Nitrate Levels???

Got a question, how long does it take for nitrate levels to 0 out?? I was running my tank with out a skimmer(bad idea, don't ever!!!! do it), I bought a skimmer, cleaned the live rock, cleaned the sand in the display tank, removed some of the sand out of the sump, and changed out all the water. I got some nitrate sponge from kent to try to covert the nitrate and I put some mangroves in. I do have cheeto in there too. I am in no hurry to get any live stock but mr crabs is looking lonely. Will my haunting nitrate ever go away :-[

 

sometimes as long as 12 weeks

 

Nitrates may never "0 out"...esp. after you start adding fish...

Let that live rock build up biofilter and watch for stabilization of nitrate levels.

Keep close eye on once you start adding fish.

Is reason you should do very slowly with a new tank.

If we all had the patience of Job...and were really, really conscientious we probably should wait for a year to start adding fish to new reef tank...:-/

But heck...who is going to do that

Frequent testing, water changes as needed and as slow as you can possibly go adding fish is best you can do. (nitrate levels will give you indication of how fast to add critters)

Good Luck!

 

Mine stays around 5 pretty steadily, and all I have is a POS hang on skimmer that doesn't even skim as far as I can tell! The tank is 6 months old. It will go down with time, especially with a good skimmer and fuge. Good luck, and as mentioned before patience is a virtue!!

 

I have a bak pak 2 and I am really happy with it, I was going to get a aquac but I heard bak pak are just as good for a 40gal tank. I am thinking about switching the coral/sand mix in the fuge to clay, i heard cat litter is suppose to do the trick. I heard the more greenery in a tank the more the nitrate stays down. I swear I am about to plant a ficus down there lol

 

my nitrate level is 10ppm almost 3 weeks now but once it was 0 and than i add my fishes one by one so far i have 3 fish. few corals. i think i will add new cured LR. what u think guys? b/c WC doesn't help me at all.

 

The No3 level in a tank will fluctate from time to time. It all depends on how much you feed, how many fish you have, which ones, your filtration system, enough LR, how fast you add fish and your bio load from the beginning. I dont think having a tank that 0 No3 is normal either, you should have at least 5ppm. Luna

 

Nitrates are the end of the process of ridding the tank of ammonia and nitrites, as they are just doing their jobs . But nitrates have to and should be dealt with to keep them as low as possible. Nitrate is not only a stimulant and food source for algae, but I have been reading and see in the last few yrs as they have been shown to be a stimulant for the production of dinoflagellates .

I think most home test kits can only get cloes to zero and maybe .5 ppm at best , But I like to keep mine at the point any test kit can't detect any of them at all reasons being as I said nitrate is not only a food/stimulant for algae and maybe for dinoflagellates and these are include zooanxthellae also a algae and this will cause many sps corals turn off to a brown color and also the nitrate levels are thought to have an effect of fish coloration also.

And with the increase of internal zooanxthellae with in the coral this has been shown to limit the SPS corals growth. Then there are all the other algae problems that are connected to even low levels of nitrates , Like I said most home aquarium kits are not that accurate or sensitive but most all can detect very well down to zero amd even to .5 ppm .. I'll keep tryng t keep mine as close to zero as my kits will allow. If lets say 40 ppm of nitrates are o.k where do we draw the line with phosphates ? Some corals and all fish can adapt to them in some limited amounts but why should they have to ?