Introduction

Do you have a new aquarium? Well you need to know how to keep the nitrates within specification for your aquarium. This can be done with a device called a denitrator.

Basically a denitrator can help keep the nitrates in your aquarium within the specifications for your fish and save you some time by minimizing the amount of cleaning you do.

Nitrates

Nitrates above 40 ppm in your aquarium can lead to stress in your fish and even cause excess algae to grow. Nitrates are present in all aquariums in varying concentrations. They come from over crowding of your aquarium, not enough live plants, decaying plant material, over-feeding of your fish and even dirty filters.

Even the tap water you use in your aquarium could have large amounts of nitrates, even though the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limits tap water nitrates to 10 ppm. You should check your replacement water for nitrates and if they are to high, seek other sources of water that do not contain nitrates.

Your aquarium should not have more than 40-ppm nitrates to keep your fish happy. But you should strive to keep the nitrates below 25 ppm. But if you have severe algae problems you should keep the concentration of nitrates to less than 10 ppm.

So how do you remove nitrates?

Removing Nitrates

There are several ways you can use to keep nitrate concentrations low. You can stop over feeding your fish, clean your aquarium more often or keep live plants. But another way to keep nitrates low with less work is to install a denitrator.

Denitrator

A denitrator is a filter that will break down nitrates and release the by-products as nitrogen gas. The break down is due to the bacteria that is on the filter. This bacteria breaks down the nitrates and discharges clear water and nitrogen gas.

I have read the operations manual for how this system operates and it appears complicated in setting this system up. These systems are also a bit pricy. As an example, if I purchased a denitrator it would be the third most expensive item I would have purchased for my aquarium. First is my aquarium tank itself and second is the stand used to support the aquarium.

Conclusion

Because of the price tag on the denitrator I would recommend controlling the nitrates in your aquarium by doing one or more of the following: less feeding of your fish, keeping your filters clean, more live plants, frequent cleaning or reduce your fish population.