you’re one of the only people ive seen on youtube talk about this topic and debunk it its insane how many people don’t know about this thanks for sharing
I have been keeping a tank with water changes every two to three months. Not because I did not care about nitrate, it had been because I did not know what is nitrate. I had been handed over a tank and I have been slowly picking up the knowledges regarding fish keeping. When most of RUclips videos talk about a weekly water change to keep the nitrate down, I have been sceptical regarding the nitrate level. This video is just in time to give me more confidence.
I know you made the video 2 years ago, but THANK YOU. I have a 100 gallon tank and have had a tank for over 25 years. At the beginning, like everyone else, I tested the water constantly. I added chemicals dependent on what the test strips were showing me. I came to believe that I was wasting my time and not enjoying my tank. I still do testing sometimes but I now go by what I see. If my equipment is large enough for the tank... if my plants are living... if my fish are living... then my tank is healthy. Once again, common sense conquers all. Thanks again for the video and putting the fun back in the hobby.
I couldn't agree more. A lot of the dogma is created by the industry itself in order to sell products. At different times in my life, due to circumstances like working 60 to 70 hrs a week for months on end, I have had my aquariums fall to despicable filthiness. I am sure the nitrate levels were very high. I was too tired to check them. (This was the life of a factory worker.) The fish did fine. I am not advocating that no maintenance is a good thing but many of the things we are told are untrue. Also, I think there are many in the hobby that due to their personality are prone to liking doing water changes. I have noticed that these people often think things have to be exact and squeaky clean. I think water changes are good within reason but I prefer to do it less often and actually my approach is lots of plants. I like growing seaweed and also use aquaponics with many terrestrial plants growing on top of my tank. Plants are aesthetic in and around your tank and the fish feel more at home with a jungle growing all around them both inside and outside the tank. I also think most of us in the hobby have a love of science and enjoy tinkering with our tanks, testing water perimeters, and generally enjoy working on our tanks. It is just that some of us are more zealous than others in our approach. Science is full of dogmas that are easy to get caught up in. Many years ago it was thought that the more aged the water was the better it was for your fish. Ideas change with time. In the hobby, we tend to want our aquariums to be crystal clear clean. We vacuum, we do water changes and think that because it is squeaky clean it is healthy. Some are now saying tannin water from leave dubree is more healthy for your fish. This seems to be going back to the idea that to the idea of aged water being good. I think that in the end a lot of it depends on the species of fish you are keeping in your tank as to what kind of water conditions are needed. If you think about it many fish live in dirty muddy rivers where the water is never crystal clear.
Well this video explains so much. My father got me in the hobby as a kid. I got my 1st tank at 12. Dad showed me the ropes and I did all the maintenance myself. I am 52 now and back then we didn't know what nitrates or nitrites were. All my dad was concerned with was ph. He was diligent about keeping ph at a healthy level for the fish. We only changed the water about once a month and our fish thrived. Well I got out of the hobby for about 12 years and recently got back in it and learned about nitrates, nitrite and ammonia, stuff my dad never knew to teach me about. I have done more water changes in a month than I did in 2 years back in the day. This video explains why my fish didn't die back then. So, I am going to ween my cichlids off of twice a week water changes and eventually get it to bi weekly or monthly and just do like dad did and maintain the ph. Sir you just gained a new subscriber. Thank you so much! My mbunas and my American cichlids thank you as well since I won't be bothering them with frequent water changes anymore lol. I have 2 tanks. My mbuna are in a 75 gallon. I have a 55 gallon with 2 Electric blue Acara, a red spotted Severum, an albino chocolate pleco, a juvenile king Kong parrot, 2 blood parrots, a juvenile Oscar, and a red tail shark. The Oscar will eventually go in my son's 75 gallon tank since it's his fish. It isn't big enough yet to make that jump
Your experience and opinions are invaluable to the progression of this hobby. Love the simple naturalistic approach. You also have a great voice/accent for this.
The article you linked to made an intriguing point. The quickest way to lower nitrate is large water changes, large amount of water changes-large amount of water conditioners sold to people. If freshwater aquarium keepers stop spazzing out about nitrate and stop running through bottle after bottle of water conditioners, the industry would lose tens of millions of dollars a year on lost water conditioner sales. It appears that for most fish, ppm concentration can be in the hundreds while taking off low percentage points off fish growth rate and life span that no keeper would ever really notice. Would you notice if you had a red tail shark for instance that grew 1 percent slower and lived 1 percent shorter? That's what would happen at nitrate PPM over 130, lol.
About your point on water conditioners. I was one of those "water conditioners boys" until I have ask a local fish store owner, that has about 50 tanks and thousands of fish, what water conditioner he use and when the answer was...none...I was like...ahhhhh...and quit that sport 😁
I agree with you, Nitrates are not as bad as the hobby says. I used to do weekly water changes now I let it go until the water level goes down and needs water added, great info
I’ve been driving myself INSANE trying to get the nitrates down in my new tank for nearly a month now, I was getting a reading of 40-50ppm even just a day after doing a 50% water change. It’s funny, I’m coming back to this hobby after a 5 year hiatus and I never even tested for nitrates back then and yet I could count the number of fish that died in my care on one hand (over nearly 10 years of maintaining 3 separate tanks). This video was very reassuring, and thanks for sharing the article too. Keep up the great content!
Thank goodness for this. There is so much contradictory information out there, I’m a Newby to this and have just cycled my first tank and brought a little guy home and of course the readings all changed because when I put him in, he changed everything and I had myself in such a panic was probably stressing him out more by doing all of these changes etc trying to get everything just perfect (as well as stressing myself out). My nitrate level is nothing to be concerned about but for some reason I was convinced it had to be lower until one person with common sense on a betta forum sent me some valuable information and said to leave it rather than constantly changing the tank environment. My little guy finally starting to settle in coming up to the surface to be fed while I’ve been worrying myself sick about water levels! now I might get him a couple of nice new plants
Thank you for making this fact known. I have the same problem with high nitrates in all of my tanks. Especially during the summer months this far north where I live.
Great video, I just came across this. My 250 gallon tank had two Jaguar cichlids in it and I didn't do a water change for 10 years. I merely topped it up when the level dropped by 2". I rehomed them and broke it down recently to rescape it for Malawis. I did a water test at the time and the NO3 reading was negligible. I totally agree with what you're saying, keep up the great content, you've just gained another subscriber 👏 👍
Every time I do water change on a 65-gallon tank aquarium it's because of nitrates and when I do fish don't seem to like it very much at least until 1 o 2 days later. Your theory may save me some stress about water quality thanks for the video.
Thanks for this video. I've come to the same conclusion. I use to stress when nitrates got over 20 ppm, but unless one severely under stocks and under feeds, it's hard to keep nitrates super low in an established moderately stocked tank. I worry more about dropping pH. I just do weekly or biweekly water changes and stop stressing. With my DSB tanks, nitrates still show up but level off at 40 ppm at the 2 week mark. I'm happy with nitrates at that level.
Thank you for this video and for the link to the article! Both have been so helpful!!! I'm just getting back into the hobby now that I'm retired so I was very concerned because my tap water is about 20-40 ppm. The pet store suggested using filtered water so I tested that. Still at 20-40 ppm. So I used RO water to do a 50% water change. But I was concerned about my live plants. This has set my fears to rest!!!! Thank you again!!! I don't normally subscribe but I just did!
I think I knew for a long time that nitrate, as in NO3, is the non/less toxic byproduct of the Ammonia procesing. The toxic one is the nitrogen dioxide as in NO2 (or nitrites), to the point that, the safe level of nitrites in an aquarium, is considered to be between 0 and 0.2 ppm (ml/g). I keep doing my 25% weekly water changes, mostly because fish seem to like it and whatever my fish like, I also like 😁The strips tests show 0 NO2 and 100 ppm NO3, before the water change. Edit: about your discution about the "red", the strip tests from JBL (what we use in Europe/my country) shows "red" for 500 ppm NO3.
I’ve kept tropical fish for about a decade now. In my experience, nitrates, as measured by commonly available commercial tests, are emphatically not harmful to fish at the levels the typical aquarist is likely to see in his or her tank. It is a myth, one of several that afflict our hobby.
100% agree with you. I use my nitrates as a guide to the frequency and size of water change on my my 4 colony mbuna tank. Thanks and i subbed and look forward to viewing all your future and past videos. 👌🏼
Here is my tank. If I let my tank go to 300 ppm of nitrate and 400 is the highest it can go. I do a water change of 80% then my tank has 100 ppm of nitrates still left sitting. Then I would be doing water changes more than once a week. The difference between 100 to 300 ppm is only 200. I would have to cut down on feeding my juvis tremendously before it becomes dangerously again. I get what u saying;!basically if I don’t want to do a water on Sunday when I’m at 80 ppm, then I can be lazy and wait till Thursday when they are at 110 or 120 ppm? Although this is awesome to know; I think I will let my nitrates go to 100 to 120 nitrates only. That way I can still have control over my tank without stressing maxing it out at 300 and not being able to counteract quickly.
absolutely correct. I've done my homework on Nitrates and a lot of ppl dont know that u can have a high amount of nitrates in your tank and be %100 fine
Great video. A good friend sent me to this video cause I panicked over nitrates. I'm hitting 40ppm every 4 days on my oscar tank. I do have 10ppm of nitrates in my tap water.
I keep a lot of goldfish this kind of fish can eat and excrete, I have been headache for the nitrate problem (40-80), because the ammonia nitrogen as well as nitrite in the tank with water lily is 0, watch your video understand, maintain the daily water change, just make sure not more than a hundred are normal. Great ！！！！！
I do seem to experience the same thing .. About nitrates..i prefer natural planted tanks and less water change tanks And sometimes even with 150ppm nitrates fish and frys are fine.. I think it's more important that water parameters remain stable rather than concentrating on absolute values.same thing is said by father fish too.. Having said that, it is also true, that nitrate does get absorbed via the gills of the fish and it does convert the haemoglobin to methaemoglobin which reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of the fish..so yes, insane levels do need to be controlled.. One question comes to mind though.. Does excess nitrates hamper plant growth ? Also, of nitrates are not much of an issue, what's the point of deep substrate or anpxic filtration?
Some plant high levels of nitrates are harmful, Cryptocoryne in particular comes to mind. I'm unsure, what that level is though. If you read on the Barr Report the thread called "rotala kill tank", has interesting experiment on high level of fertilizers and it effects on plants.
I've found my deep substrate tanks are more stable and plants love them. My pH doesn't drop off as quickly and my nitrates rise more slowly. They get better over time (think Father Fish) and less chance of old tank syndrome.
i change the water every week about 50%. every few weeks i'll even do a midweek water change about 25%. I don't even care about the numbers. I don't do it to reduce nitrates it's mostly because after a week the water starts to appear more murky and less clear. it's still clear but not crystal clear. when i do the water change it's back to crystal clear. it's more about getting rid of excess waste and so forth that builds up in the tank than anything else. i tested my water for nitrates after a week and it was at 0 but the water was still not crystal clear. it's more about water clarity than anything else. you can go 2 weeks or even a month without a water change but your water is gonna be looking pretty bad by that time and the waste levels are gonna be high. I do have some plants in my pond and a little algae so they are eating up the nitrates i suppose. if you don't have any plants your nitrates will rise at a higher rate.
I’m trying to lower my Nitrates. I know that I have a lot of nitrate in my tank because it’s over 500. But like you said my fish are breeding sometimes and I get even baby’s. Thanks for the enlightenment.
I've only had tanks for 3 years, and today I noticed I have high nitrates in both of my tanks. I vacuum the gravel once a week, and mid week do a water change (25-50%). I have live plants in both as well. One of my fish isn't doing well (it happened last night), but the other is unbothered. I have no clue how it happened, because my tanks have been cycled for years. I'm going to try feeding them less, cuz I don't know what else to do.
If the nitrate is kept fairly low, does that mean algae growth is less to? Thats my main reason for wanting low nitrate but i have no way of knowing without experimenting
So they say, but I've never found any real correlation to nitrate levels and algal growth. You can have low nitrate and still grow algae, or have high nitrate and no have issues. I've never figured out why some tanks have algae problems while others don't.
To participate in your study (Nitrate NO3) here are some figures validated in France: remember :1 PPM corresponds to 1 part per million, or 1 mg/liter of water. To give you an example: no centenarian in France has consumed between the age of 1 and the age of 60 more than 8 mg/Liter of NO3 in the water. Humans Water suppliers can legally go up to 50mg of NO3 per liter in France. 800 ppm is letal for Guppies, 800 ppm = 800mg/Liter of water!The same amount for human beings! During the world championship of guppies, a winner has never won with a breeding having water with more than 8 mg/liter of NO3.
Say whatever you want about Nitrates. My fish are more active and have a healthier diet when Nitrate levels are lower. Period. And I am talking freshwater 10-20 ppm vs. 40 + ppm. And it is not all about the fish. It is an ecosystem. Algae , Cyanno bacteria and other things need to be considered.
Fish police r more sensitive bout goldfish..n here i am keeping fancy goldfish,overstock! For 5 month intentionally keeping with no water changed and tested few times it reach more than 160ppm!..count ur lself for 5month period..no red streak..no weird behaviour even i add 2 more goldfish in..there is video i add in my channel if u feel wana look at it
I just tested my tanks for the first time in probably a yr just to see and it’s darker then blood red and my fish r fine now my angles haven’t breed in awhile but other then that nothing is wrong but I will be doing a larger water change and filter sponge cleaning
Just start with some basic 10% weekly and see how it goes. You'll probably be able to go longer than that but you'll need to get a feel for the tank over time.
I’m going to get hated on here but here goes. I had a 20:gal aquarium for 12 with about 8 white skirt tetra and 2 catfish. I did 2 water changes in 12 yrs. I topped off the water with conditioner but that was it. The fish lived on average about 5 y-6 yrs which is average for the species. No plants. No algae, in a dark corner. I gave it all away when we moved. So there you have it. Hate away.
Ive watched and read endless stuff now and today i watched this video, i read the article attached in description and its all compelling for me, i think we've all been duped into the tap safe marketing scam, they must know but they'll loose profit and trust in consumers should they admit its all a con. Trouble is i love my fish to much to take the risk by not doing a water change at least once a week, im 100% certain nitrate is not as toxic as they make out but i guess its just a symptom of fear all produced by marketing, however i don't buy tap safe/ dechlorinators i let the chlorine disperse into the air by allowing the water to stand 48hrs to a week in a tub and all minerals remain as dechlorinators state they remove heavy metals but do not state what metals, phosphorus, magnesium and iron are beneficial for plants so if they remove these minerals i.e heavy metals then the dechlorinators really just add dead useless water to your aquarium. Plus they don't tell you that chloride/chloramine turns into ammonia once treated with dechlorinators, who needs extra ammonia. Anyway nitrate is plant food so its all a natural cycle we're interfering with and people wonder why their plants wont grow, don't worry there's fertiliser for that and liquid carbon, all with added need for 25% to 50% water changes to detoxify the treatments at the end of every week. Really its ridiculous the amount of interfering we do with nature thanks to the marking ploys. Personally i prefer to do 15% water change once a week using the slow natural evaporation of chlorine because im adding beneficial minerals for my plants and may well be beneficial for the fish too, everyone says how healthy my aquarium looks, plants and fish all thriving so im confident im doing something right and im not funding these scam marketing industries, nature is caring for itself and thats a real ecosystem.
I agree. I think nitrate levels have been blamed for potential illnesses instead of the real culprit. As nitrates rise between water changes, so could bacterial concentrations. I think that's the real issue. If you have a healthy, clean tank, then things will be fine. If you don't have adequate filtration to breakdown waste, then potentially harmful bacteria will use it to flourish. Nitrate levels will end up spiking at the same time potentially harmful bacteria does. That's something we can't real test for at home but makes a lot of sense to me.
High nitrate doesn't kill your fish, but a nitrate shock when you add new fish can kill you're new fish. Lower you're nitrate level before adding new fish.
@@paulnachtegaal377 And how do you know it was the nitrate? Did you compare Gh, KH, pH, or any other parameter? I just had 8 Otocinclus die after bringing them home, and the nitrate was under 5 PPM.
Well said nitrate and the fear associated with it . just plays in to API’s and other test kit providers hands . They have made millions and continue to of the back of that Red colour. They ain’t getting another £ or $ of me that’s for sure . The more you hold the test tube up to the light figuring out the shade of Red, the more gullible you are to doing a re test using more of the product and ultimately parting with more cash😜 I’ve kept fish for 45 years and have never lost a fish to nitrate and I can honesty say I’ve probably tested nitrate about 10 times in 45 years and that was out of curiosity more than anything. The best thing to do is get a maintenance and water change routine in place that works and stick to it as best you can . That’s my tip
Someone else commented about you not having any big cynabacteral problems lately. Wondering have you kept your big lights off because your waterfall is off. Less light less cynabacteral???
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly If I remember I think that your cynabactera started to get out of control when you started your waterfall tank with the light. Just a thought.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly i have a particular grow light that has caused cyanobactria bloom in 2 different tanks, especially when very bright and up close. Pulled it about a foot further away from the most recent tank it's been on, no more problems.
then this happened ""A review of physiological effects and known toxicity thresholds of nitrate for aquatic organisms is provided by Camargo et al. (2005). Physiological effects of nitrate to fish and other aquatic species include methemoglobinemia (Grabda et al., 1974, Cheng and Chen, 2002, Tilak et al., 2007), decreased immune response and osmoregulatory function (Hrubec et al., 1996, Hrubec et al., 1997), and endocrine system disruption and effects on reproductive maturation (Guillette and Edwards, 2005, Hamlin, 2007, Hamlin et al., 2008, Good and Davidson, 2016). In some cases, elevated nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) levels have been found to cause fish mortality. Several lethal toxicity studies have been conducted with salmonids; namely, Westin (1974) reported 96-h LC50 concentrations of approximately 1355 and 1310 mg/L NO3-N for rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha fingerlings, respectively. Kincheloe et al. (1979) observed significant mortality in larval cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi, Chinook salmon, and rainbow trout at NO3-N concentrations of only 2.3-7.6 mg/L, demonstrating a possible influence of salmonid life stage on nitrate toxicity. In contrast, Freitag et al. (2016) found no difference in survival of Atlantic salmon embryos exposed to mean NO3-N levels of 4 or 93 mg/L. The response difference of juvenile salmonids to NO3-N between these studies is surprising, but could be related to dissimilar water quality, such as hardness or sodium concentration, or the species under evaluation. Recently, there is increasing evidence that elevated nitrate can chronically impact the general health and performance of fish cultured in RAS. Davidson et al. (2014) reported that rainbow trout exposed to 80-100 mg/L NO3-N for three months demonstrated chronic health and welfare impacts including an increase in abnormal swimming behavior, increased swimming speeds, and mildly reduced survival. In addition, the growth of juvenile turbot Psetta maxima was negatively impacted at NO3-N concentrations ≥ 125 mg/L, and health and feed efficiency was reduced at ≥250 mg/L (Van Bussel et al., 2012). Schram et al. (2014) also found that feed intake and growth rates of African catfish Clarias gariepinus were significantly reduced during 42-day exposure to 379 mg/L NO3-N and therefore recommended an upper threshold of 140 mg/L NO3-N for safe culture of this species. Research assessing the effect of nitrate on Atlantic salmon is limited. Freitag et al. (2015) evaluated the endocrine disrupting potential of NO3-N levels (5.3, 10.3, and 101.8 mg/L) in pre-smolt Atlantic salmon (102 g to begin). Plasma testosterone was significantly greater in salmon exposed to 10.3 mg/L NO3-N compared to 5.3 and 101.8 mg/L NO3-N; however, growth was unaffected. The authors concluded that Atlantic salmon may be a suitable species for RAS production based on the general lack of effect of NO3-N on growth and most endocrine responses at concentrations up to 101.8 mg/L. The Freitag et al. (2015) study was a short-term trial lasting 27 days and only investigated the effects of nitrate on pre-smolt Atlantic salmon. Long-term research evaluating the effect of nitrate concentrations on Atlantic salmon is lacking, and a safe threshold for chronic exposure has not been fully established.""
Studies on ocean salmon and trout aren't really relevant to freshwater fish. Additionally all of the numbers in your comment need to be multiplied by 4.4 to match what the home aquarium tests measure. So yeah most of those numbers are in the hundreds and thousands.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly I used the Hanna nitrate checker and it says 72.5. Multiply by 4.4 = 319 ppm. Is this an ok range for my African peakcocks haps?
@@seanlyons8053 Is your Hanna testing for Nitrogen or Nitrate? I'm pretty sure it tests for nitrate, so the result you're getting WITHOUT multiplying by 4.4 should be the correct one. The only time you need to multiply by 4.4 is to get the Nitrate equivalent from Nitrogen. You shouldn't have to do this because as far as I know both Hanna and API tests for Nitrates.
And I’ve pulled up the papers on salmon and nitrate to the fish police… Standard excuse.. fish adapted. Fish different. Diff weight. Diff sizes.. I even had documentation from manufacturers jBl on a group… then saying nitrate are fine.. I got told to retract and then booted. You cant win, fish police don’t believe in science….
Nice job trying to tell them though. I see the same in many facebook groups; if you don't comply with what the fish police admins say, you're considered bad for the hobby / bad for their ego and you will probably get banned. :'-) Many can't see past the limits of their "aquarium gospel"... It extends to the care of other animals as well. For example recently, in a musk turtle group, I questioned someone's insistence on those turtles (originating in temperate and subtropical areas) having to live at PRECISELY tropical temperature X... and I questioned some other seemingly arbitrary pieces of information shared there that I found odd. Well, that was my last exchange there lol. I was first muted, and when I dared send a message about it to some mod, I was just banned. Some communities are weird like that. They don't appreciate logic and common sense.
1000% dead on .... so many people scareing people saying its gotta be below 20ppm.... most tap water contain 20ppm one thing thats taught me to ignore nitrates is my shrimp tank (fully planted) has 40/60ppm at the end of the week (time for water chance) is the same as my goldfish tank 3 goldfish with some slow growing plant) at the end of the week ?? .... using api test kit ......so now i just do a weekly water change with out worrying about the nitrates if any thinking if wrong then i fully test but once again hardly worried about nitrates.... just make sure 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites think you for stepping out of you tube sheep line and saying what the real fish keeps think about nitrates
How is nitrate not a problem that much of a problem? I tested my fish take because a few fish died (5 to be exact) within 3 days and the test came back as everything was good but the nitrate levels they were bad
Unless you have a chemistry degree with access to a sterile lab, you can't do nitrate tests properly. I never do water changes anymore and get better results, the less you touch the water the better.
Nitrate is not the issue, it hardly ever is. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 nitrate 160. Nitrates after a week normally 10. Automatic reaction by most fish police … omg fish going to die, nitrate so high. Then fish die. Backing up the fact nitrate kills …… no one mentions the 40ppm of ammonia which has converted and possible a spike
Great deduction, but don't tell to many people about it because they will just come up with some other reasons to do more water changes and etc. so we have to buy more products. Spend more money. Make the rich richer. 🤣🤣🤣
I don't have any experience with either of those, so I don't know what to tell you. I'd assume the nitrate doesn't harm them either, but that's just my assumption.
you’re one of the only people ive seen on youtube talk about this topic and debunk it its insane how many people don’t know about this thanks for sharing
My nitrite is 0.5 I was should not worry
I have been keeping a tank with water changes every two to three months. Not because I did not care about nitrate, it had been because I did not know what is nitrate. I had been handed over a tank and I have been slowly picking up the knowledges regarding fish keeping. When most of RUclips videos talk about a weekly water change to keep the nitrate down, I have been sceptical regarding the nitrate level. This video is just in time to give me more confidence.
when I did water changes all the time my fish got stressed and died when I stopped doing large water changes they are breeding never been healthier
I know you made the video 2 years ago, but THANK YOU. I have a 100 gallon tank and have had a tank for over 25 years. At the beginning, like everyone else, I tested the water constantly. I added chemicals dependent on what the test strips were showing me. I came to believe that I was wasting my time and not enjoying my tank. I still do testing sometimes but I now go by what I see. If my equipment is large enough for the tank... if my plants are living... if my fish are living... then my tank is healthy. Once again, common sense conquers all. Thanks again for the video and putting the fun back in the hobby.
I couldn't agree more. A lot of the dogma is created by the industry itself in order to sell products. At different times in my life, due to circumstances like working 60 to 70 hrs a week for months on end, I have had my aquariums fall to despicable filthiness. I am sure the nitrate levels were very high. I was too tired to check them. (This was the life of a factory worker.) The fish did fine. I am not advocating that no maintenance is a good thing but many of the things we are told are untrue. Also, I think there are many in the hobby that due to their personality are prone to liking doing water changes. I have noticed that these people often think things have to be exact and squeaky clean. I think water changes are good within reason but I prefer to do it less often and actually my approach is lots of plants. I like growing seaweed and also use aquaponics with many terrestrial plants growing on top of my tank. Plants are aesthetic in and around your tank and the fish feel more at home with a jungle growing all around them both inside and outside the tank. I also think most of us in the hobby have a love of science and enjoy tinkering with our tanks, testing water perimeters, and generally enjoy working on our tanks. It is just that some of us are more zealous than others in our approach. Science is full of dogmas that are easy to get caught up in. Many years ago it was thought that the more aged the water was the better it was for your fish. Ideas change with time. In the hobby, we tend to want our aquariums to be crystal clear clean. We vacuum, we do water changes and think that because it is squeaky clean it is healthy. Some are now saying tannin water from leave dubree is more healthy for your fish. This seems to be going back to the idea that to the idea of aged water being good. I think that in the end a lot of it depends on the species of fish you are keeping in your tank as to what kind of water conditions are needed. If you think about it many fish live in dirty muddy rivers where the water is never crystal clear.
Well this video explains so much. My father got me in the hobby as a kid. I got my 1st tank at 12. Dad showed me the ropes and I did all the maintenance myself. I am 52 now and back then we didn't know what nitrates or nitrites were. All my dad was concerned with was ph. He was diligent about keeping ph at a healthy level for the fish. We only changed the water about once a month and our fish thrived. Well I got out of the hobby for about 12 years and recently got back in it and learned about nitrates, nitrite and ammonia, stuff my dad never knew to teach me about. I have done more water changes in a month than I did in 2 years back in the day. This video explains why my fish didn't die back then. So, I am going to ween my cichlids off of twice a week water changes and eventually get it to bi weekly or monthly and just do like dad did and maintain the ph. Sir you just gained a new subscriber. Thank you so much! My mbunas and my American cichlids thank you as well since I won't be bothering them with frequent water changes anymore lol. I have 2 tanks. My mbuna are in a 75 gallon. I have a 55 gallon with 2 Electric blue Acara, a red spotted Severum, an albino chocolate pleco, a juvenile king Kong parrot, 2 blood parrots, a juvenile Oscar, and a red tail shark. The Oscar will eventually go in my son's 75 gallon tank since it's his fish. It isn't big enough yet to make that jump
Leave PH alone. Chasing PH will do more damage. 👍
Your experience and opinions are invaluable to the progression of this hobby. Love the simple naturalistic approach. You also have a great voice/accent for this.
The article you linked to made an intriguing point. The quickest way to lower nitrate is large water changes, large amount of water changes-large amount of water conditioners sold to people. If freshwater aquarium keepers stop spazzing out about nitrate and stop running through bottle after bottle of water conditioners, the industry would lose tens of millions of dollars a year on lost water conditioner sales. It appears that for most fish, ppm concentration can be in the hundreds while taking off low percentage points off fish growth rate and life span that no keeper would ever really notice. Would you notice if you had a red tail shark for instance that grew 1 percent slower and lived 1 percent shorter? That's what would happen at nitrate PPM over 130, lol.
About your point on water conditioners. I was one of those "water conditioners boys" until I have ask a local fish store owner, that has about 50 tanks and thousands of fish, what water conditioner he use and when the answer was...none...I was like...ahhhhh...and quit that sport 😁
I agree with you, Nitrates are not as bad as the hobby says. I used to do weekly water changes now I let it go until the water level goes down and needs water added, great info
I’ve been driving myself INSANE trying to get the nitrates down in my new tank for nearly a month now, I was getting a reading of 40-50ppm even just a day after doing a 50% water change. It’s funny, I’m coming back to this hobby after a 5 year hiatus and I never even tested for nitrates back then and yet I could count the number of fish that died in my care on one hand (over nearly 10 years of maintaining 3 separate tanks). This video was very reassuring, and thanks for sharing the article too. Keep up the great content!
Thank goodness for this. There is so much contradictory information out there, I’m a Newby to this and have just cycled my first tank and brought a little guy home and of course the readings all changed because when I put him in, he changed everything and I had myself in such a panic was probably stressing him out more by doing all of these changes etc trying to get everything just perfect (as well as stressing myself out). My nitrate level is nothing to be concerned about but for some reason I was convinced it had to be lower until one person with common sense on a betta forum sent me some valuable information and said to leave it rather than constantly changing the tank environment.
My little guy finally starting to settle in coming up to the surface to be fed while I’ve been worrying myself sick about water levels! now I might get him a couple of nice new plants
Fantastic video & article that is backed up with proof. 👍 BTW, I learned a new word today in the video, "Rubicon". 👨🎓
Thank you for making this fact known. I have the same problem with high nitrates in all of my tanks. Especially during the summer months this far north where I live.
Great video, I just came across this. My 250 gallon tank had two Jaguar cichlids in it and I didn't do a water change for 10 years. I merely topped it up when the level dropped by 2". I rehomed them and broke it down recently to rescape it for Malawis. I did a water test at the time and the NO3 reading was negligible. I totally agree with what you're saying, keep up the great content, you've just gained another subscriber 👏 👍
Every time I do water change on a 65-gallon tank aquarium it's because of nitrates and when I do fish don't seem to like it very much at least until 1 o 2 days later. Your theory may save me some stress about water quality thanks for the video.
We’re on the same page and companies that sell nitrate control products don’t like either of us 🤣
This is also the article that we have been waiting for. We are going move forward and add some fish to our tank. Thanks very much for sharing!
I would have to agree with you, thanks for posting this video. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for this video. I've come to the same conclusion. I use to stress when nitrates got over 20 ppm, but unless one severely under stocks and under feeds, it's hard to keep nitrates super low in an established moderately stocked tank. I worry more about dropping pH. I just do weekly or biweekly water changes and stop stressing. With my DSB tanks, nitrates still show up but level off at 40 ppm at the 2 week mark. I'm happy with nitrates at that level.
Thank you for this video and for the link to the article! Both have been so helpful!!! I'm just getting back into the hobby now that I'm retired so I was very concerned because my tap water is about 20-40 ppm. The pet store suggested using filtered water so I tested that. Still at 20-40 ppm. So I used RO water to do a 50% water change. But I was concerned about my live plants. This has set my fears to rest!!!! Thank you again!!! I don't normally subscribe but I just did!
I think I knew for a long time that nitrate, as in NO3, is the non/less toxic byproduct of the Ammonia procesing. The toxic one is the nitrogen dioxide as in NO2 (or nitrites), to the point that, the safe level of nitrites in an aquarium, is considered to be between 0 and 0.2 ppm (ml/g).
I keep doing my 25% weekly water changes, mostly because fish seem to like it and whatever my fish like, I also like 😁The strips tests show 0 NO2 and 100 ppm NO3, before the water change.
Edit: about your discution about the "red", the strip tests from JBL (what we use in Europe/my country) shows "red" for 500 ppm NO3.
You are my best RUclipsr in aquariums 😊
It is good that other youtubers are opening their eyes. Father Fish was the 1st to revolutionize this method. Thanks man.
I've been talking about this for many years.
I still do weekly water changes to get nutrients in there and it keeps my Algae under control.
I’ve kept tropical fish for about a decade now. In my experience, nitrates, as measured by commonly available commercial tests, are emphatically not harmful to fish at the levels the typical aquarist is likely to see in his or her tank. It is a myth, one of several that afflict our hobby.
100% agree with you. I use my nitrates as a guide to the frequency and size of water change on my my 4 colony mbuna tank. Thanks and i subbed and look forward to viewing all your future and past videos. 👌🏼
Here is my tank. If I let my tank go to 300 ppm of nitrate and 400 is the highest it can go. I do a water change of 80% then my tank has 100 ppm of nitrates still left sitting. Then I would be doing water changes more than once a week. The difference between 100 to 300 ppm is only 200. I would have to cut down on feeding my juvis tremendously before it becomes dangerously again. I get what u saying;!basically if I don’t want to do a water on Sunday when I’m at 80 ppm, then I can be lazy and wait till Thursday when they are at 110 or 120 ppm? Although this is awesome to know; I think I will let my nitrates go to 100 to 120 nitrates only. That way I can still have control over my tank without stressing maxing it out at 300 and not being able to counteract quickly.
Most pople new to test kits : "My fish are dying !"
People without test kits : "Are your fish actually dead ?"
People with test kits : Left the chat
absolutely correct. I've done my homework on Nitrates and a lot of ppl dont know that u can have a high amount of nitrates in your tank and be %100 fine
The worst part is that many people actually DO have fish living happily in high nitrates, but still insist it's killing them.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly ya true its probably stressful on the fish to.. I usually keep my nitrates around 10 to 20
My level is 160ppm is that fine ?
Thank you for this content!! Put me at ease!!
Me too!
Great video. A good friend sent me to this video cause I panicked over nitrates. I'm hitting 40ppm every 4 days on my oscar tank. I do have 10ppm of nitrates in my tap water.
I keep a lot of goldfish this kind of fish can eat and excrete, I have been headache for the nitrate problem (40-80), because the ammonia nitrogen as well as nitrite in the tank with water lily is 0, watch your video understand, maintain the daily water change, just make sure not more than a hundred are normal. Great ！！！！！
One thing that seems obvious to me, let's test rivers and ponds where these fish are native. 🤘
I do seem to experience the same thing .. About nitrates..i prefer natural planted tanks and less water change tanks
And sometimes even with 150ppm nitrates fish and frys are fine..
I think it's more important that water parameters remain stable rather than concentrating on absolute values.same thing is said by father fish too..
Having said that, it is also true, that nitrate does get absorbed via the gills of the fish and it does convert the haemoglobin to methaemoglobin which reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of the fish..so yes, insane levels do need to be controlled..
One question comes to mind though.. Does excess nitrates hamper plant growth ?
Also, of nitrates are not much of an issue, what's the point of deep substrate or anpxic filtration?
Some plant high levels of nitrates are harmful, Cryptocoryne in particular comes to mind. I'm unsure, what that level is though. If you read on the Barr Report the thread called "rotala kill tank", has interesting experiment on high level of fertilizers and it effects on plants.
I've found my deep substrate tanks are more stable and plants love them. My pH doesn't drop off as quickly and my nitrates rise more slowly. They get better over time (think Father Fish) and less chance of old tank syndrome.
i change the water every week about 50%. every few weeks i'll even do a midweek water change about 25%. I don't even care about the numbers. I don't do it to reduce nitrates it's mostly because after a week the water starts to appear more murky and less clear. it's still clear but not crystal clear. when i do the water change it's back to crystal clear. it's more about getting rid of excess waste and so forth that builds up in the tank than anything else. i tested my water for nitrates after a week and it was at 0 but the water was still not crystal clear. it's more about water clarity than anything else. you can go 2 weeks or even a month without a water change but your water is gonna be looking pretty bad by that time and the waste levels are gonna be high. I do have some plants in my pond and a little algae so they are eating up the nitrates i suppose. if you don't have any plants your nitrates will rise at a higher rate.
Thank you for this! I've come to the same conclusion
I’m trying to lower my Nitrates. I know that I have a lot of nitrate in my tank because it’s over 500. But like you said my fish are breeding sometimes
and I get even baby’s. Thanks for the enlightenment.
Fantastic video. Thank you so much!
I've only had tanks for 3 years, and today I noticed I have high nitrates in both of my tanks. I vacuum the gravel once a week, and mid week do a water change (25-50%). I have live plants in both as well. One of my fish isn't doing well (it happened last night), but the other is unbothered. I have no clue how it happened, because my tanks have been cycled for years. I'm going to try feeding them less, cuz I don't know what else to do.
GREAT VIDEO BROTHER
If the nitrate is kept fairly low, does that mean algae growth is less to? Thats my main reason for wanting low nitrate but i have no way of knowing without experimenting
So they say, but I've never found any real correlation to nitrate levels and algal growth.
You can have low nitrate and still grow algae, or have high nitrate and no have issues. I've never figured out why some tanks have algae problems while others don't.
To participate in your study (Nitrate NO3) here are some figures validated in France:
remember :1 PPM corresponds to 1 part per million, or 1 mg/liter of water.
To give you an example:
no centenarian in France has consumed between the age of 1 and the age of 60 more than 8 mg/Liter of NO3 in the water.
Humans Water suppliers can legally go up to 50mg of NO3 per liter in France.
800 ppm is letal for Guppies, 800 ppm = 800mg/Liter of water!The same amount for human beings!
During the world championship of guppies, a winner has never won with a breeding having water with more than 8 mg/liter of NO3.
20 years ago I only was worried about ammonia....
Jesus that gourmie and angel are massive some beautiful fish.
👌❤
Thanks for the enlightenment
Say whatever you want about Nitrates. My fish are more active and have a healthier diet when Nitrate levels are lower. Period. And I am talking freshwater 10-20 ppm vs. 40 + ppm. And it is not all about the fish. It is an ecosystem. Algae , Cyanno bacteria and other things need to be considered.
loved it!!!
thanks man!!!!
Fish police r more sensitive bout goldfish..n here i am keeping fancy goldfish,overstock!
For 5 month intentionally keeping with no water changed and tested few times it reach more than 160ppm!..count ur lself for 5month period..no red streak..no weird behaviour even i add 2 more goldfish in..there is video i add in my channel if u feel wana look at it
I just tested my tanks for the first time in probably a yr just to see and it’s darker then blood red and my fish r fine now my angles haven’t breed in awhile but other then that nothing is wrong but I will be doing a larger water change and filter sponge cleaning
Well said, you're an absolute legend. Instantly subbed.
thank you sir.
I have just setup a new tank, how would you go about deciding water change intervals? I have been monitoring the nitrates esc...
Just start with some basic 10% weekly and see how it goes. You'll probably be able to go longer than that but you'll need to get a feel for the tank over time.
Is that big fish in your background tank a tetra eater?
It's a Ctenopoma acutirostre and it'll eat anything it can fit in it's mouth. A full grown one like mine could eat a Platy or similar sized fish.
its a shame its all about selling products. My nitrates are 100ppm and 50ppm of those are out of the tap/drinking water
I’m going to get hated on here but here goes. I had a 20:gal aquarium for 12 with about 8 white skirt tetra and 2 catfish. I did 2 water changes in 12 yrs. I topped off the water with conditioner but that was it. The fish lived on average about 5 y-6 yrs which is average for the species. No plants. No algae, in a dark corner. I gave it all away when we moved. So there you have it. Hate away.
Awesome
Lol right on Dan 😎
Ive watched and read endless stuff now and today i watched this video, i read the article attached in description and its all compelling for me, i think we've all been duped into the tap safe marketing scam, they must know but they'll loose profit and trust in consumers should they admit its all a con.
Trouble is i love my fish to much to take the risk by not doing a water change at least once a week, im 100% certain nitrate is not as toxic as they make out but i guess its just a symptom of fear all produced by marketing, however i don't buy tap safe/ dechlorinators i let the chlorine disperse into the air by allowing the water to stand 48hrs to a week in a tub and all minerals remain as dechlorinators state they remove heavy metals but do not state what metals, phosphorus, magnesium and iron are beneficial for plants so if they remove these minerals i.e heavy metals then the dechlorinators really just add dead useless water to your aquarium. Plus they don't tell you that chloride/chloramine turns into ammonia once treated with dechlorinators, who needs extra ammonia. Anyway nitrate is plant food so its all a natural cycle we're interfering with and people wonder why their plants wont grow, don't worry there's fertiliser for that and liquid carbon, all with added need for 25% to 50% water changes to detoxify the treatments at the end of every week.
Really its ridiculous the amount of interfering we do with nature thanks to the marking ploys.
Personally i prefer to do 15% water change once a week using the slow natural evaporation of chlorine because im adding beneficial minerals for my plants and may well be beneficial for the fish too, everyone says how healthy my aquarium looks, plants and fish all thriving so im confident im doing something right and im not funding these scam marketing industries, nature is caring for itself and thats a real ecosystem.
I agree. I think nitrate levels have been blamed for potential illnesses instead of the real culprit. As nitrates rise between water changes, so could bacterial concentrations. I think that's the real issue. If you have a healthy, clean tank, then things will be fine. If you don't have adequate filtration to breakdown waste, then potentially harmful bacteria will use it to flourish. Nitrate levels will end up spiking at the same time potentially harmful bacteria does. That's something we can't real test for at home but makes a lot of sense to me.
#Hey Everybody
Agree. 100%👍
High nitrate doesn't kill your fish, but a nitrate shock when you add new fish can kill you're new fish.
Lower you're nitrate level before adding new fish.
I've never experienced anything to convince me "nitrate shock" is real either.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly It killed 7 of 20 red headed salmons in my tank. And it took several hour for the rest to recover.
@@paulnachtegaal377 And how do you know it was the nitrate?
Did you compare Gh, KH, pH, or any other parameter?
I just had 8 Otocinclus die after bringing them home, and the nitrate was under 5 PPM.
I'm not afraid of it, it's just always low in my tanks because I use marine pure
Whats this marine pure
Dan I’ve noticed you haven’t had recent cyano bacteria outbreaks lately. What do you think is different?
I'm not sure. I'll have to think about that.
Maybe it is the nitrate levels…lol he is leaving it alone
Well said nitrate and the fear associated with it . just plays in to API’s and other test kit providers hands . They have made millions and continue to of the back of that Red colour. They ain’t getting another £ or $ of me that’s for sure . The more you hold the test tube up to the light figuring out the shade of Red, the more gullible you are to doing a re test using more of the product and ultimately parting with more cash😜 I’ve kept fish for 45 years and have never lost a fish to nitrate and I can honesty say I’ve probably tested nitrate about 10 times in 45 years and that was out of curiosity more than anything. The best thing to do is get a maintenance and water change routine in place that works and stick to it as best you can . That’s my tip
Someone else commented about you not having any big cynabacteral problems lately. Wondering have you kept your big lights off because your waterfall is off. Less light less cynabacteral???
I have been keeping the big grow light off until the last week or so. That may be a factor.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly If I remember I think that your cynabactera started to get out of control when you started your waterfall tank with the light. Just a thought.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly i have a particular grow light that has caused cyanobactria bloom in 2 different tanks, especially when very bright and up close. Pulled it about a foot further away from the most recent tank it's been on, no more problems.
should never be worried about nitrate it can never naturally get to a toxic level, worry about nitrite
then this happened ""A review of physiological effects and known toxicity thresholds of nitrate for aquatic organisms is provided by Camargo et al. (2005). Physiological effects of nitrate to fish and other aquatic species include methemoglobinemia (Grabda et al., 1974, Cheng and Chen, 2002, Tilak et al., 2007), decreased immune response and osmoregulatory function (Hrubec et al., 1996, Hrubec et al., 1997), and endocrine system disruption and effects on reproductive maturation (Guillette and Edwards, 2005, Hamlin, 2007, Hamlin et al., 2008, Good and Davidson, 2016). In some cases, elevated nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) levels have been found to cause fish mortality. Several lethal toxicity studies have been conducted with salmonids; namely, Westin (1974) reported 96-h LC50 concentrations of approximately 1355 and 1310 mg/L NO3-N for rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha fingerlings, respectively. Kincheloe et al. (1979) observed significant mortality in larval cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi, Chinook salmon, and rainbow trout at NO3-N concentrations of only 2.3-7.6 mg/L, demonstrating a possible influence of salmonid life stage on nitrate toxicity. In contrast, Freitag et al. (2016) found no difference in survival of Atlantic salmon embryos exposed to mean NO3-N levels of 4 or 93 mg/L. The response difference of juvenile salmonids to NO3-N between these studies is surprising, but could be related to dissimilar water quality, such as hardness or sodium concentration, or the species under evaluation.
Recently, there is increasing evidence that elevated nitrate can chronically impact the general health and performance of fish cultured in RAS. Davidson et al. (2014) reported that rainbow trout exposed to 80-100 mg/L NO3-N for three months demonstrated chronic health and welfare impacts including an increase in abnormal swimming behavior, increased swimming speeds, and mildly reduced survival. In addition, the growth of juvenile turbot Psetta maxima was negatively impacted at NO3-N concentrations ≥ 125 mg/L, and health and feed efficiency was reduced at ≥250 mg/L (Van Bussel et al., 2012). Schram et al. (2014) also found that feed intake and growth rates of African catfish Clarias gariepinus were significantly reduced during 42-day exposure to 379 mg/L NO3-N and therefore recommended an upper threshold of 140 mg/L NO3-N for safe culture of this species.
Research assessing the effect of nitrate on Atlantic salmon is limited. Freitag et al. (2015) evaluated the endocrine disrupting potential of NO3-N levels (5.3, 10.3, and 101.8 mg/L) in pre-smolt Atlantic salmon (102 g to begin). Plasma testosterone was significantly greater in salmon exposed to 10.3 mg/L NO3-N compared to 5.3 and 101.8 mg/L NO3-N; however, growth was unaffected. The authors concluded that Atlantic salmon may be a suitable species for RAS production based on the general lack of effect of NO3-N on growth and most endocrine responses at concentrations up to 101.8 mg/L. The Freitag et al. (2015) study was a short-term trial lasting 27 days and only investigated the effects of nitrate on pre-smolt Atlantic salmon. Long-term research evaluating the effect of nitrate concentrations on Atlantic salmon is lacking, and a safe threshold for chronic exposure has not been fully established.""
Studies on ocean salmon and trout aren't really relevant to freshwater fish. Additionally all of the numbers in your comment need to be multiplied by 4.4 to match what the home aquarium tests measure. So yeah most of those numbers are in the hundreds and thousands.
🤓
So if my api is 70 ppm it’s really 308 ppm?
I don't know what you mean
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly
I used the Hanna nitrate checker and it says 72.5. Multiply by 4.4 = 319 ppm. Is this an ok range for my African peakcocks haps?
@@seanlyons8053 I'm not sure how or why you're doing that calculation, but nitrate isn't toxic, so I wouldn't worry about it.
@@seanlyons8053 Is your Hanna testing for Nitrogen or Nitrate? I'm pretty sure it tests for nitrate, so the result you're getting WITHOUT multiplying by 4.4 should be the correct one. The only time you need to multiply by 4.4 is to get the Nitrate equivalent from Nitrogen. You shouldn't have to do this because as far as I know both Hanna and API tests for Nitrates.
If u have a planted tank you dont need to worry about the nitrate
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
Can you reply and send me the link to the article? I am viewing this from my IPad and I can’t see the link
aquariumscience.org/index.php/5-4-1-nitrate-in-depth/
And I’ve pulled up the papers on salmon and nitrate to the fish police…
Standard excuse.. fish adapted. Fish different. Diff weight. Diff sizes..
I even had documentation from manufacturers jBl on a group… then saying nitrate are fine.. I got told to retract and then booted.
You cant win, fish police don’t believe in science….
Nice job trying to tell them though. I see the same in many facebook groups; if you don't comply with what the fish police admins say, you're considered bad for the hobby / bad for their ego and you will probably get banned. :'-) Many can't see past the limits of their "aquarium gospel"...
It extends to the care of other animals as well. For example recently, in a musk turtle group, I questioned someone's insistence on those turtles (originating in temperate and subtropical areas) having to live at PRECISELY tropical temperature X... and I questioned some other seemingly arbitrary pieces of information shared there that I found odd. Well, that was my last exchange there lol. I was first muted, and when I dared send a message about it to some mod, I was just banned. Some communities are weird like that. They don't appreciate logic and common sense.
Isn't myth-busting fun?
1000% dead on .... so many people scareing people saying its gotta be below 20ppm.... most tap water contain 20ppm one thing thats taught me to ignore nitrates is my shrimp tank (fully planted) has 40/60ppm at the end of the week (time for water chance) is the same as my goldfish tank 3 goldfish with some slow growing plant) at the end of the week ?? .... using api test kit ......so now i just do a weekly water change with out worrying about the nitrates if any thinking if wrong then i fully test but once again hardly worried about nitrates.... just make sure 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites think you for stepping out of you tube sheep line and saying what the real fish keeps think about nitrates
How is nitrate not a problem that much of a problem? I tested my fish take because a few fish died (5 to be exact) within 3 days and the test came back as everything was good but the nitrate levels they were bad
I don't know why your fish died, but nitrate didn't kill them.
I had 110 nitrate and it killed all my fish. You sure it's not harmful?
How do you know the nitrate is what killed them?
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly Because I tested all my water and it was perfect accept for nitrates.
Unless you have a chemistry degree with access to a sterile lab, you can't do nitrate tests properly. I never do water changes anymore and get better results, the less you touch the water the better.
Nitrate is not the issue, it hardly ever is.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
nitrate 160.
Nitrates after a week normally 10.
Automatic reaction by most fish police … omg fish going to die, nitrate so high.
Then fish die.
Backing up the fact nitrate kills …… no one mentions the 40ppm of ammonia which has converted and possible a spike
Great deduction, but don't tell to many people about it because they will just come up with some other reasons to do more water changes and etc. so we have to buy more products. Spend more money. Make the rich richer. 🤣🤣🤣
Great information! I agree with you completely!!
What's the acceptable nitrate for arowana and sting ray?
I don't have any experience with either of those, so I don't know what to tell you. I'd assume the nitrate doesn't harm them either, but that's just my assumption.