nitrates

haha i did it to my elf nitrates are high 20ppm its from me over feeding. i just got 7 fish so i kinda went crazy making sure every thing from bristle star to clown fish ate once a day . i guess ill do more frequent w/c and feed a lot less any other tips or advice for newb with fish fetish

 

You just introduced 7 fish to your tank all at once??? If so, dont be surprised if you go through a small cycle. Thats too many fish at once IMO. The general rule of thumb is one fish every 2-3 weeks. That time frame will give your biological filtration time to adjust to the new bio-load. 20ppm of No3 is not bad, I had that for yrs without any ill effects. If you add a refugium to your system, that will help in a major way. Luna

 

For most things I think you are gonna be just fine. Most sps won't be to happy with your nitrates where they are but softies and lps for the most part will tolerate it well. To second what luna said, you shouldn't have added that many fish at once to a smaller system but what's done is done. Just keep an eye on your levels and make sure you got some extra water on hand for emergency purposes. Good luck man and chalk this up as a lesson learned

 

just got sps monti and no i didnt add them all at once i added them over a coarse of a month i got a fuge but lights might not be bright enough