Nitrates won't stay away!

[fishmommie]

not sure what doesn't make sense. fish waste and food waste gather in the filters and filter media just as it does in the substrate. a good cleaning removes the waste = lowers the nitrates.

[Goes to 11!]

Forgive me if I missed it: How often do you vacuum your substrate?

EDIT: Oops! [See below] FM, If you could put those things in large bold red letters for me from now on so I don't miss them... Just saying ;-P

[fishmommie]

Forgive me if I missed it: How often do you vacuum your substrate?

I asked the same thing ... the response was: he would try to do a deeper cleaning of his substrate. Have to wonder if that might not be part of the problem. the tank is heavily planted I believe ... that might be an issue>

[Shidohari]

when i planted my two tanks, i tried to leave enough visible gravel so that i can clean out the waste from time to time, to ensure that i got out as much as i could while not disrupting the root structures. If he didn't leave enough space to syphon out the waste, it could indeed be a problem.

I'm watching the crypto in my four gallon closely. One of the clumps is actually a full clump from a pack and has grown wide enough so that it fills most of the back left corner. when the scissors come for aquariums i ordered i may either trim it back or use the planting tongs to move it a bit.

[Lady Hobbs]

I suspect you may be overfeeding a bit, as well. But I'm not seeing a major problem here. It would be nice if the nitrates stayed below 20 but those weekly water changes are bringing it back down again. Try a week of feeding a bit less and see if that helps.

Silver Dollars eat plants, you know? Plants are part of their natural diet. Is that what you mean about Silver Dollar Tetra? They come from the tetra family and similar in disposition. Just bigger, more skittish and plant eaters.

[ijankrom]

Lowers production of nitrate but doesn't remove nitrates. If you have 40ppm nitrates and just clean the filter with no water change you still have 40ppm of nitrates. The production of 1ppm a day before cleaning filter may have been reduced to nill a day, but there's still the same level of nitrate until you do a water change. Right?

[Lady Hobbs]

I know that. No one told him to do nothing but clean the filters. He said he changes 50%/75% of the water each week.

[fishmommie]

Lowers production of nitrate but doesn't remove nitrates. If you have 40ppm nitrates and just clean the filter with no water change you still have 40ppm of nitrates. The production of 1ppm a day before cleaning filter may have been reduced to nill a day, but there's still the same level of nitrate until you do a water change. Right?

I'm not an expert. I simply know what works. The point is ... keeping a clean tank helps keep on top of nitrates. I can always tell when my filters need cleaning because my nitrate readings go up in spite of water changes. I clean the filters and bam. nitrates drop. pig simple.

[ijankrom]

Ok I think I'm getting it. So not cleaning leads to more ammo - then to nitrite - then to nitrate, levels that appear stronger even though water changes are completed. So its just the access creating uncontrolable levels.

[Ghpr13]

I asked the same thing ... the response was: he would try to do a deeper cleaning of his substrate. Have to wonder if that might not be part of the problem. the tank is heavily planted I believe ... that might be an issue>

My tank is not heavily planted at this time. It's sparsely planted. I do think you are right in me cleaning my substrate much more efficiently...namely, getting deeper into the substrate. Which I will do tomorrow when I do my weakly W/C.

I suspect you may be overfeeding a bit, as well. But I'm not seeing a major problem here. It would be nice if the nitrates stayed below 20 but those weekly water changes are bringing it back down again. Try a week of feeding a bit less and see if that helps.

Silver Dollars eat plants, you know? Plants are part of their natural diet. Is that what you mean about Silver Dollar Tetra? They come from the tetra family and similar in disposition. Just bigger, more skittish and plant eaters.

I started cutting down on my feedings this week. As I stated to fishmommie, tomorrow(Saturday), I be doing my weekly W/C and I will plan on giving the substrate a deep cleaning. After that I will start feeding once every other day and see how that helps out.

What I was trying to explain about my Silver Dollars, is right before I switched then to the 75G tank, when they were in the 29G tank, it was getting very obvious that they were stressing out. They were extremely "nervous" and very seldom would I see them eat anything at all. Once I got them into the 75G, they calmed down a lot...no where as nervous and skittish anymore, and I see them eating after feeding...even picking at food flakes that make their way to the bottom of the tank. All my fish seem very content in the 75G...always swimming around and looking like they really enjoying themselves.

Anyway, Thank you both for your replies and time, and thank you to all others who replied also. I do appreciate the replies I get, and I apologise if it takes me a while to get back to this thread.

Take care,
Ghpr13