Nitrate question

[suver569]

I'm reading 30ppm (mg/l), everything else is looking good. Nitrite 0, ammonia 0, PH 7.9.

gonna do a water change, and see if that helps.

30 is a tad high for reef, correct?

[Reefkeeper]

Anything over 25 is considered harmful..you want to keep your Nitrates as low as possible. I have mine at lower than 5 and would like to get them lower.

Edit: FWIW, I was also taught to keep my pH around 8.2. But then again, I learned this stuff a LONG time ago. (Mid 80's)

[Dannyboy]

You should see what people come in with at PK. And they have fully functioning reefs that are perfectly healthy except for a nitrate level of 80+PPM. I wouldn't worry about it unless it gets around 60-80PPM. Nitrate is not harmful unless your livestock are exposed to it for long periods of time. A water change should help clear that up a little.

[Reefkeeper]

Originally posted by Dannyboy
You should see what people come in with at PK. And they have fully functioning reefs that are perfectly healthy except for a nitrate level of 80+PPM. I wouldn't worry about it unless it gets around 60-80PPM. Nitrate is not harmful unless your livestock are exposed to it for long periods of time. A water change should help clear that up a little.

I find this interesting. Just because some animals are able to tolerate increased nitrate levels for periods of time, does not mean that their reef is healthy. Increased nitrate levels are indicative of over feeding and the animals are typically in distress. With certain species of tang, the increased nitrates can lead to lateral line erosion and other health problems.

Yes, a tank can stand higher nitrates for periods of time. However, it is far from optimal and just taking the point of view that its inevitably high is setting up for failure.

A lot of the issue here depends on what is in your tank....if the animals are a little more tolerant then you have less to worry about. However, if you are keeping species that are extremely sensitive then you need to make sure you dont exceed their tolerances.

The reef world has changed a lot since I started and there are plenty of different ways that people swear by. In fact, I have found that people use different definitions for the same devices and/or think that one attribute changes it to a whole other thing.

For example, I swear by the use of Wet/Dry systems.....although apparently what I consider a wetdry and what other people think of as a wet dry are very different. In my mind, a wet dry always consisted of an over flow going onto a drip plate (originally a spray bar and you had a filter pad on the drip plate) which then flows onto a roll of fiberfill like material (the backside is a black mesh) which I think is now called DLS filter material. The water then goes through another drip plate hitting the bottom of the sump. The sump was then divided by short bulkheads in which you could place sponges and chemipure if you wished. Your skimmer would be in the sump as well and then the water would go up through your return via a submersible pump. I have had 2 or 3 people claim that a wet dry had to have bio balls......which I find funny because bio balls were the recommended upgrade to the original filter method I mentioned. The problem with the bio balls was that it trapped debris and got more gunked up than the original DLS material.

On top of which, what people are now calling bio balls were called media balls as there was a product on the market that were named BioBalls. These were in a seine bag, approximately 4" X 4" square, and looked like bean bag material.

Whoops, definitely went a little askew but the first part was on point.

[Dannyboy]

Oh dont get me wrong, I'm not saying that a high nitrate level is ok by any means. **** I get pissed if my tank even registers any nitrate at all. All I meant was that there is alot worse out there and those tanks are not showing any signs of stress in any way, but the high nitrate level is there. Granted in these instances we help people understand that it cannot continue(even if the fish are fine) and that action needs to be taken to reverse the issue. For a tank to have a nitrate level of 30ppm for even a week, it probably wont do much harm if any at all. Yeah your corals probably wont like you much, but the situation can be very easily corrected and is not really cause for alarm.

[BrookR1]

Just curious....what kind of test kit are you using? If you're using a Salifert, then you know about looking through the top of the vile and not the side, right? Had this happen once...thought my trates were 50, but in actuality they were 5.

[suver569]

No, it's an Aquarium Pharmacuticals

[shmitr]

I assume you tested it twice? I can't count the number of times I've gotten bad results because of some sort of left-over residue in the tubes or something else goofing up the test...Just my .02

[gilligan]

i had the same problem did small water changes every day by the end of the week everything was back to normal

[Dakota]

Originally posted by suver569
I'm reading 30ppm (mg/l), everything else is looking good. Nitrite 0, ammonia 0, PH 7.9.

gonna do a water change, and see if that helps.

30 is a tad high for reef, correct?

if a reef, any amount above 1 on nitrates is technically bad. Your pH is a wee bit on the low side as well, but as long as it's not shifting too much, it may be okay.