How do I lower Nitrates!!

[ThatPhillyReefer]

 

[dduby]

Water change

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

Water change

I did a 5 gallon water change last thurs and I just did another 1 gallon water change last night.

 

[dduby]

How much total water volume?

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

How much total water volume?

Its a 20 gallon Innovative Marine Aquarium

 

[MERKEY]

How old is your tank?

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

How old is your tank?

I started it on January 14, 2017

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

How old is your tank?

This is what it looked like last night when I did the water change

 

[MERKEY]

Do a 90% water change. You have enough bacteria in there to handle it.

If you still have that high nitrates its leaking from rocks or something.

 

[rkpetersen]

With a 20 gallon tank, nitrates are easy to control.
I do it with small (15%) frequent water changes.
Do that daily for a week and your nitrate will be much lower.
Also of course - Don't overfeed.

 

[dduby]

Heavy feeder? Do you have filter socks, do they need to be changed? Anything go missing?

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

Heavy feeder? Do you have filter socks, do they need to be changed? Anything go missing?

I feed maybe once a week I only have 1 fish and I might have to replace filter socks

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

With a 20 gallon tank, nitrates are easy to control.
I do it with small (15%) frequent water changes.
Do that daily for a week and your nitrate will be much lower.
Also of course - Don't overfeed.

By frequent U mean like once a week?

 

[rkpetersen]

By frequent U mean like once a week?

No, I mean do a change daily for a week. Just to get nitrates down. Then resume a weekly WC schedule.
For a 20 g tank, a 2 to 3 gallon water change is super easy to do and won't stress the animals even if done daily.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

90% water change, siphon the sand bed, increase flow, get a cheato reactor, and a bag of purigen or two.

 

[Dine]

I feed maybe once a week I only have 1 fish and I might have to replace filter socks

how often do you replace the filter socks?

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Check the expiration date on that test kit. For awhile I thought my nitrates were high as it gets then I looked at the expiration date and it was a month expired. Turns out I was below 5 ppm lol

 

[Wolf89]

Whens the last time you did a water change?

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Whens the last time you did a water change?

If you read the thread you’d see he did wc last night lol

 

[Wolf89]

If you read the thread you’d see he did wc last night lol

I meant before that. It seems to me he hasnt done on in months if he feeds once a week and he has 200 nitrates.