nitrate

[prowake]

I have had my tank for about 8 months, my nitrates have been at 20 ppm four about 3 weeks. I change 10gal. of my water every weekend and it still has not gone down. My ammonia and nitrite are at 0. What should i do to help this problem, and how bad is 20ppm of nitrate for fish and corals.

 

[a0b915]

Sorry to hear about the nitrate problems. I just went through a battle of my own. It may be wise to do a 25 to 30 percent change now and another next week to really put a dent in the nitrate levels. I am fairly new at this, but am just passing on some advise from my own thread regarding nitrates. I was also getting skewed nitrate results because of a poor quality test kit. After a couple of big water changes and a few smaller weekly once, (about ten percent) the nitrate levels will hopefully calm down. Also be very careful to not overfeed your fish, maybe drop down to every other day with smaller portions for a while.
Good Luck,
JD