Above average nitrate and phosphate levels. Is this OK?

Is 50ppm high? I would think so. I assume you are using an API kit to test for nitrates. The question is how much of nitrates in PPM you are dosing in your EI dosing. I just looked at your tank picture and you are definitely underplanted. Add more plants!!! Are you dosing in the 40-60g EI dosing regiment? If so, try 20-40g instead. I keep my nitrates around 10-20, 40g. Heavily planted. I dose about 20ml of KNO3 and gives me about 7 ppm of nitrates. Some would argue that excessive nitrates isn't an issue. Of course, why adding excessive more when you know your plants aren't needing that much.

I generally keep the nitrates between 5-10 ppm, do a water change if they get over 20 ppm, and dose if they get under 5 ppm.
Phosphate barely changes color. I dose a little whenever I dose KNO3. (Macros are blended in one bottle)

NO3 10-40 (target 20) and PO4 2-5 (target 3) here
never seen a problem but I do WC's if NO3 hits 40

Water Chemistry Question

5BodyBlade said:

My nitrates are at 50ppm and phosphates at 5ppm. I think these are pretty high, but I read somewhere that a 10 to 1 ratio of nitrates to phosphates is what to shoot for. Is this true and are my levels okay as long as this ratio is intact? Or should I be shooting for a more normal 1ppm phosphates and 10ppm nitrates?

Click to expand...

Hello 5...

Your nitrate levels will give your fish a slight headache, but nothing worse than that. The phosphate levels will eventually create an algae problem.

Neither is an issue, if you follow a sound, weekly water change routine. If you remove and replace half the water in the tank every week, you'll guarantee stable water conditions for your fish and plants and you won't have to worry about testing the tank water, because the water doesn't stay in the tank long enough for dissolved toxins to ever be a problem.

B

BBradbury said:

Hello 5...

Your nitrate levels will give your fish a slight headache, but nothing worse than that. The phosphate levels will eventually create an algae problem.

Click to expand...

Neither of those statements is true. That level of nitrate isn't enough to harm the fish, and we have no way of knowing if a fish has a headache anyway. And, high phosphate levels in planted aquariums doesn't cause algae.

Neither is an issue, if you follow a sound, weekly water change routine. If you remove and replace half the water in the tank every week, you'll guarantee stable water conditions for your fish and plants and you won't have to worry about testing the tank water, because the water doesn't stay in the tank long enough for dissolved toxins to ever be a problem.

B

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the input. So if I'm seeing no ill effects to the fish, the nitrates at 50 is not a big deal? I'll be doing my 50% water change in a day or so. Is the nitrate to phosphate ratio correct? I'm just looking for optimal plant growth while keeping algae at it's lowest.

Hoppy said:

Neither of those statements is true. That level of nitrate isn't enough to harm the fish, and we have no way of knowing if a fish has a headache anyway. And, high phosphate levels in planted aquariums doesn't cause algae.

Click to expand...

It is said that some species prefer lower levels of nitrates, but I think it only effects breeding. Some plant species also don't seem to like high nitrates. And invertebrates would most likely effected.

Phosphates are fine, I've had 10+.

The ratio of nitrates to phosphates is irrelevant. You need enough of both so the plants are not limited in growth by a shortage of one or the other. But, it doesn't matter if you have varying ratios of the two. When people say you need 10X as much nitrate as phosphate they are just giving you a ballpark way to judge how much of one to use if you have decided how much of the other. I use about one part phosphate to 2 parts nitrates, because I hate green spot algae, and I found that increasing the phosphate level that much greatly reduced the GSA that grew in my tank.