Nitrate levels

[Phil Bassett]

Hi,

I have had a Mbuna tank set up for a few months (post cycling) and have been
doing 25% weekly - 2 weekly water changes to maintain by NO3 below 20mg/L. I
just wondered what other people try to keep their NO3 at?

Cheers,

Phil

[battlelance]

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 00:06:48 +0000 (UTC), "Phil Bassett"
> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I have had a Mbuna tank set up for a few months (post cycling) and have been
>doing 25% weekly - 2 weekly water changes to maintain by NO3 below 20mg/L. I
>just wondered what other people try to keep their NO3 at?

Mine is < 5ppm

I don't try to keep it there, it just so happens that it ends up that
way, and the lower the better.

[Happy'Cam'per]

10ppm-15-ppm
Nitrate starts getting toxic towards fish at 40ppm.
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**



"Phil Bassett" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> I have had a Mbuna tank set up for a few months (post cycling) and have
been
> doing 25% weekly - 2 weekly water changes to maintain by NO3 below 20mg/L.
I
> just wondered what other people try to keep their NO3 at?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Phil
>
>

[Bitey]

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 02:53:13 GMT, battlelance
> wrote:

>Mine is < 5ppm
>
>I don't try to keep it there, it just so happens that it ends up that
>way, and the lower the better.

Are you by any chance using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals nitrate test
kit?

[battlelance]

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 15:08:57 GMT, Bitey >
wrote:

>Are you by any chance using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals nitrate test
>kit?

Nope, I use the Hagen Master Test Kit. It's got a nice plastic case, a
bunch of test tubes, and a whack of different tests it in it. It was a
tad expensive ($60 CDN), and the ammonia test takes 20 minutes, but it
works well for me.

[Joe Crowder]

"Bitey" > wrote in message
...
> On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 02:53:13 GMT, battlelance
> > wrote:
>
> >Mine is < 5ppm
> >
> >I don't try to keep it there, it just so happens that it ends up that
> >way, and the lower the better.
>
> Are you by any chance using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals nitrate test
> kit?

I just got the AP Nitrate test kit, and got a suspiciously low reading (<5
PPM). Is the AP nitrate kit known to be a problem?

Joe

[battlelance]

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 07:17:16 -0500, "Joe Crowder"
> wrote:


>I just got the AP Nitrate test kit, and got a suspiciously low reading (<5
>PPM). Is the AP nitrate kit known to be a problem?

It's not that suspicious, but if YOU think it is, then I'd suggest
trying another test kit.

For example, I know ~5ppm is normal for me because I have a large
tank, with just a few fish and I do weekly water changes.

Now, if I had a lot of fish and did bi-weekly water changes, then I
might be susupicious.