how do you get to zero?

[cableguy35]

Hi every one I have read alot of stuff in the forums and I wonder how do you get to 0 nitrate and 0 nitrite? I do a 5 gallon water change every week on my 40 gallon and I vaccum the sand and I never get to 0.
Is there something im missing ? whats the secret to zero?
Tank info
40g long
tide pool wet dry sump
LR + LS
ph 8.4
alk 180 ppm
nitrite .5 - 1.0 ppm
nitrate 0 - 20ppm

 

[drew2005]

nitrite will go to zero by itself. i would stop doing water changes. when the nitrite hits 0 then wait a couple days to be sure it stays there. Then do a 20% change to get the nitrates down. Hopefully you dont have any livestock in there with nitrite showing.

 

[airforceb2]

You are probably getting your nitrites/nitrates from vacuuming the sand. You don't need to vacuum anything in the saltwater world. Like drew said, hold off on water changes for a couple weeks and put up the vacuum. That should do the trick.

 

[monalisa]

:yes:
I know that I was having a struggle getting my 'trates down to 0, and with religious water changes weekly (I just put my skimmer in tonight), I finally saw a 0 reading. All other readings looked great, but the darn 'trates were a challenge for me. Mine were staying around 5-10 always. I'm hoping that with my new skimmer that will cut down a little on the water changes...wonder if I'll miss that :notsure:
Lisa :happyfish

 

[reefdude37]

yea dont vacuum sand, how long has ur tank been set up for

 

[feixjai]

now i know how to make nitrate go down but how do you make ammonia go down? my nitrates in my tank are always 0.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by CableGuy35
Hi every one I have read alot of stuff in the forums and I wonder how do you get to 0 nitrate and 0 nitrite?
I wouldn't be too concerned with trying to get Nitrate to 0.0. Anything less than 10ppm is fine IMO. If you start having algae problems then you might want to put extra effort into getting it lower.
Nitrite is fairly harmless but it does indicate that your system isn't stable. I strongly suggest you stop vacuuming the sand bed. That's quite destructive to the habitat.
I'm guessing that you don't have enough flow in your system. What are you using for waterflow?
Water changes are a good thing IMO, I wouldn't stop but I'm not 100% mainstream.