High Nitrate issues
Been noticing my fish colour turning dull and dark especially the blue ones. Did a search on the web and most pointed to poor water quality. Tested my water and indeed the nitrates were sky high @ 160ppm. Did a 50% WC abnd it came down to ~80ppm. But after the WC the fish showed all sorts of distress i.e. low mobility, flashing, rubbing body on sand. Urghh... now I'm stressed. There was nothin much I could do but just monitor for 24hrs. Woke up the next morning and they were all swimming actively as per normal. So, I'm gonna avoid these huge WC from now on.. but the high nitrate problem will still come back again. So back to the web again.... and someone had suggested Aquaponics. i'll share the links below since it's their idea.
After some thinking and off to buy the necessary materials, some drilling, cutting and tying, I have my OHF. I've also used Seachem De*Nitrate media to power-up the NO3 removal. Other media is lava rock which I wanted the plants to anchor to.
No3 measurement
Before installation: 80ppm
Day 1 after installation: 40ppm
Day 2 after installation: 20ppm
Day 3 after installation: 5~10ppm
Plants that are in there are Pothos, Cobomba & Salvinia Natans. Fish colours are starting to improve which means the NO3 is the most likely cause of the colour degradation.
Will continue to monitorand and hopefully the plants does a good job soaking up the water waste. If the NO3 is kept low, I might not even need to do water change.... wishful thinking