Ok I'm fairly new to planted tanks, so here is my dilemma. I have a 60 gallon tank with 2 filters, I have a cascade 1000 canister filter with the stock floss pads, the charcoal, purigen, and the biomedia that came with it. And my other filter is the Aquaclear 110 HOB and it has the stock floss( bottom pad cut down a little) with charcoal, seachem matrix, purigen, and both filters have a final 50 micron polishing filter pad on top. I have about 30 small fish. Mollies, guppies,swordtails,neons,glow tetras,betas,3 types of algae eaters, and 2 kuhli loaches. And the plants I currently have in my tank are dwarf hairgrass, cardinal plant, small sword plant, and about 5 anacharis plants. Oh yes and another plant I'm not sure what it is. I took a picture of the tag and there ar 5 names on it dracaena, spathiphyllum, ophiopogon,trichomanes, and syngonium. I got it at petco. And in the center of the pic is another plant I don't know what it is.
My question is I am testing my water and for 3 weeks the water has been testing 0 for ammonia, 0 for nitrites, but my nitrates are high, they were between 10-20 ppm but are now 20-30 ppm. I know I can change water which I do a 20% water change every week. And a local aquarium owner told me that I shouldn't vacuum a planted tank, I still vacuum what I can without disrupting plants but the coverage is getting much less that I can vacuum. Should I remove some of the biomedia from my filters to lower the nitrate level ? How do I lower my nitrate level ?
Thanks. Mike
My question is I am testing my water and for 3 weeks the water has been testing 0 for ammonia, 0 for nitrites, but my nitrates are high, they were between 10-20 ppm but are now 20-30 ppm. I know I can change water which I do a 20% water change every week. And a local aquarium owner told me that I shouldn't vacuum a planted tank, I still vacuum what I can without disrupting plants but the coverage is getting much less that I can vacuum. Should I remove some of the biomedia from my filters to lower the nitrate level ? How do I lower my nitrate level ?
Thanks. Mike