Where are the Nitrates coming from?

fernival brainard

I recently bought a rather large used tank, that was so nasty it made my entire house stink of funky fish tank, half way through the cycle the trATes were up to 200 ppm, I got my handy dandy long handled net and stirred the strate like a pot of soup, then vacuumed....did this for several days removing about 40 gal of water at a time, took nearly a week but my numbers finally got down to the 30-40 range. This may work for you, just avoid stirring where the plants are rooted. Also, when I clean this tank I try to work the vacuum tube as far down into the strate as I can, you would be surprised to see how dark the water I pull out can be (tank stocked with full grown oscar and scats, all very messy and dirty fish)
Hope things balance out,
Regards,
fern

Jay

Seems the consensus is vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. It really can not hurt. It's going to be a pain in the back side for a few weeks, will not hurt plants or fish. I would go for it. 30% twice a week for two weeks, with heavy vacuuming and filter changes.

Jay