Nitrate

[tang lover]

I am having trouble keeping my Nitrate level at zero. It is usally at zero when I do a water change. But a weak later it is at 40ppm, is this normal? I was told Nitrate always has to be at zero. Someone please explain.
Thanks

 

[75bownut]

Well first off it's not impossible to have zero but it is also not very realistic . If you plan on keeping corals and anemones etc...... you should try to keep it below 15 IMO, if its fish only they can handle higher levels, but no higher than 30 IMO. What really worked for me is actually 3 things . #1 Was the natural aging of the tank , I found that as my tank aged past say 6 months then it was a little easier to control.#2 Watch how much you feed!! Its better to underfeed than to pollute your tank with to much food! # 3 Adding a refugium can do wonders for Nitrates, Mine was cheap and easy to set up cost me like 30 bucks and it started to take effect in about a week , dropped mine from a constant 20ppm to 10 and it never goes higher than that. Hope this helps ! :yes: p.s I have many corals and Anemones now with no problems at all.

 

[bobbyzat]

It might help to give us more details about the filtration on your tank. Many types do a great job of converting ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate, but after that, most of the time the nitrate must be removed manually by water changes. Certain things, like a refugium as stated above help to remove it. Wet dry filters are known to leave high nitrates after a while if the bioo balls are not cleaned. Just a thought.

 

[feixjai]

my nitrates also use to be high. then i got this plant or algae called caulpera rock or something like that. it is know to reduce nitrate. and so i got it and now my nitrates are 0.

 

[snipe]

What type of substrate is in the tank? For them to be rising so high something is a miss and weekly water changes may help but something is causing the high spike. How often and how mutch do you feed?

 

[tang lover]

I have a wet dry filter, Jebo canister filter, uv light. I have like rock and just fish, I recently went through a wipe out. I lost a lot of fish.
I am just starting to add some in.

 

[exile415]

hmm . do you have bio-balls that might be the reason.

 

[snipe]

So you do bare bottom huh? So when you say alot of fish how mutch is (alot)? What size tank?

 

[airforceb2]

Also, why did you loose the fish? Before you add any more, you need to find out why they died before. 40ppm nitrates aren't going to kill multiple fish so there is something else wrong here. Please post all water parameters.

 

[snipe]

40ppm is high and the highest I have seen that is allowed is 50ppm and most places say less than that so it coulda been the problem.