quickest way to remove nitrates?
- Thread starter scott79
- Start date
spiderwoman
Active Member
How high are your nitrates and what size tank do you have. You could try one 50% water change.
nordy
Active Member
As noted above, major water changes will indeed bring your nitrate levels down in short order, The more important issue is to figure out why your nitrate levels are high. If you have been neglecting to do regular water changes, then it's pretty straight forward what you need to do to keep them down. If that's not the main cause of your high nitrate levels, then as nycbob said, more live rock and less feeding will help. Overfeeding may be the #1 cause of high nitrate levels-we all love to see out tank inhabitants get active and respond to us when we feed, but uneaten food and the fish poop produced by excessive feeding, will really shoot your nitrates through the roof, especially if you do not have enough biological filtration (means more LR, and an adequate sump filtration system and/or some macroalgae).
scott79
Member
thanks for all the input. i figured out the main cause was my filter. i have an eheim canister filter.i have nooo idea how to work it, because i have these two ladies come and do the whole filter things. (i do everything else, like waterchanges etc.) well anyways, i finally figured out how to open the freakin thing, and the filters were discusting. they have not cleaned them in foreverrrr!!! i cleaned them and now my tank seems brighter and cleaner!! BTW we fired the ladies. hahaha
florida joe
Well-Known Member
Sometimes the quickest way is not the best. We all strive to maintain the most natural environment for our tanks. Nitrates are the end product of nitrification. Water changes are not the natural progression in denitrification. Look into stimulating the growth of anaerobic bacterial for dissimilatory nitrate reduction as well as algae for nitrate assimilation and you will be moving closer to a more natural environment for you tank inhabitants. Of course this is just IMO
