404 Fluval throw it off the balcony party!

[bongy]

Hi Beverly,

The way I understand it, for non-plant FW tank, you use the filter to convert Ammonia and Nitrite to Nitrate. Without plant, the only way to remove Nitrate is by periodic water change. Therefore, for FW, the job of the filter is to produce Nitrate. Then, the less-toxic Nitrate is removed by water change.

For my plant tank, actually, I prefer the plant to take up Ammonia directly (hopefully even before the filter convert it to Nitrate). That's the way I hope my filter is working now.

I agree. Whether it is plant, non-plant, FW or SW, it's better to have no or very little nitrate in the tank. However, the mechanism to get there is different.

Bongy

Originally Posted by Beverly

What am I missing here??

In neither fw or sw does one want high nitrates, unless it was a planted tank where the plants would utilize the nitrate (and phosphate) from the decomposing crap. My sw tanks all have some sort of macroalgae utilizing nutrients and even with weekly media cleaning/15% water changes, I still have detectable nitrate, usually about 10-15 ppm.