# Help: huge nitrate spike after adding 3 soil pots to established tank



## usasiamom (Dec 27, 2012)

Hi all,

I first posted here about starting to convert my well-planted, well-established 40 breeder over, by adding in "pots" of soil, doing my most critical plants first. Most plants are thriving in their mixed gravel, frankly, so it was 3 swords that have been struggling.

Well, I took three 4" pots, added about 1" each of aged organic potting soil I had, plunked on a sword, capped each, trimmed the pots to only about 2" high, and carefully lowered the repotted swords into my tank. As luck would have it, I immediately got ill with some nasty virus, and was only well enough to check the parameters yesterday, after about 4 days of pots-in.

Lo and behold, my nitrates were obscenely high: over 80ppm. All other params good. Poor still-sick me lugged buckets, changed out the prefilters, and added a pack of Algone to one of the 2 filters, and got the reading down to 30. Today I test, and it's up to about 80 again. From 3 dinky pots with 1" of soil in them!! Aargh... I've done another H2O change.

Help!! I love this tank, it's a working tank breeding out fancy strain guppies that go out all over the country, and has beloved synodontis petricola in there, plus shrimp are arriving in two days from an order made 2 weeks ago. Yaaaaaaa!

Should I just keep up the water changes? Or remove the pots? How big of a deal are these nitrates? This tank is already fairly heavily planted, with duckweed, Indian fern, frogbit, riccia, java moss, anubias, moss balls, anacharis, vallisneria, pennywort, wisteria, water sprite, and the struggling swords. My nitrates are usually 0-5. I run 2 established and clean filters, including 2 packs of Purigen, and one added pack of Algone (so far). And still 80ppm!

Thanks!
-Ann


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## usasiamom (Dec 27, 2012)

Well, I did this for today:

-pulled the old filter foams (were brown and smelled like soil). I had new ones rotated in on top and "curing" for about 2 weeks now, in anticipation of changing the older ones out, so left these fresher ones in place.

-Added an Algone packet to the other filter, rotated the Purigen so the fresher side is "down". The Purigen was *just* renewed about a week ago, yet is nearly used up! Must have been the soil.

-Changed a total of 50% water in 2 changes.

-Added a dose of Excel to the second change to help boost the plants.

Nitrates are now down to about 30-35. Fish look happy for now. (Never had any symptoms, but surely will if don't act.) Now my filters have 2 mostly used-up Purigens and 2 small Algone packets in the HOBs, lying between the "new" (2 weeks aged) foam and biofiltration/coral, and that's it in those guys, bye bye old icky filter foam.

Any advice?


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

Fish start having problems with nitrates in the 800ppm range (most sensitive fish) don't worry about it too much! BUT if this nitrate is coming from converted ammonia, the ammonia or nitrite might be troublesome. And because most potting soils contain mostly ammonia instead of nitrate as a nitrogen source, this could be the case. I've never been a 'potting soil person' so maybe someone with more experience can chip in. I would at least kept doing water changes, but probably took out the potting soil first (or made sure it was capped very well). Don't worry about the nitrates, worry about the possibility of ammonia and nitrite...

(PS. Shrimps in a tank with a Synodontis petricola is probably expensive food)


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Ann, if you haven't read the "suitable soils" sticky, it has a discussion of how rich potting soils can have excess nutrients that cause ammonia spikes.

If your fish in this tank are your highest priority, I suggest you take the pots out. You can be very successful with the swords in pots by putting them in large jars or clear glass vases and setting them in a window. This will let you grow the swords, and avoid injury to your fish, until you move and tear down the tank.

If that isn't feasible, keep up the water changes.


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## usasiamom (Dec 27, 2012)

Thanks, guys. Yep, Michael, I went through that sticky already. I thought my potting soil would be fine, as I'd left it loosely closed and partially exposed at the outside porch railings for an entire Seattle summer, fall, and the beginnings of winter. (It's my leftover potting soil bag.) Lots of rain and then drying out, etc. The soil's been damp for months, and I thought that'd be enough aging it. Obviously not!

The nitrates are holding steady at about 35 now after the last change. I finally see some new growth and a more upright habit in the potted swords, and the neighboring anacharis has about doubled in volume. My goal was to boost the plants, starting with the weakest but eventually potting all, so that by the time I go overseas for a month in June the tank would be at its most stable. I'm hoping to press on. 

I think I might be able to pull through on keeping these 3 pots in-tank, with the Algone in and regular water changes. It appears the spike is waning. If I get sick of water changes, I think your vase idea is brilliant, Michael. Might as well grow out these plants outside the tank as much as inside, with no risk to the fish, and then transfer them into the tank a month before the trip. Hopefully it won't come to that, though.

So any newbs like me out there, don't think your potting soil that's been aging damp in its bag outside all season is fine to toss in as-is. All my future pots (I'll add more, adding and stabilizing one at a time, once these 3 are stable), I am definitely bucket-soaking-and-draining that soil for three days first. I think these huge spikes and huge water changes are avoidable. Thankfully there's no ammonia or nitrites: it's a good little tank with lots of nitrifying beasties.

Thanks for the warnings with the shrimp snacks, Yo-han. They're going in an acrylic corner refugium thingie, so no-one will be able to get them.  Supposedly!


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