Nitrates Questions

[suewolf]

I have a 4 4 week old 65 gallon tank and everything is good except I can't get the Nitrates below 20. I have 45lbs live rock and 20 lbs plain rock that is now growing some algae. I have a lawnmower blennie, 10 astrea snails, 2 clown fish and 1 sailfin tang. Do I need to add more substate or live sand? Thanks in advance for your help.
Susan

 

[srfisher17]

Originally Posted by suewolf
I have a 4 4 week old 65 gallon tank and everything is good except I can't get the Nitrates below 20. I have 45lbs live rock and 20 lbs plain rock that is now growing some algae. I have a lawnmower blennie, 10 astrea snails, 2 clown fish and 1 sailfin tang. Do I need to add more substate or live sand? Thanks in advance for your help.
Susan
Nitrates at 20ppm are perfectly normal, good in a 4 week old tank in a new tank; and not at all dangerous to fish. Getting nitrates down takes time. Are you doing a reef or FOWLR tank? If FOWLR, under 20 will never be a problem, IMO.

 

[bigarn]

Yep ... I'd be perfectly content with that nitrate reading. Nothing to worry about.

 

[suewolf]

Thank you for such a quick reply. I would really like to develop a reef tank. How long do you need to have the tank up and running until you can add corals? I am looking at soft corals and probably going to start with mushrooms. I have been very intrigued by the cleaner clams(other posts discuss their nitrate lowering abilities) but I am afraid that it might mess up my tank.

 

[bigarn]

I don't think you need cleaner clams .... as stated the nitrates aren't a problem at all. I would wait a couple of months before adding corals (this is not set in stone, if your parameters are consistently good you can add them earlier) This is my opinion only.