's de*nitrate and it keeps my nitrates at
Адам Томпсон how long does the de*nitrate last
Seachem claims it lasts forever but we'll see. It takes at least a month for the denitrification bacteria to get going so I've had to be patient with the setup.
Адам Томпсон that’s pretty cool
Biohome also
Exactly information i was looking for and easily understood , Thanks
My ammonia and nitrite are non existent but my nitrates are high. I’m using live plants in my tank I got some driftwood and a moss ball. There’s algea growing on the glass. Is a 25% water change and a filter clean the best way to go to lower my nitrates?
Either more frequent water changes or increase the volume you change during the water changes. Fast growing plants like hornwort may help as well.
Thank you! I appreciate all the info you shared.
Such good information and explanation. Immediately subscribed.
Thanks for being here!
Idk why I feel so happy after watching the video lol... I tested my water and both ammonia and nitrite are 0 but the nitrate I had a reading of 0 but then I shook bottle 2 really hard and bam! I’m at around 20-30 ppm... I think I’m doing the right thing if I have the first two at 0 and nitrates at that ppm level. I have a tall 20 gal with 6 Pygmy corys, 3 kuhli loaches, 4 gold minnows, 3 danios and 1 purple emperor tetra. ima remove the danios and tetra cause I have 6 clown killifish coming in tomorrow!... I wanna be ready for them.
I think you are on the right track!
Yeah, I did find it useful, thanks very much
I use dip kits there good
Hi, love your videos. I am having trouble since few months ago having Ich in my 125 g mostly African cichlids tank. Only lost one fish but when trying to remove the Ich x etc I flushed all the good bacteria and had trouble last couple weeks. Transferred 30 gallons from another tank and mostly fish seem to react great. Just prior to that I did 50% water change. Now everything’s good except high nitrate. Water I transferred was low on nitrate.
Will the tank level itself out do you think or should I water change again? Appreciate any advice from anyone. I’m a newbie and a big compulsive with things. Have a great collection of fish and don’t want to lose them.
Any newbies I would recommend getting small tank and starting with low maintenance fish. Live and learn. My head is 😵💫
Water changes will help with the nitrates. I don’t add water from other tanks since the water doesn’t contain beneficial bacteria. Good luck!
@@PrimeTimeAquatics thanks. I didn’t know that. WC today. Is it ok to put prime, stability to speed up cycle?
Several weeks ago I set up my first dirted tank with plants. I have one inch of organic dirt and 2 inches of black sand. I have several plants and one piece of wood with java moss on it. My water parameters are all good. No Ammonia, No Nitrites, and Nitrates. All Zero. PH is 7.4. I added my fish back in and so far lost 4 fish. I sword, 1 neon, and two rasboras. I 5 fish remaining. The sword and neon were 1 year, and the rasboras were 2.5 years old. I have been told it may be the stress of the new environment. I did put some API stress in the water a week ago. I have a sponge filter and a hang over filter in the tank. Any other thoughts what I need to look at?
I wonder if there is something else in the water that is being released from the dirt. The parameters you shared all seem fine.
My filter does help with nitrate. I have a sump and the sump has a refugium filled with floating plants (Frogbit) with long roots hanging down into the water column. So in short some filters can help a bit with nitrate.
Just a thought, l hardly ever hear anybody in the fresh water side of our hobby mention sulphur denitrators, no idea, why reef keepers use them. They really do work, l use one in my 200g mbuna tank. They take a while to get going but they really are simple & easy to use and l wouldn't classify them as advanced equipment! Paul UK
Not sure why either, but maybe fresh water keepers like the lower cost and maintenance of fish keeping? Also, other water parameters still have to be monitored if a denitrification system is used. Finally, fresh water fish seem to be more tolerant of nitrate than salt water and because water changes are so much easier with freshwater, elevated nitrate levels are easily corrected.
Excellent info thanks 😊👍
Love how knowledgeable your videos are!! You’ve helped me a lot get a better handle, and understanding on my fish keeping experience!!:) Thank you
Thank you! Glad they are helping.
Jason, some pointers. Hold the reagent bottles exactly vertically upside down (it's the only way to get precisely the size of drops that are required), do it slower so you get a more accurate count, and finally, there is no point in measuring your nitrates until you measure your nitrites because when using the Griess assay like the API master test kit uses, you need to deduct the nitrite level from the nitrate level. Sorry that the API instructions don't mention that. You probably know this now since it's three years later that I'm watching this.
Hi Mark - I'm actually an Associate Professor of Biology and Microbiology and have worked with these types of reagents for 20 years. Holding the bottle on an angle as I did is not going to have an impact of these test results (you also get used to dropping drops very quickly when working with reagents for decades). If the tank is cycled, as is the case 99% of the time when registering nitrates, the nitrite concentration will be zero, so it isn't going to impact the results.
Awesome video. Loved the comparison to smokers in a room. You made everything so easy to understand 😊👍🏻
Thank you! Glad it helped.
Hi, My RTG Arowana, was spotted gulping for air. Did the water test and there was nitrate spike along with nitrite and ammonia. Unfortunately I added paracidol since the fish was not feeding for about a week. Did water change and fish got stable after overnight ideal.
My question can this be due to change in water parameters or Paracidol can have aggravated it.
Please enlighten, it will be really helpful
Let me simplify this video. Do your water changes! Awesome info and great video
Woohoo! : -)
I find it comical when folks with the big Enheim filters brag about how they went from doing water changes weekly to every 6 months or so because of that filter - one joker even said 9 months.
@Chewy Ltd Yeah, but who'd want to be in the same ole stale water, even if the water tested ok. It's still stale water. Rivers flow and new water comes and goes. Even lakes get fed fresh water. Just because they can, don't mean they should. It's not fair to the fisheeees.
This is probably the most intelligent video on youtube about Nitrates, he provided a great service
Some say biohome does a fantastic job. Still need water change or let it be? New in this hobby.
Thanks Jason....very informative.
Basic but good to know for sure I am on the right track, Thanks many times for a restful sleep.
Thanks for watching!
very helpful, thank you bro
Nice informative video. Got plants, I do a 1/3 water change weekly and algae is not a problem.
Cool! Sounds like things are working well. : -)
Thanks for all of your videos. So helpful!
Thank you Helen! Appreciate you watching.
What is a good media to encourage anaerobic bacteria to deal with nitrates please. I understand these will deal with nitrates and reduce water change requirement. Thanks so much.
In the average set-up I'm not sure there is a good media. Some of the media that is out there (i.e. biohome) usually requires a huge amount of filtration capacity and has mixed results. For me - I like a more simple solution - aquatic plants and/or pothos growing out of a filter or tank.
Thank you so much! Even though I am no novice when it comes to healthy water parameters, I still learned a great deal from this video. Nice to see one on just nitrates. I have heard of nitrate filters...do these work at all?
If you have a large filtration system and can spare the space for an anaerobic environment it can sometimes work.
Great informative video! Thank you so much!
Thank you!
There are a number of other variables on this subject which haven't been highlighted here...
Firstly, and most importantly, test the nitrate levels in your tap water(!) as well as your aquarium: you would be surprised how high tap water nitrate levels are legally allowed to be; depending on what country you live in.
EU and UK 'acceptable' nitrate levels are 50mg/l (50 parts per million) 😬
My tapwater is about 20mg/l... so NO amount of water-changing is going to get my aquarium nitrate levels down to 10mg/l...
Secondly, factors such as stocking density (and the size of the fish), filtration efficiency, substate and plant health have a big impact.
I have two tanks: one has a low fish stock level consisting of small fish only, very efficient filter, and lush, fast plant growth. The nitrate levels in that tank are almost too low to register. This tank gets no water-changes.
Ever.
(The only water I ever remove is what I need to clean the filter media)
It would be pointless to take that water out and add water with 20mg/l nitrate in it 🤣
It is an open top aquarium: so the litre or two of water I have to add daily to compensate for evaporation loss is the only 'water-change' it gets (these top ups are probably the reason for the tiny nitrate readings that I do register because of the 20mg/l in the declorinated tapwater used for the top ups). The fish inside are healthy and breed regularly. The cherry shrimp too - I can no longer count how many I have from the original six I put in.
I have had bigger tanks with bigger fish in the past, and yes, water-changes were useful then (using RO water because of the high nitrate levels in the tapwater there too...)
Not to be a nudge, but in all honesty I haven't done a water change in over 2 years on my 72 gallon tank. I just top it off. The fish that are in it are fine but they are gouramis that can gulp air from the surfaces that doesn't say much.
I'm certain my nitrates are through the roof but I don't have any sort of an algae problem or even live plants.
What I know is I can't add any new fish because they will die within the first 12 hours I won't even try anymore and I know for a fact I've got a lot of solids in the substrate from waste over the years that I'd assume is basically nitrate fertilizer at this point if I stir it up it will cloud up the tank and in 8 hours settle and disappear into the gravel again.
I do have great filtration, so I am "one of those guys" but realizing at this point if I want to add new fish that aren't labyrinth fish, I'll need to do water changes and get the nitrates under control. I don't agree that it will kill the fish in the tank, my experience with it is if the fish were in it they will adjust to it as it builds,, but its the new additions that can't adjust and will die. And if you move fish from tank to tank for various reasons, they can't make the adjustment to the tank with high nitrates after adjusting to normal conditions.
I will get it under control I just hate lugging 10- 20 gallons of water and being up to my armpit in the fish tank for an hour every week. Theres got to be a better way to manage it.
My tank is well cycled and 5 years old. I never leave zero for ammonia or nitrites. I kind of dead stopped the water changes when covid popped up and now realizing I've got "old tank syndrome".... high nitrates from not doing the water changes and vacuuming. Do you think planting would really help or is that just more work to trim and prune and not really enough to accomplish much? I'd assume there must be a balance point somewhere, it works for lakes right?
As far as my tank its a 72g its got 4 fish in it, kissing gouramis, and they are large and about 14 years old since I've had them. Filter is a 150 wet/dry and a 300g per hour pump, pre-filter sponge gets washed out a couple times a week the filter floss changed once a month.
I'd do plants if it would avoid water changes and not be just as much work. Not sure about that though. I'm careful with lighting to not promote algae growth. There some algae but its really minor.
So yeah. Water changes. I hate them and don't want to do them. On my 10 or 20 gallon tanks its a 10 minute job per tank and easytwo gallons out,, 2 gallons back in.. the 72 gallon tank is a pain to do 10-20 gallons a shot.
Api liquid test kit mine do measure all the parameters
GH can actually go unnoticed, which makes it worse...dealing with it to bring it down can be tricky as well.
As far as nitrates go in my first planted aquarium with at least 2 plants per gallon....I never got an ammonia or nitrite reading once....I got a 5 ppm nitrate reading yesterday and that held this morning....With how the plants handled the first 2/3 of the process, I dont believe I will ever get a dangerously high nitrate reading....but will remain objective as I follow my parameters daily.
All depends on stocking levels.
Very nice and clear video!
I do have an issue though and I'd like some advice.
I have a 10gal with originally 6 zebra danio but I recently inherited 4 more zebra, 2 white clouds, 1 male guppy and 8 guppy babies (waaaay overstocked, I know) but I have a 30 gal that's gonna be ready by next week. I currently have a 10gal HOB and a 20gal sponge filter running and they've all been doing fine for the past week they've been added. Since yesterday my fish are suuuper stressed out and I've done two 40% water changes as I suspect it's an ammonia spike. I live in Jamaica and none of my local fish stores have test kits. I just ordered one but it won't be here for another 2 weeks. What else can I do in the mean time to control the ammonia without knowing the actual values?
Addition* I don't have the correct lighting, etc for live plants and the selection for live is very limited here
Keep up with water changes, reduce feeding, etc. Not sure if it is available, but if you can find some Fritzyme 7 that will add beneficial bacteria to the tank and reduce the issues too. Hope everything works out well!
@@PrimeTimeAquatics Thanks much! I'm not sure about that brand but there's a lot of API products here. I have the API quick start, could that also help?
Man I wish my LFS had the time to explain this process to me. I was wondering why they were looking at me like I was an idiot when I told them ThIs NeW FiLtEr hAs DoNe A gReAt JoB kEePiNg My NiTrAtEs DoWn. Thanks I appreciate the knowledge. Subscribed!
That's ok - it takes time to learn all this stuff. : -)