Can't Get The Nitrates Down

[crazysilverwolf]

Hi all sorry back again, I have a problem with nirate, it won't drop from about 20ppm, phosphate, ammonia and nitrite are o - 0.1, nitrate has been around that level for about two weeks. there does not seem as though there is anything driving these levels. so my question is - am i missing something?

 

[mattlee]

nitrates at that level are perfectly fine dont worry. if you test your tap water then you may find nitrates are present in there anyway.... mine comes out the tap at 10ppm.
the only way to reduce them is using live plants, chemicals (but not too sure on them) and water changes but you will never get it lower than your tap waters content without chemicals or plants

 

[crazysilverwolf]

I use RO water which contains zero or near zero nirates, and i've been doing regular water changes 20% twice this week.

 

[-Nemo-]

What kind of filtration do you have running?

 

[GAB99]

wait is this FW or SW as the second post mentions TAP water which should never ever be used in a SW tank, this is also posted in the marine section as well so it is slighty confusing.


i had nitrates like that so i did a 50% WC and got it down to 5-10, use RO water

if this is FW then dont worry lol

 

[crazysilverwolf]

i have a 200ltr tank, SW setup, running a fluval 205 with two and half trays of LR and half a tray with Phosphate remover. there is also about 30kg of live rock in the tank. skimmer and two powerheads are also running. i always use RO water for water changes. water volume i estimate to be around 150ltrs and my water changes are currently 25lts which is roughly 17%.

 

[GAB99]

i have a 200ltr tank, SW setup, running a fluval 205 with two and half trays of LR and half a tray with Phosphate remover. there is also about 30kg of live rock in the tank. skimmer and two powerheads are also running. i always use RO water for water changes. water volume i estimate to be around 150ltrs and my water changes are currently 25lts which is roughly 17%.

arent the wc supposed to be more 25%ish anyways??

imo i did 50% change and solved the issue... for now hopefully i can keep it down with out doing more big WCs

 

[seffieuk]

I would always recommned water changes of 25% weekly on smaller tanks.

With a good water change each week and running purigen then I would hope to have nitrates below 10

Seffie x

 

[crazysilverwolf]

So is that the maximum i should be looking for 10ppm, i thought 5ppm was the maximum target level, i'll do a 50lt change later today. cheers

 

[seffieuk]

So is that the maximum i should be looking for 10ppm, i thought 5ppm was the maximum target level, i'll do a 50lt change later today. cheers

5 is great but <10 is fairly normal

Seffie x

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Lower nitrates are better but tbh I know people that have nitrates in the 10's and 20's without issues. Phosphates are the biggest issue IMO (they cause more algae blooms and are more damaging to corals).

Just keep doing what you are doing (regular, good sized water changes) and it should sort itself out. Macro algae will also help a lot too and if you are really worried about it a remote deep sand bed would also work.

Personally though I wouldn't be too concerned at these levels.

 

[mattlee]

nitrates at that level are perfectly fine dont worry. if you test your tap water then you may find nitrates are present in there anyway.... mine comes out the tap at 10ppm.
the only way to reduce them is using live plants, chemicals (but not too sure on them) and water changes but you will never get it lower than your tap waters content without chemicals or plants

sorry my bad, didnt see that it was marine..... ill leave you lot to it

 

[seffieuk]

Nice to see you on the salty side Matt - when you coming on over

Seffi ex

 

[mattlee]

Nice to see you on the salty side Matt - when you coming on over

Seffi ex

just thought i would dip my toe in the water.......

very tempted but im having to close a few tanks down as ive not as much time available at the minute.....

but that leaves empty tanks for future projects

 

[ColdwaterJosh]

I'm going to build my own Algae Turf Scrubber and see if it works aswell as everyone says! Perhaps the TS should take a look into it aswell