how do i lower the nitrate levels in my tank?

[Craig Manoukian]

Great point about the solution vs band aid mentality Curt. I try to minimize my intrusions into the tank but skimming, small water changes and glass cleaning can't be avoided. My fish and inverts don't care if the glass is clean, but my wife does!

[JohnO]

I find the philosophies in this sort of discussion interesting and stimulating. There will always be differing points of view regarding water changes and I welcome all views.

Just to reiterate a few points, When talking about water changes I am referring to taking out tank water and replacing with new water on a regular basis, as a maintenance regime. I am certainly not referring to "never" doing water changes for any reason.

The London pollution analogy was interesting, by using that analogy, and with a mind toward water changes, the people in London would have installed giant fans to blow fresh air in every week. :-)

Here is a question for you all. In the initial cycle, when we have an Ammonia spike, then a Nitrite spike do you all do frequent water changes during this period?

I'm sure the answer in most cases is 'no' because what we are trying to do by letting this cycle happen is to establish a tank with enough bacteria to handle the introduction of animals. So we actually strive to achieve a balance when we first set up the tank and let it cycle without much intervention. Once cycled we could introduce an animal of some sort ( a fish ) when the fish goes in it eats, craps, urinates and in doing so feeds the bacteria by means of the resultant Ammonia. As there is now an increase in Ammonia ( food ), the bacterial population increases to meet the supply, again the tank tries to achieve a balance.

Now having said that, you certainly do need to skim the water, you can also filter, but what I think some people are missing is that these acts are also part of the balance. If you had a tank that was balanced, and also heavily skimmed and filtered and took away the filtering and skimming then most certainly would have a problem, docs would quickly rise, water would yellow, rotting material would cause Ammonia at a rate that the current bacterial level could not handle and if you didn't take some action, for example, by means of a water change then some animals would surely die.


From my point of view, in a general sense, I just believe that less is more. That doesn't mean no maintenance, there is still lots of that, it just means the the maintenance I do does not include throwing away good water and replacing it with something that is unknown.

John :-)

[inwall75]

Good point...the cycle is not a one-time event when you first set up your tank. Any extra thing you put into your tank will cause the bacteria to rebalance.

the people in London would have installed giant fans to blow fresh air in every week.

Good one!!![smiley=biggrinbounce.gif]

[JohnO]

[quote author=inwall75 link=board=Freshwater;num=1074885859;start=45#52 date=08/16/04 at 15:37:40]Good point...the cycle is not a one-time event when you first set up your tank. *Any extra thing you put into your tank will cause the bacteria to rebalance. [/quote]

Exactly right, and is the ' essence ' of what I am saying :-)

John

[Craig Manoukian]

We are all in agreement here I believe. Just different ways of saying the same thing.

[JohnO]

No, I don't think we have agreement Craig, what we have is understanding. Agreement was never the issue :-)

John

[somethingfishy]

Wow, I stopped looking at this thread for 2 days and I have a novel to read. I'm glad to see some varying educated opinions [smiley=scholar.gif]. This thread has been a great deal of value to me. I'm going to stick with my water changes (for now).

btw, I'm more of a Cichlid guy and from my experience water changes are a essential part of breeding.

[JohnO]

[quote author=somethingfishy link=board=Freshwater;num=1074885859;start=45#56 date=08/17/04 at 16:20:55]btw, I'm more of a Cichlid guy and from my experience water changes are a essential part of breeding.[/quote]


That's interesting! What effect do water changes have on breeding? I've never attempted any breeding and was just interested :-)

John