Nitrates 3-5ppm... will I have an algae problem soon?

My Nitrates use to be 0ppm but today they were at 5ppm, so I did a water change and now they went downj to 3ppm. I have a frogspawn that i have been feeding quite fresquentlt so I guess my nitrates went up a little. Will they go back down to 0ppm soon if I keep up on water changes? My tank is a 10gal nano. No sump or refuge. no skimmer either. I want to keep it looking as nice as possible, so I keep up on water changes instead of getting a skimmer. I have a filter rated for up to 40gals though. If I do my water changes once every 3 days should I start to see my nitrates go back dow to 0 as long as I stop feeding my frogspawn? I don't have any algea problems yet, is 3-5ppm enough to start an algea problem if I leave it? I don't mind doing the extra work needed because I don't have a sump/fuge or skimmer.

 

Obviously the best suggestion here is to get a skimmer.

Barring that... water changes will only remove a proportionate percentage of nitrates. If you do, for example, a 50% water change, you will remove theoretically 50% of nitrates.

As your nitrates climb over time, and your % and/or rate of WC does not increase, you will slowly lose that battle.

You need to have a very good clean up crew (snails, crabs, etc.) to eat any uneaten food and general cleanliness. A tank that size can't handle much fish at all... but no idea what you have in there...

I can not answer your question of 'will you have' bc I don't know anything about your tank really. But I can say 3-5 nitrates, while hard to measure to such accuracy is not going to cause algae problems by itself.

What are you using to test with?

EDIT: often "filters" are giant sources of nitrates... be sure to clean that thing regularly. Personally, I advise against them. But that's just me.

 

I would start a sump/fuge to add water volume and grow macro algae. This will help in keeping nitrates down if you don't enough a skimmer

 

I have a clean up crew to clean up any algea that might form but I ahve no algea at all at the moment. 5 hermit crabs, 8 margarita snails and 1 turbo snail. I actually have a good size piece of cheato in behind my live rock for nitrates and such aswell. Right now I don't have room for a sump/refuge... I have nowhere to place one. I could get a nano skimmer though I guess when I get the money.

 

You don't need a skimmer in a 10g tank. Your Trates are probably coming from your filter. If you have enough Live Rock, that will be your filter, no need for HOB. Next make sure you keep up on weekly water changes, and you will be fine. Algae stems from phosphates. Just fo a try, take out the filter for 2 weeks and make your water changes every week for those 2 weeks, and see where your at from there. Another thing to is that Frogspawn like alittle Trates, your range is actually perfect.

 

I clean my filter once a week, sometimes twice because I have a canister filter. So, I highly doubt that is where the nitrates are coming from, because they nitrates were at 0 for the longest time until I got the frogspawn and started feeding it mysys shrimp then suddenly my nitrates went up, so i think that is actually where they are coming from. I'll stop feeding the frogspawn and do water changes more frequently and see where they go.

 

Great answer and advice! Well done and I totally agree

 

CuC is also there to eat any uneaten food that your coral and/or fish don't eat.

If that is all the CuC you have, then IMO you have too small a CuC.

Contact John at ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae and he'll help you add what you need. You need some CuC that will go through your substrate too.