Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two albino african clawed frogs and I have a problem with the nitrate in my 4.5 gallon filtered tank ( I know it sounds small, but they are babies just now, will be moving them once their a bit bigger) Anyway, I change the water 20% and test it and it still comes up super pink (dangerous levels) I don't know what to do to fix it, and am relativly new to frog keeping, so any advice on maintaining water conditions would be most welcome.Im so scared of them dying through my fault I want to give the best care to my two froggies as possible. Thank you- Lara.x

I wouldn't sweat it too much.Nitrates don't get to "dangerous" levels unless you keep a reef tank.The only set back that will be caused by them is the amount of algae you will end up with.You should however take this as a sign that the frogs are already producing too much waste for such a small tank.You should consider moving them sooner than later.

carry out a series of small water changes each day til it drops to a lower level, after that just weekly 25% water changes should keep them down.

what reading are u actually getting for nitrates ?
as the above post states nitrates arent that toxic until they really build up where as things like ammonia and nitrite are problems even at 1ppm !!

Nitrate is bad once it reaches a certain level as it acidifies the water. I used to have a penguin biowheel, and it converted so much ammonia into nitrates it lowered the pH REALLY low.

Xenopus need a tank roughly 20 gallons, but even better if you increase it to a 40 gallon breeder.