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I'm disabled and deal with chronic illness, so doing water changes can be difficult to impossible for me. I've accidentally let my tanks go to the 80-100ppm Nitrates mark (per test strips) with absolutely zero negative effects seen on my Guppies. They showed no negative signs, eat well, breed and drop fry, zero issues.
@THandP_org I've done the same, increased my plants. I'm also using Wonder Shells to make sure the minerals don't drop too much also, with mostly doing top offs for evaporation. I live in Southern California, so water is a concern here too.
I have 40ppm nitrate out the tap in the UK so its almost impossible to get it to 0 or low, never had any issues i just make sure it doesn't get out of control high, i honestly dont think nitrate is a major fish killer unless maybe there is a huge swing in numbers over night or it stupidly high ppm,
My nitrates are high often, and I don't see a problem with my fish if they go up to 60. I don' t freak out about it, and I change water as soon as I can. The fish don't act any differently and haven't in my 20+ years of fish keeping. If the nitrate level around 60 is that bad then I don't think my pair of angels would have lived to 10 and 11 years old. The ammonia is what i pay attention to, and I don't have that problem often. Thank goodness! I liked this video! Thank you so much!!
One thing I would add is that people with soft water may still struggle with this approach. I don’t believe Easy Green adds much Calcium or Magnesium to the water. The co-op website acknowledges this, but thought it worth pointing out here in the Comments too.
Thank you for tackling this confusing topic. The nitrates in my display tank have been averaging 40-80 and I've been leaving it be while the tank has been cycling, but it's time for fish now & I wondered what was going to be safe.
Great video. My first planted tank was a disaster because I still did the necessary water changes to keep nitrates below 10 ppm. Plants do not like low nitrates.
Idk with others but in my case i have a community planted tank with many floating plants. I maintain my Nitrate below 40 ppm. I've been observing my fish for roughly 5 years and i concluded that if the nitrates stays 10-20 ppm my fish are healthier however if it goes above 40 ppm they become vulnerable and starts to get sick. I also observed that they really love new stocked water especially my corys and synodontis as they eat and swim more after i do 50-60% water change every 2 weeks. I guess there's no definite answer regarding what Nitrate level is good or bad as each tank is quite unique on its own.
I keep my tanks at 30-40 b/c they're fairly heavily planted for such a small bioload. It's the only way my plants don't straight up die. Especially with floaters.
That's what I thought with all the Easy Green talk. I wanted to hear more specific about different fish (in my case a betta) reaction to different Nitrate levels to tank size, etc...
Yeah there's been a lot of wrong information in times past about nitrates. Nitrates are not dangerous and not nothing to be concerned about unless your levels are so high and you have neglected your tank for so long them it might become an issue but other than that just keep taking care of your fish in your tank and nitrates won't be a problem just like she said they are needed especially for planted tanks
I have a heavily planted tank with female bettas and jumbo ear guppies. I gave 6 or 7 inch garden soil with some vermicompost mixed. I can't purchase fertilizer products like easy green cuz whatever money i get i invest in fishes so budget issues 😕 So I my dad said try to put crushed eggshells in cuz they have and I tried and worked miracle 😅 none of plants have holes and things like that and yes I place the tank in direct sunlight. And its really going well Thanks aquarium Co op team for new videos Huge love and respect from India 🇮🇳
When I had a tank with a lot of java ferns a couple years ago I couldn't figure out why they kept yellowing and dying when my tank had plenty of nitrates and I fertilized regularly. I think it was one of Irene's videos that said to test for potassium. I had zero potassium in my tank and had to start adding that one to two times a week
The best thing I do is grow house plants outside the aquarium with the roots dangling inside the tank. You don't need to feed them. My water perimeters are perfect, and the fish are happy. There are lots of videos posted on TH-cam about this.
Nitrates are a 'problem' that rarely exists... The nitrate levels in my aquariums often sit around the 40ppm mark, and the fish are happy. The plants are overjoyed at the abundance of an essential food source. For me, water changes won't reduce that level much because the water that comes out of my tap has about.20ppm nitrate (it's always worth testing all of the levels in your tap water as well as your aquarium - you may be surprised to find what's in there). My aquariums are well filtered - with good flow: so the detritus and mulm build up is insignificant. Heavy planting and a realistic fish stock level helps further... I very rarely need to do water changes: topping up to account for evaporation loss is sufficient. The only 'water change' my aquariums get, in effect, is during filter maintenance, when old aquarium water is used for media rinsing. Plant trimming is the only real maintenance i do on any regular basis.
I have 7 goldfish (4-6" each) in a 55 gallon. I have a large healthy Amazon sword plant and several pothos clippings dipped in the water. After about a month without a water change I had no ammonia or nitrites, but had nitrates around the 60ppm mark if I'm reading my test kit right. I did a major water change and got it down to 25ppm. Was I wasting my time if the other factors were good?
Thank you! I've done numerous "emergency" water changes due to nitrate levels being above 40 ppm. Ammonia levels I watch very closely and luckily in my 3 years of fish keeping have only had 1 spike and all fish survived. ❤
I live in Australia and want to set up some tanks to breed tropicals. What size tank to you recommend [ inches or cm not just volume ] for Angels and guppies etc, all the most common stuff?
@@justme.9711 I don't have Angel's but have a 30l tank and 3 guppies, they started breeding within 3 weeks of arriving, much to my surprise, plus had ICH treatment in it. I live in NZ
@@petertaylor6479 Thanks for the reply, but if you read the question it specifically asks ... [ inches or cm not just volume ]. P.S. I'm just across the channel in OZ, small world Bro, lol.
I’m going to experiment with my planted 55 gallon and do a 25% water change every 2 months. Nitrate is not bad for fish as the research states. It’s just food for plants.
I would also say, do not assume that your tap water has 0 nitrate. I once lived in an area that the tap water had 25-40 ppm nitrate at all times. So test your tap water every so often at a minimum.
I keep hearing this, but no one really mentions what kind of fish they're stocking. My concern is for Livebearers (platy/molly). I'm still not as experienced. My tank will sometimes go over 40 PPM. Like probably 60-80 , which scares me. However I'm using diy Root tabs (osmocote+) which do increase nitrates, kind of my only option since I'm stuck with eco complete substrate now. Been trying to use less, and WC for that week. I also use Seachem Flourish for the water column. What i do notice is that my fish look like they're at their happiest even though it's high, so I'm not convinced that 40 PPM is dangerous. What i have done however is increase my plants. Feels like i can't have too much plants. I'm adding plants everywhere, including pothos, and lucky bamboo. Mainly fast growers for aquatic plants. 55G,29G,20G,10G. I am Also using a good amount of filter media. I would like to do water changes every 2-3 weeks, but that would probably mean 60-80PPM. More so, because i want my tanks to be an ecosystem. I've got some pest snails too, but I'm thinking they're probably a good idea. Should i be concerned? I would like to not have to do water changes, and instead like to just get weekly toP offs. I am lazy, but if i must do it, then i will. Not just that, but i don't like wasting so much water (+water bill). I would've done things differently like going for father fish's method, but at this point it's too late since I've already exhausted past my budget. I'm kind of stuck with eco complete, seachem flourish 😬, and Diy osmocote+.
My thoughts as a 85% guppy owner in my 10 tanks is unless you have a sky rocket spike coming seemingly out of no where you can probably get away with the slightly elevated rating as the process is slow enough depending on how hardy your fish are they (I'm using this term loosely) get used to it. Which is also why when doing water changes which aid in the opposite reaction of lowering them it also doesn't effect them. It's still gradual doing 20%-50% water changes. * I think thats why even when a spike strikes the recommendation is to do roughly 30%ish water changes daily or twice daily if at a crazy high. . I had one of my nano tanks spike last year, i think due to medicine I used. Which i know can happen but it was sky high and I was leaving out of town in 5 days. I didn't want my fiance to have to deal with more than feeding them so i did 25% changes twice a day for 48 hours, then 50% 48 hours and the morning before i left did a 80% testing the morning before I left and a few hours after the last water change as well. All was good. And they were also fine. Which again leads me to believe it's adaptable til it obviously isnt. . However I don't have any live plants in my tanks due to plant care anxiety and lack of knowledge and funds for them, I only have pothos and other house plants growing out the tops. So i can't speak on the topic as someone with a planted tank. I will say laziness isn't really an option. Idc how many snails, plants, algae eaters are in a tank unless you have a huge tank minimally stocked poop still happens, illnesses are present and waiting to attack if the fish get compromised immune systems. I personally would rather do smaller water changes to siphon the waste than have to do really frequent water testing. Because I have live bearers half my tanks are overstocked, i test water either weekly, every other week, or if i notice my fish acting off. . I don't know if this helps at all. Make water changes fun. For me it's the only time I'm usually calling my fish asshats. 😂 And telling them they should be ashamed of themselves for the poop and acting like 3rd world starving children while i find hidden uneaten food. When all is done I take a few minutes to watch them all and we love one another all over again.
800 ppm? I wouldn't risk that, but I heard wild guppies (or Endlers) often live in pools near a garbage dump. So when a biologist caught a batch of wild guppies, he had to grate pieces of soap when aclimating them to normal conditions, otherwise the fish would look half-comatose. Here in the EU the legal limit is 50 ppm in the tap water. My fish tanks usually have less nitrates then the water I drink. It's even more visible in tanks with CO_2 injections (I had few in the past), which have near 0 ppm Nitrates in few days after a water change. Plants use it all.
Irene, your videos are some of my favorites. But I gotta say this one was a little confusing. You started with recommendations of 80-100ppm then seemed everything else was down around 50? I have looked several times for actual scientific studies regarding nitrates and there really isn't a ton. I did run across the one you referenced with 800ppm starting to kill guppy fry. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with running my nitrates into the 100s, but I generally don't concern myself with water changes or anything else up to about 100-120. Seems pretty safe compared to studies, so...I'm comfortable there and don't have much in the way of fish deaths. Although my numbers are never that high except in brand new aquariums. Most of my tanks run around 50ish +/- 10ppm after they've been running for a few months - with a whole bunch of Aquarium CO-OP!!
To clarify, the maximum nitrate we usually recommend is 100 ppm (even though it's still really low for most fish toxicity levels). However, we aim to dose up to 20-50 ppm nitrate when using Easy Green.
I keep hearing this, but no one really mentions what kind of fish they're stocking. My concern is for Livebearers (platy/molly). I'm still not as experienced. My tank will sometimes go over 40 PPM. Like probably 60-80 , which scares me. However I'm using diy Root tabs (osmocote+) which do increase nitrates, kind of my only option since I'm stuck with eco complete substrate now. Been trying to use less, and WC for that week. I also use Seachem Flourish for the water column. What i do notice is that my fish look like they're at their happiest even though it's high, so I'm not convinced that 40 PPM is dangerous. What i have done however is increase my plants. Feels like i can't have too much plants. I'm adding plants everywhere, including pothos, and lucky bamboo. Mainly fast growers for aquatic plants. 55G,29G,20G,10G. I am Also using a good amount of filter media. I would like to do water changes every 2-3 weeks, but that would probably mean 60-80PPM. More so, because i want my tanks to be an ecosystem. I've got some pest snails too, but I'm thinking they're probably a good idea. Should i be concerned? I would like to not have to do water changes, and instead like to just get weekly toP offs. I am lazy, but if i must do it, then i will. I would've done things differently like going for father fish's method, but at this point it's too late since I've already exhausted past my budget. I'm kind of stuck with eco complete, seachem flourish 😬, and Diy osmocote+.
My first planted tank is about 3 months old. High tech, heavily planted, AI freshwater blade light, CO2, UNS Controsoil substrate. Tank has about 40 fish, 10 shrimp, and many snails. Water tests always show zero NH3, Nitrate, Nitrite, Iron, and phosphate. I dose API leaf zone, Seachem Flourish, Seachem Iron, and Seachem Phoshorous multiple times weekly. Everything I add is consumed in a full daylight cycle, and levels are usually zero for phosphate and Iron again by the time I inject the next dose (every other day). Should I be concerned that my Nitrate levels are always zero? Should I add more fish? Should I add supplemental nitrogen? The tank isn't over-run with algae, and plants are growing but not vigorously. My dwarf hairgrass hasn't grown a bit since I planted it, but it is still alive. Recomendations, please?
To participate in your study (Nitrate NO3) here are some figures validated in France: remember :1 PPM corresponds to 1 part per million, or 1 mg/liter of water. To give you an example: no centenarian in France has consumed between the age of 1 and the age of 60 more than 8 mg/Liter of NO3 in the water. Humans Water suppliers can legally go up to 50mg of NO3 per liter in France. 800 ppm is letal for Guppies, 800 ppm = 800mg/Liter of water!The same amount for human beings! During the world championship of guppies, a winner has never won with a breeding having water with more than 8 mg/liter of NO3.
I have angel fish and I have plecos also. I would think nitrates that high will kill my fish . I have purchased alot of plants recently and recently I put root tabs and easy green and lost 4 baby angels. I'm very confused because my understanding the 25 nitrates is dangerous. Confused. ???
Hey! I'm actually in my masters now studying limnology. There is no current model for nitrogen saturation in closed systems. Not saying any information given is wrong(great job) but nitrates should be considered as concentration /per hour. As it is an exponential growth concentration
I don’t agree on this one. Mind you that I have been keeping planted community tanks for a good 5 years now and my experience is that once nitrates are above 20 for longer periods (some weeks) you’ll get older and very young fish struggling often resulting in death. I can guarantee that you will not be able to raise any fish to oldish age when you don’t keep nitrates near 0. As for plants they do need nitrate but you should only add low amounts of nitrate if the fish waste is not producing enough for the amount of plants you have. They don’t care if there is 1ppm or 30ppm in the water as long as they have a daily supply.
plants don’t need nitrate, they need nitrogen (which can come in the form of nitrate). Diana Walstad wrote a nice article about this. Plants only consume nitrate at peak photosynthesis and prefer ammonia and nitrite over nitrate. they’ll only consume nitrate as a last resort and only if ammonia and nitrite aren’t available. ammonia also comes in two forms: toxic (nh3) ammonia and nontoxic (nh4) ammonium! it’s usually 99% ammonium with a pH under 8 you need a good light/photoperiod to allow plants to photosynthesize properly !
Since water conditioners neutralize nitrates, is it better to wait a few days after doing a water change before adding Easy Green? Otherwise, won't the conditioner bind to the nitrates I'm trying to add?
I’m doing my fishless cycle and I’m just waiting for the nitrites to start falling by themselves. If I also have nitrates in my tank does that mean the process is already starting
I think nitrite is harmless to all but the most sensitive fish. Most all fish we keep don't care. I have an Oscar that I've had for 3 years. Haven't done a water change in 2 years. Do top off ofc. No plants (other than a little algae) nature isn't dumb folks, I suggest that before nitrates get anywhere near a real threat to our fish algae would bloom and consume some. In a "seasoned" tank you're always growing plants. I do very few water changes in any of my tanks. I breed Bettas, even in my fry grow outs no water changes are done. Ammonia and nitrite are always zero. I never check for nitrates.
I over feed the CRAP out of my tank. 9 adult guppies, a gaggle of baby guppies, three 2" bristlenose plecos, a handful of neocaradina shrimp, 6 pygmy corys, and an apocalypse worth of ramshorns all in a 40 gallon. Heavily planted. I have never been able to get the nitrates above 10 and when I do, it's at or almost zero within 24 hours. Bc of budget constraints I have not been able to order easy green. The only ferts I have are the API root tabs I put in at setup and the API leaf zone I've been dosing once a week. My hair grass is starting to spread and carpet a little bit but other than that and my java moss and guppy grass, only things actually seeming to grow is my salvinia and giant duckweed. Literally take 2-3 CUPS of floaters out per week. Minimal to no algae in the tank except on the side closest to the front door that gets full sun when I open the shades. Should I try to nix the floaters because they're taking up more than their share of nitrates? I've got a pretty sweet deal with almost no algae even using high lighting for sometimes 12+ hours because my 4 year old likes to watch the fish before bed and also gets up early
Is fungus related to nitrate in your tank because I does my easy green to 50 ppm. I only have six hours of light, but I have white fuzz growing on my decor, and it almost looks like cobwebs all over my substrate.
Oh god! I've been doing the opposite! I have a pretty heavily planted tank, but I've stepped up my water changes to keep nitrates at 20ppm. Some of my plants have been looking sickly, and I thought more WCs would help. 😭😭😭
SAME! I only have a one betta 5 gal and ALL my betta groups are saying keep your nitrates below 40. That 10 ppm is safest. I always wandered why my plants start browning and dying.
@aquarium co-op Hello. I set up my 29 gallon aquarium about a month ago. I have watched hundreds of aquarium co op videos to help me along. I am in a great spot with the water except my plants are starving. I have 6 plants a small angel and 10 tetra type fish. I have root tabs for the 5 root feeders, but just recieved easy green today. I added 3 squirts right away. After watching this video, i added another 3 squirts after i retested 4 hours later with no change. Do I keep adding 3 squirts every 4 hours, until the nitrate level get between 25- 50ppm? No FB for me, this is the only form of social media I have and normally its just to waych videos, this is my first post lol Thanks for any help
Hello. Just after some advice, please. I set up my Juwel Rio 125 just over a week ago. It's got plenty of live plants in the tank, and a good filter, and air stone. How long should I leave it to cycle, before adding a couple of fish?
I used fritz turbo start 7, you can add fish same day with this, just don't over feed and don't add too many fish at the same time, tank will cycle in less then a week
Some opinions may differ, but I only use carbon in my filter to help clear water after finishing a medication dosing period. Otherwise i have some on hand if I need it.
Most people have at least 10ppm nitrates straight out of the tap. A lot of people have much more than that. I think the fear surrounding them is overblown.
I swear, it seems like people just pull numbers out of a hat. "You want to keep your nitrates as close to zero as possible." Someone else steps up and says, "No, 20ppm is the threshold you want to set." "No, no. 40ppm is the sweet spot." And then that one guy pipes in with his opinion, "If you leave your nitrates at 100ppm, you're gonna be sitting pretty!"
I love your videos but I have to disagree here. Nitrates won't have an immediate effect but I have found it does have a long term effect. Mine used to be around 50 - 75 and I would occasionally find older fish getting issues like some sores, dropsy etc. here and there. These days I keep mine below 20ppm with the help of deep, dirted substrates, not a lot of water changes (every 4-6 weeks and tanks are well stocked), lots of plants. Sometimes the nitrates are as low as 3ppm. Tanks are a jungle (granted not all plants always do well, some die and get taken over by others but there are always plants growing all over the place). Plants will consume nitrate but they are not dependant on it. They more easily consume ammonia. If you test the water of a natural unpolluted system where aquatic plants grow, you won't find nitrates so why should we have it in our tanks? On top of that, my fish now breed as well (egg layers) and here and there a fry even survives to adulthood. I never had that when my nitrates were higher. I know this is not scientific proof but it has been my experience over many years of fishkeeping.
So this is basically an advert for your fertilizer. No matter what keep using our fertilizer and manage your water changes to suit our product... Got it.
I know people will not tolerate with what im sayin after yhis but my goldy nitrate over 40ppm in just 1 day..but i perform water changed every week..keep counting i dun believed in da 1st place
Lol. You must have a big goldfish! Have you thought about adding some pothos to the tank to suck up some of the nitrates? Imo a big pothos growing out of a goldy aquarium is just lovely
I do not agree with your generalization of nitrates. I keep Red Neon Blue Eye (Rainbowfish) - Pseudomugil luminatus. If the nitrates get 20ppm or higher, one or two per day of the fish will die until I reduce the nitrates. The tank is seasoned and the plants in the tank are growing. I have found that if I keep my aquariums below 40 ppm of nitrate my fish are healthier. Once the nitrate in a tank goes above 40ppm fish deaths can happen. I have been keeping fish and shrimp for over 20 years. I currently have 24 aquariums, but my wife does not want me to get more.
I've kept luminatus in over 20ppm without issue before, everyone will have different experiences. Are your nitrates coming from fertilizers or build up? All ecosystems will be different.
That would only be needed if you had nitrates in the 100s of ppm. You only have to do water changes until it goes below 50 ppm so that you can start adding Easy Green again (for a planted tank). 👍
AHA thank you for this. I am on the low nitrate end, and have been dosing Easy Green once per week and Leaf Zone once per week (because previously my Anubias was getting holes) and still testing low nitrate. I didn't think I could dose Easy Green more!
Wow. You completely cherry-picked the findings of the research paper. You mentioned that the researchers increased nitrates to 800 ppm before it became lethal for guppy fry, but you did not bother to mention that the paper's overall conclusion is quite different. The authors conclude that even modest nitrate levels are harmful over the long term: "Nitrate toxicity to aquatic animals increases with increasing nitrate concentrations and exposure times. [ . . . ] Freshwater animals appear to be more sensitive to nitrate than marine animals. A nitrate concentration of 10 mg NO3-N/l [ . . . ] can adversely affect, at least during long-term exposures, freshwater invertebrates [ . . . ], fishes [ . . . ], and amphibians. Safe levels below this nitrate concentration are recommended to protect sensitive freshwater animals from nitrate pollution. Furthermore, a maximum level of 2 mg NO3-N/l would be appropriate for protecting the most sensitive freshwater species."
Hi Irene, you should definitely change your video on when to change the water at 40ppm, that's just crazy. Water changes cause serious stress on fish and should only be done when needed.
Thanks for clarifying this for newer fish keepers. That non-specific-to-situation series of videos by that --insert your own insulting adjective here-- youtube "fishkeeper" that are circulating have convinced people to be lazy and that is the worst thing for the hobby.
*Take the conversation to our Facebook Group! Many Aquarium Co-Op team members are active there during their work days and can answer questions. Plus, you can talk with other hobbyists in our community. Post pictures and videos to show us what you've been up to. 🙂* facebook.com/groups/AquariumGroupSupport/
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Take the conversation to our Facebook Group! Many Aquarium Co-Op team members are active there during their work days and can answer questions. Plus, you can talk with other hobbyists in our community. Post pictures and videos to show us what you've been up to. 🙂 facebook.com/groups/AquariumGroupSupport/
This is the video we definitely needed
I'm disabled and deal with chronic illness, so doing water changes can be difficult to impossible for me. I've accidentally let my tanks go to the 80-100ppm Nitrates mark (per test strips) with absolutely zero negative effects seen on my Guppies. They showed no negative signs, eat well, breed and drop fry, zero issues.
I'm in a similar situation, and have increased plants in my tanks because between my health and the drought, water changes are no longer an option.
@THandP_org I've done the same, increased my plants. I'm also using Wonder Shells to make sure the minerals don't drop too much also, with mostly doing top offs for evaporation. I live in Southern California, so water is a concern here too.
@@ReneesZooTube get anaerobic bacteria.this will solve nitrates
@@THandP_org you can't use a python water changer?
i get excited when i hear nitrates cuz it means PLANT GROWTH
When would we ever tired seeing plant growth. I love seeing new leaves on my anubias and buce
I have 40ppm nitrate out the tap in the UK so its almost impossible to get it to 0 or low, never had any issues i just make sure it doesn't get out of control high, i honestly dont think nitrate is a major fish killer unless maybe there is a huge swing in numbers over night or it stupidly high ppm,
My nitrates are high often, and I don't see a problem with my fish if they go up to 60. I don' t freak out about it, and I change water as soon as I can. The fish don't act any differently and haven't in my 20+ years of fish keeping. If the nitrate level around 60 is that bad then I don't think my pair of angels would have lived to 10 and 11 years old.
The ammonia is what i pay attention to, and I don't have that problem often. Thank goodness!
I liked this video! Thank you so much!!
One thing I would add is that people with soft water may still struggle with this approach. I don’t believe Easy Green adds much Calcium or Magnesium to the water. The co-op website acknowledges this, but thought it worth pointing out here in the Comments too.
Thank you for tackling this confusing topic. The nitrates in my display tank have been averaging 40-80 and I've been leaving it be while the tank has been cycling, but it's time for fish now & I wondered what was going to be safe.
Great video. My first planted tank was a disaster because I still did the necessary water changes to keep nitrates below 10 ppm. Plants do not like low nitrates.
Idk with others but in my case i have a community planted tank with many floating plants. I maintain my Nitrate below 40 ppm. I've been observing my fish for roughly 5 years and i concluded that if the nitrates stays 10-20 ppm my fish are healthier however if it goes above 40 ppm they become vulnerable and starts to get sick. I also observed that they really love new stocked water especially my corys and synodontis as they eat and swim more after i do 50-60% water change every 2 weeks. I guess there's no definite answer regarding what Nitrate level is good or bad as each tank is quite unique on its own.
I keep my tanks at 30-40 b/c they're fairly heavily planted for such a small bioload. It's the only way my plants don't straight up die. Especially with floaters.
Was excited because not enough people talk about nitrate numbers. Too bad it's just an easy green commercial..
I agree & commented before seeing your comment.👍👍
That's what I thought with all the Easy Green talk. I wanted to hear more specific about different fish (in my case a betta) reaction to different Nitrate levels to tank size, etc...
@@apekepoo basically if you don't have nitrite or ammonia, you can just change water on a Betta tank when you want to.
Yeah there's been a lot of wrong information in times past about nitrates. Nitrates are not dangerous and not nothing to be concerned about unless your levels are so high and you have neglected your tank for so long them it might become an issue but other than that just keep taking care of your fish in your tank and nitrates
won't be a problem just like she said they are needed especially for planted tanks
This is so comprehensive and informative!
I have a heavily planted tank with female bettas and jumbo ear guppies.
I gave 6 or 7 inch garden soil with some vermicompost mixed.
I can't purchase fertilizer products like easy green cuz whatever money i get i invest in fishes so budget issues 😕
So I my dad said try to put crushed eggshells in cuz they have and I tried and worked miracle 😅 none of plants have holes and things like that and yes I place the tank in direct sunlight.
And its really going well
Thanks aquarium Co op team for new videos
Huge love and respect from India 🇮🇳
Why exactly are you using egg shells? Isn't that for calcium only. May have to try it in a mesh bag.
@@thatonefoofrumlongbe it has magnesium and other helpful chemicals
I crushed them and put in that sand bed.
I had no issues from last June whatsoever
When I had a tank with a lot of java ferns a couple years ago I couldn't figure out why they kept yellowing and dying when my tank had plenty of nitrates and I fertilized regularly. I think it was one of Irene's videos that said to test for potassium. I had zero potassium in my tank and had to start adding that one to two times a week
Any good way to add potassium? I Hava java fern as well.
@@Killoer seachem sells potassium. I'm trying to find another test kit though, the one I bought is out of stock everywhere
The best thing I do is grow house plants outside the aquarium with the roots dangling inside the tank. You don't need to feed them. My water perimeters are perfect, and the fish are happy. There are lots of videos posted on TH-cam about this.
Nitrates are a 'problem' that rarely exists...
The nitrate levels in my aquariums often sit around the 40ppm mark, and the fish are happy. The plants are overjoyed at the abundance of an essential food source.
For me, water changes won't reduce that level much because the water that comes out of my tap has about.20ppm nitrate (it's always worth testing all of the levels in your tap water as well as your aquarium - you may be surprised to find what's in there).
My aquariums are well filtered - with good flow: so the detritus and mulm build up is insignificant.
Heavy planting and a realistic fish stock level helps further...
I very rarely need to do water changes: topping up to account for evaporation loss is sufficient. The only 'water change' my aquariums get, in effect, is during filter maintenance, when old aquarium water is used for media rinsing.
Plant trimming is the only real maintenance i do on any regular basis.
I have 7 goldfish (4-6" each) in a 55 gallon. I have a large healthy Amazon sword plant and several pothos clippings dipped in the water. After about a month without a water change I had no ammonia or nitrites, but had nitrates around the 60ppm mark if I'm reading my test kit right. I did a major water change and got it down to 25ppm. Was I wasting my time if the other factors were good?
There are a lot of studies on the impact of nitrates in the water on fish. This data is used in fish farms and similar industrial applications.
Excellent video with great information! Thanks!!!
Thank you! I've done numerous "emergency" water changes due to nitrate levels being above 40 ppm. Ammonia levels I watch very closely and luckily in my 3 years of fish keeping have only had 1 spike and all fish survived. ❤
Others have been saying g this for a long time. Glad you came out with this.
I wish API had an easier to read high Nitrate card or color.
No kidding. 10 and 20 look identical as does 40 and 80 ppm. It's so hard to determine which one it is!
I live in Australia and want to set up some tanks to breed tropicals. What size tank to you recommend [ inches or cm not just volume ] for Angels and guppies etc, all the most common stuff?
@@justme.9711 I don't have Angel's but have a 30l tank and 3 guppies, they started breeding within 3 weeks of arriving, much to my surprise, plus had ICH treatment in it. I live in NZ
@@petertaylor6479 Thanks for the reply, but if you read the question it specifically asks ... [ inches or cm not just volume ]. P.S. I'm just across the channel in OZ, small world Bro, lol.
I have always found the Nitrate levels confusing. Many thanks for this video
Unwanted algae blooms are probably the biggest realistic problem with high nitrates.
I’m going to experiment with my planted 55 gallon and do a 25% water change every 2 months. Nitrate is not bad for fish as the research states. It’s just food for plants.
I would also say, do not assume that your tap water has 0 nitrate. I once lived in an area that the tap water had 25-40 ppm nitrate at all times. So test your tap water every so often at a minimum.
I keep hearing this, but no one really mentions what kind of fish they're stocking. My concern is for Livebearers (platy/molly). I'm still not as experienced. My tank will sometimes go over 40 PPM. Like probably 60-80 , which scares me. However I'm using diy Root tabs (osmocote+) which do increase nitrates, kind of my only option since I'm stuck with eco complete substrate now. Been trying to use less, and WC for that week. I also use Seachem Flourish for the water column.
What i do notice is that my fish look like they're at their happiest even though it's high, so I'm not convinced that 40 PPM is dangerous. What i have done however is increase my plants. Feels like i can't have too much plants. I'm adding plants everywhere, including pothos, and lucky bamboo. Mainly fast growers for aquatic plants. 55G,29G,20G,10G. I am Also using a good amount of filter media.
I would like to do water changes every 2-3 weeks, but that would probably mean 60-80PPM. More so, because i want my tanks to be an ecosystem. I've got some pest snails too, but I'm thinking they're probably a good idea. Should i be concerned? I would like to not have to do water changes, and instead like to just get weekly toP offs. I am lazy, but if i must do it, then i will. Not just that, but i don't like wasting so much water (+water bill).
I would've done things differently like going for father fish's method, but at this point it's too late since I've already exhausted past my budget. I'm kind of stuck with eco complete, seachem flourish 😬, and Diy osmocote+.
My thoughts as a 85% guppy owner in my 10 tanks is unless you have a sky rocket spike coming seemingly out of no where you can probably get away with the slightly elevated rating as the process is slow enough depending on how hardy your fish are they (I'm using this term loosely) get used to it. Which is also why when doing water changes which aid in the opposite reaction of lowering them it also doesn't effect them. It's still gradual doing 20%-50% water changes.
* I think thats why even when a spike strikes the recommendation is to do roughly 30%ish water changes daily or twice daily if at a crazy high.
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I had one of my nano tanks spike last year, i think due to medicine I used. Which i know can happen but it was sky high and I was leaving out of town in 5 days. I didn't want my fiance to have to deal with more than feeding them so i did 25% changes twice a day for 48 hours, then 50% 48 hours and the morning before i left did a 80% testing the morning before I left and a few hours after the last water change as well. All was good. And they were also fine. Which again leads me to believe it's adaptable til it obviously isnt.
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However I don't have any live plants in my tanks due to plant care anxiety and lack of knowledge and funds for them, I only have pothos and other house plants growing out the tops. So i can't speak on the topic as someone with a planted tank. I will say laziness isn't really an option. Idc how many snails, plants, algae eaters are in a tank unless you have a huge tank minimally stocked poop still happens, illnesses are present and waiting to attack if the fish get compromised immune systems. I personally would rather do smaller water changes to siphon the waste than have to do really frequent water testing. Because I have live bearers half my tanks are overstocked, i test water either weekly, every other week, or if i notice my fish acting off.
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I don't know if this helps at all. Make water changes fun. For me it's the only time I'm usually calling my fish asshats. 😂 And telling them they should be ashamed of themselves for the poop and acting like 3rd world starving children while i find hidden uneaten food. When all is done I take a few minutes to watch them all and we love one another all over again.
Please do a similar video about all the things on the multi test strip.
800 ppm? I wouldn't risk that, but I heard wild guppies (or Endlers) often live in pools near a garbage dump. So when a biologist caught a batch of wild guppies, he had to grate pieces of soap when aclimating them to normal conditions, otherwise the fish would look half-comatose.
Here in the EU the legal limit is 50 ppm in the tap water. My fish tanks usually have less nitrates then the water I drink. It's even more visible in tanks with CO_2 injections (I had few in the past), which have near 0 ppm Nitrates in few days after a water change. Plants use it all.
Irene, your videos are some of my favorites. But I gotta say this one was a little confusing. You started with recommendations of 80-100ppm then seemed everything else was down around 50? I have looked several times for actual scientific studies regarding nitrates and there really isn't a ton. I did run across the one you referenced with 800ppm starting to kill guppy fry. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with running my nitrates into the 100s, but I generally don't concern myself with water changes or anything else up to about 100-120. Seems pretty safe compared to studies, so...I'm comfortable there and don't have much in the way of fish deaths. Although my numbers are never that high except in brand new aquariums. Most of my tanks run around 50ish +/- 10ppm after they've been running for a few months - with a whole bunch of Aquarium CO-OP!!
To clarify, the maximum nitrate we usually recommend is 100 ppm (even though it's still really low for most fish toxicity levels). However, we aim to dose up to 20-50 ppm nitrate when using Easy Green.
I keep hearing this, but no one really mentions what kind of fish they're stocking. My concern is for Livebearers (platy/molly). I'm still not as experienced. My tank will sometimes go over 40 PPM. Like probably 60-80 , which scares me. However I'm using diy Root tabs (osmocote+) which do increase nitrates, kind of my only option since I'm stuck with eco complete substrate now. Been trying to use less, and WC for that week. I also use Seachem Flourish for the water column.
What i do notice is that my fish look like they're at their happiest even though it's high, so I'm not convinced that 40 PPM is dangerous. What i have done however is increase my plants. Feels like i can't have too much plants. I'm adding plants everywhere, including pothos, and lucky bamboo. Mainly fast growers for aquatic plants. 55G,29G,20G,10G. I am Also using a good amount of filter media.
I would like to do water changes every 2-3 weeks, but that would probably mean 60-80PPM. More so, because i want my tanks to be an ecosystem. I've got some pest snails too, but I'm thinking they're probably a good idea. Should i be concerned? I would like to not have to do water changes, and instead like to just get weekly toP offs. I am lazy, but if i must do it, then i will. I would've done things differently like going for father fish's method, but at this point it's too late since I've already exhausted past my budget. I'm kind of stuck with eco complete, seachem flourish 😬, and Diy osmocote+.
Nitrates won’t hurt your fish. 100 years ago when I started keeping fish never had a test kit fish did great for years 😎
My first planted tank is about 3 months old. High tech, heavily planted, AI freshwater blade light, CO2, UNS Controsoil substrate. Tank has about 40 fish, 10 shrimp, and many snails. Water tests always show zero NH3, Nitrate, Nitrite, Iron, and phosphate. I dose API leaf zone, Seachem Flourish, Seachem Iron, and Seachem Phoshorous multiple times weekly. Everything I add is consumed in a full daylight cycle, and levels are usually zero for phosphate and Iron again by the time I inject the next dose (every other day). Should I be concerned that my Nitrate levels are always zero? Should I add more fish? Should I add supplemental nitrogen? The tank isn't over-run with algae, and plants are growing but not vigorously. My dwarf hairgrass hasn't grown a bit since I planted it, but it is still alive. Recomendations, please?
To participate in your study (Nitrate NO3) here are some figures validated in France:
remember :1 PPM corresponds to 1 part per million, or 1 mg/liter of water.
To give you an example:
no centenarian in France has consumed between the age of 1 and the age of 60 more than 8 mg/Liter of NO3 in the water.
Humans Water suppliers can legally go up to 50mg of NO3 per liter in France.
800 ppm is letal for Guppies, 800 ppm = 800mg/Liter of water!The same amount for human beings!
During the world championship of guppies, a winner has never won with a breeding having water with more than 8 mg/liter of NO3.
Love the vids ❤
I’ve got some nitrates in my tap water (downside of living in farm country) which makes it a challenge to get nitrates too low with water changes
I have angel fish and I have plecos also. I would think nitrates that high will kill my fish . I have purchased alot of plants recently and recently I put root tabs and easy green and lost 4 baby angels. I'm very confused because my understanding the 25 nitrates is dangerous. Confused. ???
Hey! I'm actually in my masters now studying limnology. There is no current model for nitrogen saturation in closed systems. Not saying any information given is wrong(great job) but nitrates should be considered as concentration /per hour.
As it is an exponential growth concentration
I wish there was an Easy Green with no nitrates. Anyone know of a fertilizer with everything but nitrates?
I don’t agree on this one. Mind you that I have been keeping planted community tanks for a good 5 years now and my experience is that once nitrates are above 20 for longer periods (some weeks) you’ll get older and very young fish struggling often resulting in death. I can guarantee that you will not be able to raise any fish to oldish age when you don’t keep nitrates near 0. As for plants they do need nitrate but you should only add low amounts of nitrate if the fish waste is not producing enough for the amount of plants you have. They don’t care if there is 1ppm or 30ppm in the water as long as they have a daily supply.
Very helpful. Thank you!
plants don’t need nitrate, they need nitrogen (which can come in the form of nitrate).
Diana Walstad wrote a nice article about this. Plants only consume nitrate at peak photosynthesis and prefer ammonia and nitrite over nitrate. they’ll only consume nitrate as a last resort and only if ammonia and nitrite aren’t available.
ammonia also comes in two forms: toxic (nh3) ammonia and nontoxic (nh4) ammonium! it’s usually 99% ammonium with a pH under 8
you need a good light/photoperiod to allow plants to photosynthesize properly !
Since water conditioners neutralize nitrates, is it better to wait a few days after doing a water change before adding Easy Green? Otherwise, won't the conditioner bind to the nitrates I'm trying to add?
I’m doing my fishless cycle and I’m just waiting for the nitrites to start falling by themselves. If I also have nitrates in my tank does that mean the process is already starting
Yes. Nitrates only start showing up (if you're not adding them) when the nitrites are being converted
I've ALWAYS straight away added fish to tanks ( gradually), my tanks have always been planted with deep substrate, & very few fish funerals 😂👍👍
I think nitrite is harmless to all but the most sensitive fish. Most all fish we keep don't care. I have an Oscar that I've had for 3 years. Haven't done a water change in 2 years. Do top off ofc. No plants (other than a little algae) nature isn't dumb folks, I suggest that before nitrates get anywhere near a real threat to our fish algae would bloom and consume some. In a "seasoned" tank you're always growing plants. I do very few water changes in any of my tanks. I breed Bettas, even in my fry grow outs no water changes are done. Ammonia and nitrite are always zero. I never check for nitrates.
I over feed the CRAP out of my tank. 9 adult guppies, a gaggle of baby guppies, three 2" bristlenose plecos, a handful of neocaradina shrimp, 6 pygmy corys, and an apocalypse worth of ramshorns all in a 40 gallon. Heavily planted. I have never been able to get the nitrates above 10 and when I do, it's at or almost zero within 24 hours. Bc of budget constraints I have not been able to order easy green. The only ferts I have are the API root tabs I put in at setup and the API leaf zone I've been dosing once a week. My hair grass is starting to spread and carpet a little bit but other than that and my java moss and guppy grass, only things actually seeming to grow is my salvinia and giant duckweed. Literally take 2-3 CUPS of floaters out per week. Minimal to no algae in the tank except on the side closest to the front door that gets full sun when I open the shades. Should I try to nix the floaters because they're taking up more than their share of nitrates? I've got a pretty sweet deal with almost no algae even using high lighting for sometimes 12+ hours because my 4 year old likes to watch the fish before bed and also gets up early
Thank you Irene, this is exactly what I needed to know!!!
Awesome video! I keep my nitrates below 60ppm in my monster tank
Is fungus related to nitrate in your tank because I does my easy green to 50 ppm. I only have six hours of light, but I have white fuzz growing on my decor, and it almost looks like cobwebs all over my substrate.
Wow this video is REALLY well made!!!
Oh god! I've been doing the opposite! I have a pretty heavily planted tank, but I've stepped up my water changes to keep nitrates at 20ppm. Some of my plants have been looking sickly, and I thought more WCs would help. 😭😭😭
Nooo. U need nitrate 4 Ur plants.
You're removing plant food. 20 isn't too low, but for heavily planted tanks it may be.
SAME! I only have a one betta 5 gal and ALL my betta groups are saying keep your nitrates below 40. That 10 ppm is safest. I always wandered why my plants start browning and dying.
Nitrates wont hurt your fish.
Your videos are oh so helpful 😊 !
Any good places to get easy green in canada? Or any alternative all in one ferts? Currently using only flourish.
Really informational!
I just doing the 75% water changes every 3 days without cleaning anything.
It's seems to be working since a year.
@aquarium co-op
Hello. I set up my 29 gallon aquarium about a month ago. I have watched hundreds of aquarium co op videos to help me along. I am in a great spot with the water except my plants are starving. I have 6 plants a small angel and 10 tetra type fish. I have root tabs for the 5 root feeders, but just recieved easy green today. I added 3 squirts right away. After watching this video, i added another 3 squirts after i retested 4 hours later with no change.
Do I keep adding 3 squirts every 4 hours, until the nitrate level get between 25- 50ppm?
No FB for me, this is the only form of social media I have and normally its just to waych videos, this is my first post lol
Thanks for any help
Hello. Just after some advice, please. I set up my Juwel Rio 125 just over a week ago. It's got plenty of live plants in the tank, and a good filter, and air stone. How long should I leave it to cycle, before adding a couple of fish?
I used fritz turbo start 7, you can add fish same day with this, just don't over feed and don't add too many fish at the same time, tank will cycle in less then a week
why do you need nitrates at 25ppm and need to dose easy green until they’re 50ppm?
Irene is the best. This video is great!
When adding the Easy Green should the carbon filtration be taken out or no?
Some opinions may differ, but I only use carbon in my filter to help clear water after finishing a medication dosing period. Otherwise i have some on hand if I need it.
Most people have at least 10ppm nitrates straight out of the tap. A lot of people have much more than that.
I think the fear surrounding them is overblown.
I swear, it seems like people just pull numbers out of a hat. "You want to keep your nitrates as close to zero as possible." Someone else steps up and says, "No, 20ppm is the threshold you want to set." "No, no. 40ppm is the sweet spot." And then that one guy pipes in with his opinion, "If you leave your nitrates at 100ppm, you're gonna be sitting pretty!"
Great information
Good stuff Irene
I love your videos but I have to disagree here. Nitrates won't have an immediate effect but I have found it does have a long term effect. Mine used to be around 50 - 75 and I would occasionally find older fish getting issues like some sores, dropsy etc. here and there. These days I keep mine below 20ppm with the help of deep, dirted substrates, not a lot of water changes (every 4-6 weeks and tanks are well stocked), lots of plants. Sometimes the nitrates are as low as 3ppm. Tanks are a jungle (granted not all plants always do well, some die and get taken over by others but there are always plants growing all over the place). Plants will consume nitrate but they are not dependant on it. They more easily consume ammonia. If you test the water of a natural unpolluted system where aquatic plants grow, you won't find nitrates so why should we have it in our tanks? On top of that, my fish now breed as well (egg layers) and here and there a fry even survives to adulthood. I never had that when my nitrates were higher. I know this is not scientific proof but it has been my experience over many years of fishkeeping.
So this is basically an advert for your fertilizer. No matter what keep using our fertilizer and manage your water changes to suit our product...
Got it.
I know people will not tolerate with what im sayin after yhis but my goldy nitrate over 40ppm in just 1 day..but i perform water changed every week..keep counting i dun believed in da 1st place
Lol. You must have a big goldfish! Have you thought about adding some pothos to the tank to suck up some of the nitrates? Imo a big pothos growing out of a goldy aquarium is just lovely
Now this is information 😀
❤u aquarium co op
I do not agree with your generalization of nitrates. I keep Red Neon Blue Eye (Rainbowfish) - Pseudomugil luminatus. If the nitrates get 20ppm or higher, one or two per day of the fish will die until I reduce the nitrates. The tank is seasoned and the plants in the tank are growing. I have found that if I keep my aquariums below 40 ppm of nitrate my fish are healthier. Once the nitrate in a tank goes above 40ppm fish deaths can happen. I have been keeping fish and shrimp for over 20 years. I currently have 24 aquariums, but my wife does not want me to get more.
I've kept luminatus in over 20ppm without issue before, everyone will have different experiences. Are your nitrates coming from fertilizers or build up? All ecosystems will be different.
50% wc every 4 days for 50ppm nitrates? Wow. Overkill.
That would only be needed if you had nitrates in the 100s of ppm. You only have to do water changes until it goes below 50 ppm so that you can start adding Easy Green again (for a planted tank). 👍
Which is why I have tons of outside plants
She is Amazing!
AHA thank you for this. I am on the low nitrate end, and have been dosing Easy Green once per week and Leaf Zone once per week (because previously my Anubias was getting holes) and still testing low nitrate. I didn't think I could dose Easy Green more!
Can you make it faster dude?
Wow. You completely cherry-picked the findings of the research paper. You mentioned that the researchers increased nitrates to 800 ppm before it became lethal for guppy fry, but you did not bother to mention that the paper's overall conclusion is quite different. The authors conclude that even modest nitrate levels are harmful over the long term: "Nitrate toxicity to aquatic animals increases with increasing nitrate concentrations and exposure times. [ . . . ] Freshwater animals appear to be more sensitive to nitrate than marine animals. A nitrate concentration of 10 mg NO3-N/l [ . . . ] can adversely affect, at least during long-term exposures, freshwater invertebrates [ . . . ], fishes [ . . . ], and amphibians. Safe levels below this nitrate concentration are recommended to protect sensitive freshwater animals from nitrate pollution. Furthermore, a maximum level of 2 mg NO3-N/l would be appropriate for protecting the most sensitive freshwater species."
Dear CO-OP team, stop strip-teasing us :)
any chance of distribution of your strips to Europe?
Thanks.
Yet another infomercial
Hi Irene, you should definitely change your video on when to change the water at 40ppm, that's just crazy. Water changes cause serious stress on fish and should only be done when needed.
👍👍👍never been this early
Thanks for clarifying this for newer fish keepers. That non-specific-to-situation series of videos by that --insert your own insulting adjective here-- youtube "fishkeeper" that are circulating have convinced people to be lazy and that is the worst thing for the hobby.
NI is Nickel...NO3 is Nitrate...how can I take you seriously
👍🏻👍🏻
Really useful information.
Fish don’t die even for the most sensitive until 500
I have so many questions! I just want to sit down and speak with you on this fish hobby 😄😄🫣
*Take the conversation to our Facebook Group! Many Aquarium Co-Op team members are active there during their work days and can answer questions. Plus, you can talk with other hobbyists in our community. Post pictures and videos to show us what you've been up to. 🙂* facebook.com/groups/AquariumGroupSupport/