Frequent Aquarium Questions

• What is a safe way to remove copper from a salt water tank after treating for illness?
  
  
• What can I do to lower nitrate levels in my tank? partial water change didnt work. Is there an additive I can buy?and what effect is it having on my fish and the tank?
  
  
• How do we get our nitrite levels to stay low? We have a 55 gallon saltwater tank with an Ehiem filter and a protein skimmer, and we have 8 fish. It spikes during the day and is lower in the morning. Is this normal?
  
  
• What is the difference between nitrate and nitrite. Which one should you not have in your aquarium and at what level is a safe level for a saltwater aquarium?
  
  
• I am setting up a large saltwater aquarium. Before I do I would like to know if saltwater weighs less than freshwater does per gallon.
  
  
• I have a reverse osmosis system. I would like to use water from the RO system to fill my aquarium instead of using regular tap water. I was wondering if I should add any minerals to the water?
  
  
• I have a 75g tank w/ discus, severums, angels, etc., and extremely high ph well water. Am I better off to keep using peat and powders, or should I go to r.o., and if so how do I use it (does it run constant-does it attach to the tank or do I fill buckets?
  
  
• I have a new salt water tank. It is a 10 gallon tank. We have 3 damsels and 1 urchin. The people at the pet store asssured me that this would be easy. However, I have had it for 3 weeks now and have found that the ph keeps going down. I add buffer, then the fish start acting weird. A few days later, the pH drops again. How can I control the pH?
  
  
• I have a freshwater community tank with live plants, lava rock, and another rock of unknown composition. My ph fluctuates over about a 24 hr, period from very high ~7.8 to neutral after adding a neutralizer. Should I be concerned, and are the rocks or my plants causing this?
  
  
• I have a 75 gallon freshwater tank with 3 African cichlids. After cleaning away algae buildup, I added about 10% new water. No water was removed, only added. I did all of the regular conditionings- pH, chlorine remover, stress coat. At first the fish were yawning a lot. Now they look very bad and the water is very cloudy. What am I doing wrong?
  
  

• What is a safe way to remove copper from a salt water tank after treating for illness?
  
  The best way is to use a good copper removing filter media, combined with weekly water changes, to reduce the copper levels down to 0.05 ppm. Examples are Cuprisorb by Seachem, and Poly Filters by Poly Bio Marine.
  
  Top
  
  
  
• What can I do to lower nitrate levels in my tank? partial water change didnt work. Is there an additive I can buy?and what effect is it having on my fish and the tank?
  
  Nitrate removal filter media will work to some extent, but larger water changes will be the most effective solution. It will take one a week, of about 50%, over a period of four weeks to bring the nitrate levels down. Doing this in combination with the nitrate removal media in a canister or power filter will provide the best results. Both Kent Marine and Seachem make excellent nitrate removal filter media. There is no additive you can buy to lower nitrates. In spite of claims by some manufacturers, we have never gotten positive results from any of the so-called bacterial treatments to remove nitrates, and we have tested them all under controlled conditions.
  
  Top
  
  
  
• How do we get our nitrite levels to stay low? We have a 55 gallon saltwater tank with an Ehiem filter and a protein skimmer, and we have 8 fish. It spikes during the day and is lower in the morning. Is this normal?
  
  Nitrite should always be ZERO! In 99% of the cases where nitrite is present in an established marine aquarium, either there are too many fish, not enough filtration, or the aquarium is not receiving regular water changes every four weeks. In your case, we can only guess, and our guess is that you have more than 12 inches of fish, and that is the cause of your problem. The rule is 3 inches of fish per square foot of surface area, and you have 4 square feet of surface area in a 55 gallon tank. If that is not the case, then email us at support@aquariumpros.com, include a complete description of the fish and the tank, and we'll be happy to try and help you.
  
  Top
  
  
  
• What is the difference between nitrate and nitrite. Which one should you not have in your aquarium and at what level is a safe level for a saltwater aquarium?
  
  Nitrite is the result of the metabolism of ammonia by Nitrosomonas bacteria, which oxidize ammonia (NH3) and convert it into nitrite (NO2). This is a part of the nitrogen cycle, which is discussed in great detail in our articles. Nitrobacter species of bacteria take the process one step further and further oxidize the nitrites into Nitrates (NO3). Nitrite is fairly toxic and in a well-balanced, aged aquarium will always test at zero. It is unavoidable to have nitrite in a tank that is new, where the nitrogen cycle is not complete because there are not yet enough bacteria to treat ammonia and nitrite. As the bacteria populations rise, ammonia and nitrite levels both fall to zero. Provided you don't over-stock the tank or add fish too quickly, you will see little fluctutation in these levels. Nitrates are always present in most aquariums. They do not get removed through normal biological filtration. They are removed by algae which consumes them as food, by anaerobic de-nitrifying bacteria which occurr naturally inside of live rock, and by water changes (the most common way of reducing nitrates). Invertebrates cannot tolerate much nitrate, so it is best to keep the levels below 20ppm for reef tanks. Fish can tolerate a great deal more than invertebrates, but we would not advise letting nitrates exceed 120ppm in a marine fish tank.
  
  Top
  
  
  
• I am setting up a large saltwater aquarium. Before I do I would like to know if saltwater weighs less than freshwater does per gallon.
  
  Saltwater, with a greater concentration of dissolved solids, weighs a little more than the same volume of freshwater, though not enough to make an appreciable difference in the overall weight of the tank when full.
  
  Top
  
  
  
• I have a reverse osmosis system. I would like to use water from the RO system to fill my aquarium instead of using regular tap water. I was wondering if I should add any minerals to the water?
  
  Reverse osmosis (RO) water should be replenished with ionic forms of minerals and salts before use in most marine and some freshwater aquaria, using a preparation designed for the purpose such as Kent Marine RO Prep or RO Right. RO Prep is for use in water used for saltwater tanks and RO Right is for use in water used for freshwater tanks. The one exception to this is RO water used for aquariums for soft acid water-loving fish such as Discus and other sensitive fish that come from tropical rivers and streams. With these types of aquaria, it is better to leave the water un-treated, except perhaps with a little buffer or Blackwater treatment. Distilled water on the other hand, should always be pre-treated before use.
  
  Top
  
  
  
• I have a 75g tank w/ discus, severums, angels, etc., and extremely high ph well water. Am I better off to keep using peat and powders, or should I go to r.o., and if so how do I use it (does it run constant-does it attach to the tank or do I fill buckets?
  
  If you have high pH water, it is probably quite high in hardness too. Peat and powders will put a bandaid on the pH problem, but the hardness of the water will keep raising the pH back up again, forcing you to keep lowering it.
  
  Top
  
  
  
• I have a new salt water tank. It is a 10 gallon tank. We have 3 damsels and 1 urchin. The people at the pet store asssured me that this would be easy. However, I have had it for 3 weeks now and have found that the ph keeps going down. I add buffer, then the fish start acting weird. A few days later, the pH drops again. How can I control the pH?
  
  We hate to have to break the bad news to you. Please don't get mad at the messenger. Your tank is too small for a successful saltwater aquarium, and unless you take the urchin and two of those fish out right away, you are going to lose some fish. You are never going to get the pH right in a 10 gallon tank that is already over-crowded, and you will also not be able to finish cycling. You have no choice but to either get a bigger tank or get rid of some fish. When your tank is done cycling, you can add another small damsel, but two damsels are the limit for a tank that size. The smallest tank we recommend for a saltwater tank is a 35 to 40 gallon. Most aquarium book authors recommend at least a 55 gallon tank. Please see our FAQs on stocking aquariums for more information.
  
  Top
  
  
  
• I have a freshwater community tank with live plants, lava rock, and another rock of unknown composition. My ph fluctuates over about a 24 hr, period from very high ~7.8 to neutral after adding a neutralizer. Should I be concerned, and are the rocks or my plants causing this?
  
  The tap water is to blame, though some rocks can also harden water. The problem is not pH, it is hardness, and almost all US tap water is very hard. You cannot easily lower the pH of hard water. You have two choices: Invest in a reverse osmosis filter for your tap water, or use the more expensive chemicals to lower the pH that also reduce hardness by precipitating calcium out of the water so it can be removed by your filters. Examples are products made by Kent Marine and Seachem Labs which you may look up on our web site online store under Additives.
  
  Top
  
  
  
• I have a 75 gallon freshwater tank with 3 African cichlids. After cleaning away algae buildup, I added about 10% new water. No water was removed, only added. I did all of the regular conditionings- pH, chlorine remover, stress coat. At first the fish were yawning a lot. Now they look very bad and the water is very cloudy. What am I doing wrong?
  
  We see several problems here. When fish "yawn" a lot and get lethargic, they need oxygen. You should be CHANGING 25% of the water in the tank every three weeks. That means removing water and replacing it, while also vacuuming the gravel. Simply adding water to top off the tank will not be enough. You should also be doing periodic (every two weeks to once a month) filter material changes as well. You usually do not need to adjust the pH for African Cichlids as most tap water is hard and alkaline already. We do recommend the addition of some aquarium salts to the water (about 1 teaspoon per ten gallons), but only after you do a water change. It may be the pH additives that are clouding the water, or a seriously dirty tank. If the tank has not been cleaned in some time, do not clean it up all at once. Do a series of smaller water changes until things improve, then start on a regular schedule of water changes, gravel vacuuming and filter media changing.
  
  Top