And here I thought I had 0 nitrates

So with my refund check I decided to invest in some quality test kits so I bought salifert nitrate, phosphate and pH. To my surprise my nitrates were around 80 ppm! I also bought a new reef octopus bh1000 skimmer because my old bak pak skimmer was a POS. should I be concerned if my fish are happy and healthy and my water is crystal clear?

 

whats your live stock and do you have any sps?

 

If you have coral, that is high. Even with FOWLR, that is a bit high. I'd do a 50% water change, will bring your nitrate down to 40ppm. Then do 25% water changes for the next couple weeks. That will bring it back down where you want it.

You may be feeding too much, or perhaps have an overstocked tank.

 

I'm not sure I would qualify API as quality test kits, or trust their results. Honestly, if you don't have algae and corals are colorful, your unnecessarily stressing yourself out testing for nitrate at all. Hobbyists like to fixate on nitrate because it is one of the few things we can test for (although not very accurately and it really isn't important anyways). If any bad is going to happen due to nitrate or other things that happen to go along with nitrate then algae and coral color is a better indicator than any test kit. If you really want to test N though for some reason, stick with salient or elos.

 

+ 1 i have never tested for nitrate

 

Nitrate may not kill your fish outright like ammonia or nitrite can, but chronic high level exposure can indeed cause issues. They've done studies that show exposure causes reduced disease resistance, poor growth and a higher incidence of unexplained death.

I've only ever owned one salifert test and zero Elos tests. IME, you do not need to spring for the more expensive kits when measuring such parameters as nitrate. Make sure you kit is stored properly, relatively fresh and used in a timely manner and it should serve you well.

I would work to bring that level down with a step up in maintenance. Don't do anything drastic that will stress your fish, but some waterchanges will be beneficial.

 

Just remember when battling nitrates patience, patience, and more patience. When the levels are high for a longer period of time the nitrate gets absorbed into all the rock and sand and anything else it can in the system. You may remove the source of the problem and do a large waterchange to reduce them drastically, but when you check the next day they amazing are just as high as they were the day before!! This has to do with the simple principal of leeching and diffusion. Areas of high concentration will move to areas of low concentration to balance out. If the amount of nitrate in the water column is equal to that in the rock and sand than no diffusion will take place, but once it is lower in the water column the rock, sand, etc will leech nitrates into the water column.

Best thing you can do is test frequently and do multiple waterchanges a week to try and get them under 20ppm. You can also look into starting a fuge with chaeto or mangroves or algae scrubber as a long term plan of nitrate removal. By the way is this a FWLRO tank or do you house corals?

 

Disagree. Especially if its rising quickly. I found my coral all looked phenomenal.... right up to the week 30% RTN'd. I say test weekly then monthly when you aren't making stocking changes or changes to your routine.

Also get the most accurate tests you can. API is ok for some things, Sailfert for others, and Hanna for a couple.

 

Didn't the OP buy a Salifert though? Am I missing where they mentioned API?

 

API for nitrate is ok I use it for my weekly testing before I do my weekly water change. I use the Red Sea test once a month since I trust it more and find it test very close to the API kit