nitrates

hey yall. okay my nitrates finally spiked and dropped earlier this week. but they only dropped to 20. everything else is normal. currently i have 1 domino damsel a couple snails a crab and a coral banded shrimp which all seem to be doing fine. i removed my bio balls from my cannister filter. i havent done a water change in almost 2 weeks. i am going to start using water from my lfs. also my cannister does have a bag of pure chem in it. is there anything else i should do to help with keep my nitrates lower. also i tested my tap water and that is about 10ppm of nitrates. hence why im definetly moving to water from my lfs plus its pre mixed.

 

How long has your tank cycled?
Reduce your nitrate level slowly and their is nothing wrong with having some nitrates in your water! It is actually better that you do as many organisms, corals and inverts feed on nitrates and phosphates!

 

How did your nitrates drop? There aren't many factors to account for a drop in nitrates other than a water change.

The best thing you can do is buy yourself an RO/DI system. I realize that it might seem like a lot of money, but between gasoline prices and the price of water at the LFS--it will add up fast.

You can get a reasonably priced system from Buckeye Field Supply, or airwaterice.com.

Condsider it.

 

its been just over a month now. as far as water changes ive heard once a month ever week. so far i just removed the bio balls. the pure chem as been in my filter about a week and a half now

 

Carbon, weekly water changes and a efficient protein skimmer are ideal!!!!