Nitrate

[smittysmith2]

How much nitrate is too much? Mine is 40 ppm.

[kegogut]

Im running 40-50 atm myself although Im trying to get it down with vodka dosing.


What are you keeping in your tank livestock wise?

[nvladik]

I have 1ppm currently. All depends on what you have in the tank.

[smittysmith2]

I am just starting out. I have live rock and live sand. I started the cycle with a very small piece of tilapia. I have taken that out and was just wondering how much nitrate is too much.

[brianr24]

Just a side note. Your probably not getting a true nitrate reading if your nitrites are high.

[smittysmith2]

Nitrites are 0

[homer1475]

With weekly water changes, I run at 4ppm and everything in my tank is great.

Never really thought about how much is too much, the idea is the lowest you can go the better, depending on what you have/want in the tank. Some corals like "dirty" water, and low nitrates won't harm fish like ammonia or nitrites do.

[kegogut]

Originally Posted by homer1475

With weekly water changes, I run at 4ppm and everything in my tank is great.

Personally I think between 1-5 ppm nitrates is ideal. Ive seen a few times where ULN (Ultra Low Nutrients) caused corals to go pale and a little No2 colored them right back up. I'm not saying ULNs will cause coral to go pale out all the time as there are plenty of beautiful tanks with ULNs but Ive seen it happen a few times.

Now keeping phosphates as low as possible is much more important than nitrates.


To the OP. How long has your tank been cycling?

[BigCountry74]

x2, 1-5 and you can grow anything. and x2 phosphates is what you want at 0

[Heatherabel3]

Since you are still cycling with no livestock your nitrates are fine. Once you start doing water changes it will go down.

[andrek787]

On a related note, what do you guys use to control nitrates and phosphates besides water changes?

I just had my water tested at the LFS yesterday and my nitrates are over 12ppm but phosphate is undetectable according to RedSea tests. This is after a 40% water change.

[jn062181]

You can control nitrate/phosphate by running a refugium with macroalgae, which will compete with undesirable algae in the display (hair algae, etc.) for nutrient export. If you're running a low nutrient setup, you can run reactors as well (GFO for the phosphate, biopellets for nitrates).

[BigCountry74]

Originally Posted by andrek787

On a related note, what do you guys use to control nitrates and phosphates besides water changes?

I just had my water tested at the LFS yesterday and my nitrates are over 12ppm but phosphate is undetectable according to RedSea tests. This is after a 40% water change.

1.) a good skimmer, 2x your water. so if you run a 55g tank, you want a skimmer rated for 110 etc.

2.) macroalgae (chaeto)

3.) chemi-pure elite

[kegogut]

Originally Posted by andrek787

On a related note, what do you guys use to control nitrates and phosphates besides water changes?

I just had my water tested at the LFS yesterday and my nitrates are over 12ppm but phosphate is undetectable according to RedSea tests. This is after a 40% water change.

12 nitrates makes me jealous. lolz your well on the right track.

As far as control goes,theres a TON of ways to control your nutrients,just search around on the forums here and youll learn alot.

[andrek787]

Well, I want to do a low nutrient setup, but I believe my 120g tank might be considered heavily stocked (15 fish/inverts and tons of coral). I have a fuge with tons of macros, a GFO and I recently added a pellet reactor. I am dosing aquavitro calcification witch provides another carbon source.

[kegogut]

Originally Posted by andrek787

Well, I want to do a low nutrient setup, but I believe my 120g tank might be considered heavily stocked (15 fish/inverts and tons of coral). I have a fuge with tons of macros, a GFO and I recently added a pellet reactor. I am dosing aquavitro calcification witch provides another carbon source.

It definitely seems like your on the right track.

[CStrickland]

Originally Posted by andrek787

What do you guys use to control nitrates and phosphates besides water changes?

I use a turkey baster to puff the rocks off once a week, and after the crud settles I use a siphon with a tube on the end of it to suck up the sand a little and let it fall back down while the gunk gets pulled all the way out into a bucket. I pull out enough water for that to be my water change. It takes about ten minutes. I made a filter sock I run in the daytime and change every other day.

It's only been since October, and I only have the cheap phos test, so all I know is they are less than .25 ppm. But I feed 3-4 times a day and I haven't had any algae issues, just a few puffs here and there they I pull out, like the size of a peanut m&m each week. So I'm happy with my game so far cause it cost me like $15 to set up. If this can't keep up, I'll prolly buy a good skimmer. I'd rather not bother with reactors, dosing and fuges and stuff if I can avoid it. Fish and coral seem happy, just easy stuff like lps, polyps, and zoa

[scooter31707]

I have a LPS dominant tank, so I usually let my nirates get up around 10ppm before I even do a water change, no ill effects so far. I usually have some traces of phosphates even though I run GFO, but not at the recommend dosage. My dosage is around 130 grams, but I run half of that.

[homer1475]

Originally Posted by CStrickland

I use a turkey baster to puff the rocks off once a week, and after the crud settles I use a siphon with a tube on the end of it to suck up the sand a little and let it fall back down while the gunk gets pulled all the way out into a bucket. I pull out enough water for that to be my water change. It takes about ten minutes.

+1

I do the same thing when I do my weekly water changes, except I do it about an hour beforehand and let some filter floss in my media basket catch most of it. Which I immediately change afterwards. Then I suck off the top layer in the sandbed.

Great way to keep detritus down, as well as nitrates because your sucking up fish poo, uneaten food, etc, etc. Stuff like that will sit and break down, which will increase your nitrates as well.

[andrek787]

smittysmith2, sorry for hijacking your thread.

My tank stayed stable at 4ppm nitrate 0.16 phospate until I added more fish.

I want to slowly transition to a mixed reef with a few easy SPS corals (plate, pavona and birdsnest). What nitrate and phosphate ppm would you recommend?

[Dkuhlmann]

Originally Posted by andrek787

smittysmith2, sorry for hijacking your thread.

My tank stayed stable at 4ppm nitrate 0.16 phospate until I added more fish.

I want to slowly transition to a mixed reef with a few easy SPS corals (plate, pavona and birdsnest). What nitrate and phosphate ppm would you recommend?

If you Google any of the corals you wish to keep or look them up on the LiveAquaria site you can read the water parameter requirements for each. SPS like cleaner water, higher water flow and brighter lighting than LPS or Softies.

This same way of searching for the corals needs applies to any and all marine aquaria animals you wish to purchase.

That said your stable parameters you posted are close and are actually fine for some of the more hardy SPS corals. Proper lighting and water flow plays just as an important part as the parameters do. There are many ways available to reduce nitrate and phosphate in your tank, it all depends on how your tank is setup.

[CStrickland]

I can't edit my post, but I just noticed a typo. My nitrates aren't <.25 lol, just the phos. nitrates are like 10ppm.

[Dkuhlmann]

Originally Posted by CStrickland

I can't edit my post, but I just noticed a typo. My nitrates aren't <.25 lol, just the phos. nitrates are like 10ppm.

Yes you can edit your post. There is an "edit" button in your post at the lower right side.

[toothybugs]

Only within a certain timeframe of posting. Seems to be 30-60 minutes is it before it's there for infinity.

BTW, my nitrates were at 0.2ppm last I checked I actually dose nitrates and a touch of phosphate for growth. Corals are doing great now, but I don't try for SPS. Interestingly my cyano went away when I started dosing nutrients and for the first time in a year my zoa colonies are all growing off the plugs.