what should be my nitrate level by now?

Temp is a little high( for my taste ) but all others look good. What about Cal, Alk and Mag? Luna

 

i know temp is high but there is nothing i can do it is always high 82-84 sometime. cal and mag was ok but i have to test it again alk was 8dkh.

 

window ac??? for your temp. the 82 doesn't scare me because I purposely run mine that high but when you start flirtin round 84, that's when I start to cringe. you can also do fans blowing across your sump and remove glass lids. All of this will help your temp. that's what bugs me way more than your nitrates. 10 ppm is nothing.

 

If you have a red sea max I would check in the chamber of death to see if the biological filter is full of trash. In my rsm my nitrates went throught the roof. I removed that stuff and nitrates ok now

 

what about chemical filter should i also check that and may be remove and clean them up with ro/di water.

 

since you have to remove the carbon to remove the biological filter I would rinse the both of them really good with ro water if you plan to put them back in. I removed them completely from my tank and am using seachem purigen instead of the red sea carbon instead. But that is what works for me. I built a media rack for my tank to house the white filter pad, filter sponge and purigen. It ahs helped out a lot. Your heat issues on the other hand are a little to high I keep my tank at 79-80 with a window ac unit at the moment.

 

You have to have NO3 as proof the biological system in working properly then you have to deal with the NO3 on a different level.. fish and corals produce the food for nitrates all day and night long 24/7 365 and its either deal with them of stop feeding the system food .. all fish create waste and so do corals and what goes in as food stays i as waste you have a littler sewer treatment plant more so then an aquarium .

 

A problem I have encountered with the rsm is that all the trash that is not caught in the white and black sponges ends up collecting in the pump chamber which has carbon and ceramic bio balls in the bottom of it. Just suggesting to check it out. The carbon was so full of trash it had turned brown from all of the stuff clogging it up and the bio balls were black supposed to to light gray. Not trying to disagree with you Tangster, just suggesting

 

railraoder46 i have question for you. how long your rsm been running and when did you change your carbon? is bb still in? should we replace them with piece of LR? my tank been running 3 mounts now. i really want change the skimmer and remove the chemical filter and replace it with LR. later on remove also black sponge and white pad. what u think?

 

there is no such thing as the cycle being over as if you can then add anything without worry.it does'nt work that way.you set up a tank,it has a cycle.after the 1st big cycle the next one starts and then the next,each one getting smaller as the tank becomes more stable.a yr later you will still have cycles,just very small.then you add something and the next cycle starts.the more you add,the bigger the cycle.between cycles the water may seem perfect,that is why you go very slow and only add one or two things at a time.