High Nitrates

[jamescameron1]

I just ran a water test and came up with these results:
Tempurature 81*F
Salinity 28
Specific Gravity 1.0205
Nitrite 0.05
Nitrate 10
Ammonia 0.01
I was wondering what I can do to get my nitrates down? Is there any animal besides a cleaner clam that will reduce nitrates? Should I even worry? Everything in my tank is more than happy.

 

[cranberry]

How old is your tank? You shouldn't have ammonia or nitrites.
Cleaner clams will not bring down your nitrates unless you back your tank full of them. They are not that efficient. Inverts also don't like high nitrates, so you should get it down buy upping the maintenance before adding new inverts. On a personal level, I wouldn't care about a nitrate of 10 but that's because of the types of tanks that I run.
How big is your tank?
What do you have in there?

 

[tank a holic]

trates look ok but you need to get your salinity up - also your ammo and trites are high , is yuor tank cycling?

 

[florida joe]

Originally Posted by JamesCameron1
http:///forum/post/3137276
I just ran a water test and came up with these results:
Tempurature 81*F
Salinity 28
Specific Gravity 1.0205
Nitrite 0.05
Nitrate 10
Ammonia 0.01
I was wondering what I can do to get my nitrates down? Is there any animal besides a cleaner clam that will reduce nitrates? Should I even worry? Everything in my tank is more than happy.
I personally don’t know of a test that will give you such low readings of nitrite and ammonia are you sure of your tests

 

[jamescameron1]

I'm positive of my results... the tank a 20gal and is about 2 months old. I currently have 1 watchman gobie, 1 black false percula clown, 5 blue leg hermit crabs, 1 jade hermit, 1 red leg hermit, 6 turbo snails, 5 cerith snails and 4 peppermit shrimp and all are doing VERY well.

 

[meowzer]

I have API....trite test card starts at 0, 0.25, 0.50, 1.
ammonia...0, 0.25, 0.50, 1
trates...0, 5, 10, 20,
and so forth
what type of test do you have???

 

[jamescameron1]

Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3137377
I have API....trite test card starts at 0, 0.25, 0.50, 1.
ammonia...0, 0.25, 0.50, 1
trates...0, 5, 10, 20,
and so forth
what type of test do you have???
Seachem... my scale is the same as yours but with dashes in between numbers which represent readings between the shown numbers.
I was thinking maybe I'm feeding too much but then the ammonia would shoot up too wouldn't it?

 

[oneradtek]

i hope u mis-typed your salinity.
1.0205 is really low. You need more like 1.025

 

[jamescameron1]

Originally Posted by oneradtek
http:///forum/post/3137653
i hope u mis-typed your salinity.
1.0205 is really low. You need more like 1.025
That wasn't a typo... I did a water change to bring the salinity up to where I always have had it. Did another water test and came up with
Salinity 30
Specific Gravity 1.022
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ammonia 0
Nitrates are down a bit which makes me happy

 

[btldreef]

that's still low. you really need to up the SG .. IMO 1.023 at minimum

 

[jamescameron1]

Originally Posted by BTLDreef
http:///forum/post/3138314
that's still low. you really need to up the SG .. IMO 1.023 at minimum
its hovering between 1.022 and 1.023. When I top up the tank in a couple days I will add a little salt into the top up water to bump it up