The lower the nitrate level one tries to hold the more one has to change the water. The level of nitrate one wants to hold determines the frequency of the water changes. Because of inadvertent selective breeding, common goldfish can withstand very high levels of nitrate (>4,400). Toxicity depends on the species, with pond fish generally being better able to handle high levels than fish from mountain streams. Acute: 880 to 4,400 ppm depending on species.Chronic: 440 to 1200 ppm depending on species.The toxic level of nitrate is quite high. Nitrate is another “toxin” frequently mentioned in the keeping of tropical fish. Mesoheros gephyrus Summary of the Research A recent study exposed young salmon to 440 ppm nitrate for 8 months and they grew just as well as salmon kept at 1/10th that level. Science Direct and Semantics Scholar have several papers available all of which say a level of 440 ppm does no long-term damage to adult fish. 2016 found the lower long-term damage level for adult cichlids to be 2,220 ppm. 2017 found no long-term effects from a level of 440 ppm. Note that nitrate is simply not very toxic to ADULT fish. Most hobbyists are comfortable with anything from 40 to 80 ppm of nitrate (i.e. It just all depends on the risk level each hobbyist is comfortable with. Thus there are good reasons that the analogy holds well. Note that both alcohol and nitrate are detoxified by enzymes in the liver of higher order animals. 640 (40 x 16) ppm of nitrate will kill some fish. But some people live to 100 with eight beers a night. Is the risk acceptable? Depends on who you talk to.Įight beers a night or 320 (40 x 8) ppm of nitrate will definitely have serious consequences. The same is probably true with 160 (40 x 4) ppm of nitrate with adult fish. Researchers have found 80 ppm can damage shrimp, axotyl and some sensitive fish fry.įour beers a night, every day, will probably create some health problems and give a human a shorter life span by 2 to 5%. It once again just depends on who you talk to. In the same way 80 (40 x 2) ppm of nitrate in an aquarium might or might not create some slight health problems in an adult fish. Two beers a day, every day, might or might not create some slight health problems. Also most research says 40 ppm of nitrate is harmless to adult tropical fish, fish fry, shrimp and axotyl. Most research says one beer a day is harmless to humans. Does one beer a day hurt a human? Depends on who you talk to. One beer a day, every day, will create microscopic changes in the liver of a human, just like 40 ppm of nitrate causes microscopic changes in the liver of a fish. Let us equate 40 ppm of nitrate per the API test kit (10 ppm per the scientists’ test kits) health wise with one beer per day in humans. One Way to Look at NitrateĪquarium nitrate levels are a very gray area that is best looked at with a human analogy. The 10 ppm of nitrate of the scientists, (the Hach test kit and the Lamotte test kit) is a 44 ppm test level of nitrate via the “normal” aquarium test kits (API aquarium test kit, the Seachem Multitest kit, the Sera Nitrate test, the Salifert test kit and the API test strips). Safe Nitrate Levels in the Aquarium PredicateĪll discussions of nitrate must be predicated with a caution.
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