Low Nitrates-Skimmer

[O'l Salty]

I've been trying to raise my nitrates. They've been in the 0-1ppm range since I started the tank 3 months ago. It's a 40 breeder and I have 4 fish. Two clowns about 1.5" long, a filefish about 2" long and a long nosed Hawk fish about 3" long. I've been feeding heavy to try and bring the nitrates up but that's now working. Should I take my skimmer off line?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've been trying to raise my nitrates. They've been in the 0-1ppm range since I started the tank 3 months ago. It's a 40 breeder and I have 4 fish. Two clowns about 1.5" long, a filefish about 2" long and a long nosed Hawk fish about 3" long. I've been feeding heavy to try and bring the nitrates up but that's now working. Should I take my skimmer off line?

I wouldn't. Skimmers aerate the water and remove organic matter. I'd either feed more, or dose nitrate.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

No. I'd say be patient. It can take a while for the food to rot and be read by the tests. Also keep an eye on the corals. I prefer to whatch the tank and see how it's doing and compare the numbers to that and not the other way around. That's chasing numbers.
Also in a new tank those are going to fluctuate pretty fast and make ya crazy.

 

[O'l Salty]

I have a torch and hammer coral that aren't really opening up like they use to. Back to quarantine????

 

[terri_ann]

How long wete they in qt? Did you dip before going into QT? Have they fully extended since getting, and where?qt or in 40B is something picking on them...like the clowns are they trying to host in them? How's the flow? How's the lighting? Hard to say with little info, sorry.

 

[O'l Salty]

How long wete they in qt? Did you dip before going into QT? Have they fully extended since getting, and where?qt or in 40B is something picking on them...like the clowns are they trying to host in them? How's the flow? How's the lighting? Hard to say with little info, sorry.

My old tank crashed in Nov so they've just been sitting in QT until first of March while the new tank cycled. Flow and lighting are excellent. No3=1, No4=.03, Alk 6.9 and Ca 347. I saw my filefish nip the hammer but it was a one time thing as far as I know. I do have an Emerald crab and bought a trap to catch him. Clowns haven't gone near either one. I'm going to start raising Ca but I don't know if that's an issue for them.

 

[terri_ann]

Sorry for the delay. Just too busy to always respond. Hopefully you got the hammer to open up. Hawk fish can really irritate corals to where they will close up. It doesn't always happen right away either. Because they tend to perch (even if it's not long), the corals tend to get irritated from the constant perch, off then back on, etc. As long as the hammer had opened and didn't show any signs of other problems (tissue recession, brown jelly disease, etc) and your params, lighting and flow are good, it could be the Hawkfish. How are the nitrates doing now?