Best way to get red of nitrate besides live plants?

[sheblom]

Hey guys
What would the best way be? Can anyone give me any suggestions?

[hungryhound]

The best way to get rid of nitrates is to do a water change. you don't want to do more than a 50 percent water change as that will stress your fish.

Regular water changes are your friend in terms or removing nitrates.


Even with plants you still need to do water changes, so you can never escape this step in fish keeping.

By the way. Welcome to the forum

[Incredulous_Ed]

Yep, hungryhound is exactly right. Water changes. And even if you do't have live plants you should still be doing water changes every week. Makes the fish much healthier :)

[Fishguy2727]

If done right a 100% water change will not stress them, if done wrong a 10% water change can kill them. I have done 90-100% water changes with no issues, I do not reommend this, but it is very possible, so max water change size is not a set number.

[jeffs99dime]

water changes. that's it

[cocoa_pleco]

water changes are absolutely needed, probably until 30 years when they invent some sort of machine

[Chrona]

My 10g heavily planted tank absorbs nitates/phosphates, etc faster than the fish can put them out(I add 5 ppm nitrates every other day to keep it steady at 15ppm). However, it still does not replace water changes. You would think that in my situation, adding top off water and supplementing trace/minerals/fertilizers would mean I never have to do a water change again, but it is not the case. For whatever reason, the fish just seem healthier with 50% weekly water changes, and there is less algae.

[Chrona]

And they do have a nitrate reducing machine now. It's an external reactor filled with these "bactoballs" that are said to house the anaerobic bacteria that breaks down nitrates into nitrogen gas like live rock in a saltwater tank does.

[cocoa_pleco]

cool. too bad there isnt a ammonia eating machine

[Chrona]

cool. too bad there isnt a ammonia eating machine

There is. It's called bacteria ;)


Failing that, there are so many ammonia eating products out there I've lost count.

[cocoa_pleco]

Theres TONS of products

[sheblom]

Thanks for all the replys guys! I have a 20 litre tank, and 3 fish! how often should i change the water?
So basically all i do is take a cup and scoop out bout 20% of the water, then slowly replace it wih new dechlorised water so not to have any tempreture fluctulations?

[wijnands]

Also depends on the fish. Hardy species such as guppies can easily tolerate a 30% change and a difference of 10 degrees C in the new water. That same change will kill more sensitive species.

I had a nitrite spike in my tank about 10 days ago. Added a nitrite filter to the Jewel filter system and it was down to normal values in 20 hours.

[Fishguy2727]

The size of the water change is not dependent on the fish, it is dependent on the fishkeeper. Someone who is more likely to screw up temp or pH or something should do smaller changes. But even things like discus have no problem if the water is the same temp, pH, etc. Many big breeders do 90% daily water changes on discus, showing it is not the fish but the fishkeeper.

And as far as a 10C change in temp, this should not be allowed to happen to any fish. Even if it worked once, it was stressful on the fish.

[sheblom]

Thanks for the replys guys! will do a 20% water chang on sater day! thanks for all the info!