Not to hijack, but didn't want to make a new thread on something very much related. How fast should Nitrate actually climb in an established tank?
I used Seachem matrix which claims it can convert nitrates to nitrogen (blah blah). Now I have noticed that my nitrate level never really rises. It will hit maybe 2.5-5 ppm and just stay there. I even went almost a month without doing a water change just to see if it would climb... it never did. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, and the nitrate levels I mentioned.
My tank is 75g and I have 3 nerite snails, 1 glowfish shark, 8 Glowfish Tetras, and 8 Glowfish Barbs. I mean maybe I am just way understocked, but after reading around it looks like I should be seeing nitrate climb steadily