@lukesgoldies: An elevated nitrate level will not cause immediate harm to your fish like an ammonia or nitrite spike will. However, consistently elevated nitrate levels will result in poor long term health, and in established aquariums where nitrite and ammonia levels are consistently zero, the gradually increasing nitrate level is really what you want to pay attention to in order to know when it’s time to change the water. Your filters should handle the ammonia and nitrite, but in most cases it’s up to you to lower that nitrate (unless you got tons of plants). Thank you to @Aqueon for sponsoring this video and making it easy to quickly check if a tank needs changing. #aqueonpartner #aqueon #teststrips #watertest