Nitrates

[bowfront26]

Are nitrates worse for corals or fish? My nitrates just tested at 15ppm.

[drummereef]

Corals. That's why wet/dry filtration isn't outlawed in fowlr tanks like reef tanks. :) Now, about your nitrates.... What kind of filtration do you have? Getting to the source of the problem is the only solution.

[2fishy]

I am dealing with trying to lower the nitrates right now. I had surgery that caused me to have to "just" get by with water changes. Now that I have safely healed and the tank looked a little neglected, we (hubby & I), did a 20% on Friday, tested the nitrates again today and found that they were at 20 ppm, so "we" did another 20%. I will retest tomorrow and if they are still high we will do a 10% tomorrow and retest the next day. You can safely continue on with this until they are where you want them, but allow the water to mix together around 24 hours before retesting and doing another change. It would be senseless to do a water change if they come back to zero or as close to as possible. The high nitrates will have an effect on the fish eventually, if they get high enough. I try to normally keep them 10 ppm or under.

[bertoni]

The fish aren't affected by nitrate at anything like that level, and soft corals won't care, either. Some stony corals might have issues, though.

[uscharalph]

How often (and how much) do you feed your fish?

[TekCat]

Water changes isn't a good way to lower nitrates long term. Besides, huge water changes may be quite dicomfortable to your critters.
Here what I've picked up on lowering nitrates:
- 1-2 lbs of LR per gallon.
- good water flow
- heavy protein skimming
- not overfeeding
- growing macro algae
- DSB or RDSB

hope this helps

[TrueblueNY]

corals. 15ppm isnt that bad. would try to keep them under 20, 5 or 10 is great. fish can take a lot more. but your corals will suffer. zoo's dont like high nitrates.

[Victor1046]

Newbie here.... what is DSB and RDSB??
Thanks

[2fishy]

DSB= deep sand bed

I am not sure what the other one means. Really deep sand bed?!:lol:

[toddc76]

Remote Deep Sand Bed, DSB in a Refuguim or some other not-in-tank location.

[bowfront26]

thanks guys.
The tank has about 1.2 lbs rock/g. and has an ASM G3 skimmer. I don't believe she is overfeeding but she does have a high bioload on the tank. All the corals are doing great (all LPS) except the hammer.

[BradsOcean]

corals!!!