Newbie, confused about nitrates

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You mean from the top down to there, or just the width of your finger?

The width of the finger might be 100 mL.
Assuming that is about 5% ammonia, you added 5 grams of ammonia which would convert into 18 grams of nitrate.

In a 65 gallon tank, that amounts to about 70 ppm of nitrate. My assumptions can easily be off by more than a factor of two, so there easily could be a lot of nitrate.

 

[Fishinwall]

From top down.
I was dosing about 13-15 ml of ammonia each day to get the tank up to 4ppm.

It's 3% ammonia.

 

[Fishinwall]

Really getting brown now.

 

[Fishinwall]

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

From top down.
I was dosing about 13-15 ml of ammonia each day to get the tank up to 4ppm.

It's 3% ammonia.

Top down would be much more, so you could easily have dosed a few hundred ppm worth, and so it might take several large water changes to get it down.

 

[Fishinwall]

Thanks Randy.... Filling up another 28 gal now.

 

[Fishinwall]

18 gal. Fat fingers

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You're welcome.

Good luck.

 

[Fishinwall]

Randy Holmes-Farley
I changed another 18 gal.... Next day, nitrates still at 160! How long is this going to continue? I really hate wasting all this water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Did you try diluting some to verify that the kit is able to detect a drop?

 

[Fishinwall]

Did you try diluting some to verify that the kit is able to detect a drop?

No I'll have to try that. I figured that either way, if it was high, it was high and it would need to come down.

Matt

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Dilution can give you an actual value that you can track downward.

 

[Fishinwall]

Dilution can give you an actual value that you can track downward.

Oh very cool. Thanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You're welcome.

Good luck.

 

[Fishinwall]

Randy Holmes-Farley

Ok I diluted my water and now I'm getting a reading between 20-40 ppm.
Is say it is closer to 20.

So now I need to do another water change and do a diluted reading again for this to mean anything?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How much did you dilute it?

We can back calculate the actual concentration.

 

[Fishinwall]

1part to 3 parts rodi. One quart total.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So if it was 20-40 ppm after dilution, then it is actually 80-160 ppm in the tank.

Next time you measure it after some water changing, do the same dilution and we can see if it is going down.

 

[Fishinwall]

Ok thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You're welcome.

Good luck!