From: faith@wam.umd.edu (Jerome V. Smith)
Subject: Re: Serious Nitrate Problem ....... Resolved.
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 20:03:01 GMT

Hello everyone, this is a response I recieved e-mail from Howard. I thought
the rest of you would want to take a look at it.

Afterwards I include my response and what I did to fix my problem. 

>>>>>>From howardr@col.hp.com 

Iff the reading is off the scale (maxed out) doing a 50% water change 
may not be enough to bring it down to where you can tell the difference.
When I have readings that are too high to measure I dilute the water to
be tested with seasoned water.  By doing this you can find out what the
readings will be if you do a water change equal to the dilution you pick.
For example one part old water to three parts new water will give you
what the reading will be after changing 3/4 of the water.  The only way
to get rid of nitrates is through water changes, it might take quit a
few to reduce it if levels are quite high.

	The following table shows how many 50% changes you have to
	do to reduce the level of a chemical to 1 ppm.  For example
	if you start at 16 ppm you will have to do 4 50% water 
	changes to get to 1 ppm.

	9			512ppm
	8			256
	7			128
	6			64
	5			32
	4			16
	3			8
	2			4
	1			2
	0			1

To find out how much water you need to change to get the reading down
to where you can live with it start with one cup of water in a plastic
pail. Add 1 cup season water and test the mix. Add a 2nd cup of water
and test again, keep this up till you have the reading you want.

> All fish are
> accounted for and I see no other food or decay.  After I tested the water,
> It was still high.  I thought something might be wrong with my teting kit,
> but if it worked with my water source (the sink),  why won't it work with the
> fish water? 

That is not a good way to test how well the kit works.  Test kits esp the
liquid type can go bad and may give false readings.  It may show the tap
water at 0 ppm but not correctly indicate higher levels. 

>      I think I'll take some water to the fish store or something.  I've 
> been doing this fish stuff for years and can't seem to figure this one out.
>
>      You could help me with one thing though,.... If you have time,  explain
> this bio stuff to me.  You know that bio-filtering in the tank with ammonia,
> nitrite and nitrate.

OK here goes.  Fish produce ammonia and release it via their gills.  They
also emit solid waste which breaks down to form ammonia.  Uneaten food,
dead plants and dead fish allso creat ammonia.

Ammonia is deadly to fish if the pH is above 7.0.  When the pH is below
about 6.5 or so ammonia converts to a nontoxic form.  The higher the
pH goes the more deadly ammonia is.

A strain of bacteria grows in all aquariums that uses the ammonia as food
and converts it to nitrite.  Nitrite is toxic to fish too.

Another strain of bacteria which grows in all aquariums uses the nitrite
as food and productes nitrate as waste.

Nitrate is not toxic to fish if it does not get too high.  In general
normal water changes will keep it at nontoxic levels.

As long as the high nitrate problem is with you I would keep the junk
that absorbs nitrite and amonia around but one you get the nitrate
under control ditch it.

That's it.

The nitrate has to come from some where.  To find out if it is from
sand or rocks you can set up the aquarium with a bare bottom and
see if the problem goes away.  If so somthing you took out caused
the problem.

I hope this is of help.  Let me know what you find out.


>>>From faith@wam.umd.edu

O.K. .... this is what I did.  yesturday I took out 75% of my water and 
replaced it with new water.  That helped out alot! It brought me back into the
"tolerable" range for fish. I'll do this agian next week and I should be back
were I started before this tradgedy happend.  

For all you people that might have the same problem, you might want to know
something that I probably did to get high Nitrate levels.  I fed my fish too
much.  Yeah I admit it....  But they look so hungry.  If this is happening
to you, stop it.  It will save you alot of trouble down the line.    

Thanks for your help    bruce@Candence.COM and bgm@pecan.cray.com  




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