bobo Posted March 24, 2010 Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 Hey guys, I have an established ~340l tank that has 1 juvenile Oscar (three inches or so), 3 Silver Dollars (slightly bigger) and a pictus catfish (prob 4-5inches). I cannot get my Nitrates to near zero; yet I read, any measurement = bad. I do a ~40% water change weekly, with gravel vac, and have a Sunsun 304. 1) Are these low level nitrate readings something to be concerned about? 2) Would I get better flow from my filter if I removed the spray bar, which would allow the water to gush from the larger hole? Cheers!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morcs Posted March 24, 2010 Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 Hey Tim, 1) Nitrate levels of 20ppm arent anything to worry about, just keep em below 40ppm. Have you tested your water supply for nitrates? if they are present then thats where the problem lies. Nitrate levels will never be zero unless you change 100%, and then they would start rising again straight away. Oscars are messy and produce a lot of waste so its not a suprising figure to have on a weekly basis, it means your bio filtration is working well. However, I see the concern as the O is only a juvenile at this stage and hes going to get a whole lot messier when hes all grown up... It does seem strange as I had 2 medium oscars, a large flowerhorn and a few other 20cm fish in my 430L, and probably changed the same amount of water per week, and my nitrates were never above 10. I recommend cutting back on the feeding. Oscars will grow fast even with feeding that is only 'adequate' 2) You probably wont get a higher flow rate, but you may achieve better circulation, but better flow wont affect the above. Hope this helps, Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted March 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 Cheers dude. I only feed him once a day - should I cut back the amount or go to every two days? Be on grumpy Oscar. Irrelevant: Why are you selling up? It's a ncie tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morcs Posted March 24, 2010 Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 Cheers dude. I only feed him once a day - should I cut back the amount or go to every two days? Be on grumpy Oscar. Irrelevant: Why are you selling up? It's a ncie tank Cool, yeah id just cut back a bit and monitor your levels, see if it makes a difference. Selling up as got lots of tanks at work, and its hard to be as interested in a home tank when its in the garage rather than the living room So having a terrarium at home instead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted March 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 Cool. Keeping? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morcs Posted March 24, 2010 Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 Cool. Keeping? Picking up a blue tongue on friday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted March 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 Cooool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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