Nitrates

Well I decided to check my tanks nitrate and found that it was at 50ppm, most likely due to overfeeding. Is this too high, corals and fish seem to be doing fine. My tanks has been setup for almost 4 months, should i be ok to do a water change?

Thanks

 

Thats a temporary fix .. And many recommend it to be done.. I'd look at filtration methoeds first . skimmer a good one or is it doing its job ? May want to set up a coil to take care of them ?

 

I have a refugium compartment but I have not bought chaeto yet so maybe when i add the chaeto it will help out. I just set up my skimmer since I got the tang, its doing ok but when i mod it i assume it will work much better (Its an octopus NW-200 older one)

For now i will do a water change and hope that alleviates the problem.

Thanks

 

To drop them significantly you'll have to make a large water change. A 50% change will drop them to 25 ppm. This method works well for dropping them quickly An Instant Nitrate Reduction Method - A Multiple Step Water Change Procedure Just be sure to have plenty of water @ the same salinity & temp as your tank water.

 

i would try the coil, i just put one on my tank. very easy to make. and from what i've read well worth it.

 

Ok thanks for the input everybody. Ill check into the denitrator but for now i have to worry on setting up my ca reactor and a bunch of other things. At what nitrate level do you see fish and corals start changing?. All my corals look good and my fish have excellent color still.

 

Hey ibm, If you stop over feeding, you will see a big difference in the nitrates. My nitrates before couldnt go below 20-25ppm. I started feeding once every 2nd or 3rd day and added a very small fuge inside the tank with sand, spaghetti algae and one baby mangrove tree and my no3 are at zero.

 

If you need algae P/M me I have tons of it just shipping and its your

 

I feed everyday that liquid plankton stuff. Its very hard for me to control myself from adding too much since i spot feed my flowerpot and gorgonian and i move on to the other corals as well. Im going to have to stop feeding so often or feed something else more controllable.

Tangster In about 2 weeks ill buy some from you but tomorrow im leaving to Argentina for vacation so ill have to wait. Thanks

 

Nitrates really are not that bad...atleast compared to nitrites and ammonia, temp. changes and such. The biggest problem is the growth of unwanted nuisance algae!
Having a large population of corals and Tridanca clams will help to ensure this down't get out of hand.
Of course, as mentioned above, efficient and effective filtration and decreased feeding will help!
Good luck