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Pet Forum / Aquaria / General / September 2005Where have all the nitrates gone?
Our 10G community tank seems to have developed a nitrate reactor. The nitrates simply don't rise above 10ppm (nitrites 0). Air driven UGF under gravel, 5 adult scissortail raspboras, 4 neons, one adult female ancistrus catfish, one adult Yo-Yo loach and an indeterminate number of kuhli loaches (mix of adults and intermediates, they have bred). No added carbon source so the plants grow but not enough to soak up that amount of NO3. We also have blue-green algae which grows largely on the Java fern leaves closest to the surface but is not generally an issue. The tank has been set up for a few years now, we haven't lost a fish in about 8months, since the scissortails were added. I am not about to meddle with this, a successful ecosystem should be left alone imho. Peter  SignatureAdd my middle initial to email me. It has become attached to a country The N03 in my tank never gets above 2ppm. I think that it must be because there are plants in my tank and also because there are no nitrates in my tap water. The phosphate level though has risen to over 5ppm since I stopped cleaning the gravel regularly. For some reason though the nitrate level has remained the same. Are you sure that its blue green algae that you have growing on your Java fern?. As when I had it in mine you could see that it had spread more each day, once it got established. That was with 1ppm P04, 2ppm N03, and under 2watts per gallon of light for twelve hours a day. > Our 10G community tank seems to have developed a nitrate reactor. The > nitrates simply don't rise above 10ppm (nitrites 0). Air driven UGF [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Peter > > Our 10G community tank seems to have developed a nitrate reactor. The > > nitrates simply don't rise above 10ppm (nitrites 0). Air driven UGF [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > cleaning the gravel regularly. For some reason though the nitrate level has > remained the same. that would work except we have no more plants than the tank has ever had. With this load in the past I have had to do 20% changes weekly just to keep the NO3 below 50ppm. Something has changed recently. > Are you sure that its blue green algae that you have growing on your Java > fern?. As when I had it in mine you could see that it had spread more each > day, once it got established. That was with 1ppm P04, 2ppm N03, and under > 2watts per gallon of light for twelve hours a day. It seems to be limited to the higher levels of the tank where it can get most light. I am thinking of throwing an air driven box filter with some PO4 removal media in it in. I have a couple of internals I could use but they dramatically increase the water flow and they are noisy (tank is in a bedroom). I was thinking if I can get the PO4 down (I haven't measured it) I can then do the 48hr dark treatment. Of course if it is the B-G that is eating the NO3 I will regret that..... I rather think that with the relatively inefficient air driven UGF the tank has developed anaerobic pockets in the UGF and the NO3 are being reacted in there. Peter SignatureAdd my middle initial to email me. It has become attached to a country I used rowaphos for a while. It did slow the growth of the blue green algae, but with the P04 at 0ppm all my plants stopped growing. I did start removing it, but it was difficult to get the levels right for the plants as it zeros the phosphate levels within a day or two of use. >> > Our 10G community tank seems to have developed a nitrate reactor. The >> > nitrates simply don't rise above 10ppm (nitrites 0). Air driven UGF [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] > > Peter > I used rowaphos for a while. It did slow the growth of the blue green algae, > but with the P04 at 0ppm all my plants stopped growing. I did start removing [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] >> >>Peter Most of my heavily planted tanks record zero nitrates....I feed the plants - end of story - and then cut back the mega growth - BTW I don't have a CO2 unit and just the standard lighting I get with my tanks I have had algae issues but the over excuberant plants plus some algae eaters and elbow grease on the front of the tank have dealt with this...and yep some of my Java fern does have some blue/green algae - I view it as food for the ottos as they won't take anything else and the Plec and very fat Flying foxes take care of the rest JME Gill |
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