Get more fish, and make sure to add Cycle or Stress Zyme to your tank weekly
to keep the nitrifying bacteria population up. Nitrate is a byproduct of the
nitrogen cycle. You must have allot of plants if the byproduct from your
nitrifying bacteria is not enough.

"Allyb" wrote in message
...
Ok, started off with pmdd, dosing drops per day, but read that you need to
keep 5 ppm nitrates in the tank. Plants seem to be consuming tons, so I'm
adding up to 20ppm per day (per advice in this forum), and I can't keep
the
levels up. Fish start getting sick and dying, and I realize I'm poisoning
them. Discontinue fertilzation, water changes, everybody revives, getting
more algae now. The question is, if I can't add enough nitrates to keep
the
levels in the tank where they belong, is adding amounts that won't hurt
fish
going to help anything at this seemingly high rate of consumption. Also,
if
the plants were really consuming that much, what was hurting the fish?
The
high levels for a few hours til the plants took it up, or some kind of
byproduct? Thanks! Allison