How low of nitrates before I starting adding inverts?

[brycewood]

Like the title says, I am hoping to add cleaner crew+ a peppermint to take care of an aiptasia problem. I want to make sure I don't kill the little buggers. Right now I am down to 25, so I am hoping that by early next week I will get down to about 10. Is 25 low enough for these guys or should I get it even lower.
Thanks,
B

 

[drew2005]

Originally Posted by Brycewood
Like the title says, I am hoping to add cleaner crew+ a peppermint to take care of an aiptasia problem. I want to make sure I don't kill the little buggers. Right now I am down to 25, so I am hoping that by early next week I will get down to about 10. Is 25 low enough for these guys or should I get it even lower.
Thanks,
B
I would wait until they get under 20 just to be safe. Inverts are sensitive escpecially those shrimps. Also make sure your salinity is about 1.024.

 

[carshark]

Originally Posted by drew2005
I would wait until they get under 20 just to be safe. Inverts are sensitive escpecially those shrimps. Also make sure your salinity is about 1.024.

or higher, they do like a little bit of a higher sg...

 

[brycewood]

That's kinda what I thought. My salinity is between 1.023 and 1.024, a little closer to 1.024. I am going to creep it up through the weekend and creep down my nitrates and hopefully be set to add the lil guys by monday or tuesday.
Will the aiptasia attack my cleaner crew? Or are the cleaners generally going to stay away from a hostile anenome like that?
Thanks again,
Bryce

 

[kdfrosty]

Aptasia won't attack anything. If anything touches aptasia though, it may get stung. The main thing is to get rid of the aptasia quick before they spread.
Peppermint shrimp are hit or miss when trying to rid Aptasia. There's a good product out there call Joes Juice. you might also try Kalkwasser or boiling water. I've heard of successes with all of the above.

 

[computrgk]

ok here is where i take issue with the nitrates and inverts thing i've got serveral inverts in fact i've got one of those pest anemones and everything is alive and fine with nitraes between 40-60 can seem to lower them no matter what ido i don't know who origianally said no inverts with higher nitrates but i think it needs to be reexamed to see if the theory really holds water cause my molt grow and are thriving in my "high" nitrate tank. although i may be getting false positve results on my test. but anyway i would say around 40 you'd be safe at least in my experience

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by ComputrGk
ok here is where i take issue with the nitrates and inverts thing i've got serveral inverts in fact i've got one of those pest anemones and everything is alive and fine with nitraes between 40-60 can seem to lower them no matter what ido i don't know who origianally said no inverts with higher nitrates but i think it needs to be reexamed to see if the theory really holds water cause my molt grow and are thriving in my "high" nitrate tank. although i may be getting false positve results on my test. but anyway i would say around 40 you'd be safe at least in my experience
I have my inverts in at about 40 ppm on nitrates, but doing constant 20% water changes to try to bring it down. You will need to bring that down before it gets any higher, 60 is an unsafe zone especially if you have fish. It will take water chage after water change to bring that number down. Plus cut the feeding down a bit too. Running a protein skimmer and having live rocks will help. I'm having the same problem right now and it's making my fish sick. I ordered a Aqua C Remora online today and it should be here by Monday. Hope I don't have to do anything extreme to my fish to make them better. Feeding garlic guard at the moment to keep up their immune system. They started getting sick when my air broke down.

The temp went up and down up and down. Finally got it fixed and temp is stabilized. I won't keep going on and on...

 

[brycewood]

I've finally got my nitrates under 100 only about 3 weeks ago.
They were about 50 till recently, I'm going to hopefully going to do a 20% change tonight or tomorrow and watch them drop the rest of the way. I know I have heard mixed things about nitrates affecting certain inverts, but I'd like to keep them low at for the acclimation.
I am planning on ordering a skimmer this week, the aqua c remora.
I know the results have been mixed on the aiptasia vs peppermint, but I also just want some shrimp...

 

[computrgk]

Originally Posted by Mikeyjer
60 is an unsafe zone especially if you have fish. It will take water chage after water change to bring that number down. Plus cut the feeding down a bit too. Running a protein skimmer and having live rocks will help. I'm having the same problem right now and it's making my fish sick.
Funny thing is all my inhabitants are healthy happy and i feed every two days twice on the feeding day i may be a little low on the LR spectrum and the protein skimmer i had broke POS but i've got two of what i've been told are the toughest inverts to keep with high nitrates and those are a long spiny urchin and a brown cucumber as well as a starfish don' ask which one don't want to look it up now but all my fishies are happy healthy. Also i have spoke with people who also have high nitrates so Again i say i don't belive nitrates in the 40-60 range are as harmful as people have once stated i would think amonia would be more of a concern than nitrates but that is my own opinion. But i'm not a sceintist or anything so i'll stop ranting now.