1ppm Nitrates - too low?

[RaymondL]

Hi all,

My tank of 7 months old has a 1ppm of Nitrates - I'm getting mixed information on what levels to maintain, and thought I'd reach out here to get more opinions with regards. Seems like most are saying my Nitrates should be 5ppm to 10ppm. I don't seem to be having any issues with my soft/LPS and SPS corals, so I'm thinking to leave it as is. At what point should I begin to worry about too low Nitrate levels?

Phosphates are at 0.02ppm. constant.

 

[Quietman]

I've run 1.0/.01 N/P for a long time in a softie/LPS tank with no issues but that's after I hit stability (18 months +). Early on those low of levels put you very close to zeroing out one or the other unintentionally as the tank matures. Happened to me, wanted to be detectable but not zero to prevent algae - then came algae, then came dinos, then came algae again. This was at 6-12 month point. While I never saw a test at zero readings I think being that low was just flying a bit too close to the sun.

If I had it to do over, I'd have reduced my nutrient control a bit and feed more and dealt with a little algae. The dinos almost wiped out everything (I have one fish and one coral from before dinos).

So those levels by themselves aren't bad under some conditions (very mature and stable tank), early on (<12/18 months) there is some risk you should be aware of.