Question: Can you do too many water changes?

[yonykins]

My 25g tank is cycled, with 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. However, I'm having problems with nitrate and it reads 40 no matter what I do. Last week I did a 30% change on Thursday and again on Sunday. When I took a reading after Sunday, it was still at 40. Should I do an extra change again this week? Or is it better not to stress my axie?

As a side note, I have plants in the tank and am thinking I should get Ivy and hang the roots in to suck up some nitrates.

 

[rumsey232]

I have a similar issue with nitrates, have you tested your tap water? My tap water sits at around 55ppm so I will never get below 40 on a water change.

Plant's are a massive help to this, I wouldn't worry too much and go about your weekly water changes as is normal.

What I ended up doing is half tap water, half RO (reverse Osmosis) water on every water change. So I take 40 litres out and replace it with 20 litres tap water and 20 litres RO water.

I've heard that you should never use purely RO water as the lack of minerals in the water can make the axolotls kidneys work overtime.

Hope this helps