Nitrates...ask 10 aquarists, get 11 answers.

[roger saltwaters]

Ok so whats the deal? I'm relatively new to this, (one year in) and I can't seem to get a straight answer. Where do I want my nitrates? I've had people with excellent tanks say I want at or near zero, I've had others say around 10 and if it gets above that start changing water, and I've had the guy at my LFS (who I swear just makes up stuff on the fly) say I need to target around 20. What gives?? I've just spent the past 6 weeks lowering mine from 20 plus to near zero with NOPOX under the impression that sps would do better this way, but have I wasted my time?? I'm confused and I don't think it's my fault.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

The situation depends on how you want to operate your system. For low nutrient systems, i.e. low nitrates and phosphates, you will want to also keep a lower dKH. I typically run my dKH between 9-11, so I've recently started maintaining a little nitrate in my system. I, too, had nitrates down to zero with NOPOX, but after reading up on it, I changed my approach. I now try to maintain 2-5 ppm nitrates in my system. I always seem to have 0.02-0.04 ppm phosphates available.

 

[brandon429]

this is exactly the same rationale as the ford vs chevy row, no way to win. Anyone who picked ford anyway would be wrong except for 4Ford Family they get an out.

I was able to beat the concern over nitrate by not owning a test kit for it, and just keeping a sandbed that cannot physically cloud the tank no matter how its disturbed, its that free of waste. the reason chevy wins is for having normal looking caster/camber settings of the front wheels. ford may have fixed that nowadays, but in the 90s that really scarred me.

 

[Jason mack]

+1 for nitrates between 2-5 ppm but I guess it's more about finding the balance in your tank or sweetspot

 

[roger saltwaters]

this is exactly the same rationale as the ford vs chevy row, no way to win. Anyone who picked ford anyway would be wrong except for 4Ford Family they get an out.

I was able to beat the concern over nitrate by not owning a test kit for it, and just keeping a sandbed that cannot physically cloud the tank no matter how its disturbed, its that free of waste. the reason chevy wins is for having normal looking caster/camber settings of the front wheels. they may have fixed that nowadays, but in the 90s that really scarred me.

It's funny you say this. I'm an engine builder by trade, (specializing in drag engines) and I'm more or less agnostic as far as brand loyalty goes. However, in my formative years, I was a Ford guy. It's kind of hard to argue with this from the other day.....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That's a ford with a stock block, crank, and heads running 4.85 in the eigth at 3200 pounds. About 1300 horsepower and this is turned down. Will run .70's easy before it's all said and done.

 

[Jason mack]

It's funny you say this. I'm an engine builder by trade, (specializing in drag engines) and I'm more or less agnostic as far as brand loyalty goes. However, in my formative years, I was a Ford guy. It's kind of hard to argue with this from the other day.....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That's a ford with a stock block, crank, and heads running 4.85 in the eigth at 3200 pounds. About 1300 horsepower and this is turned down. Will run .70's easy before it's all said and done.

 

[AlexG]

Its not uncommon to get a lot of opinions on nitrates or many topics related to this hobby. There are thousands of ways to keep a successful reef tank that thrives but every tank and situation can be different. The big question I always what to know is what are you trying to accomplish with this tank?

I think that nitrates below 20 but greater than zero seems to cover many of the opinions on nitrates out there that I have seen recently. Everyone will have a different reasoning for why they keep different levels. Sometimes there is a scientific method behind keeping certain levels while others might just say the corals are happy so they keep nitrates at a certain level. I would suggest experimenting to see what works best for your reef. If you nitrates are over 20+ppm I would be looking into the source of the nitrates. Do you use filter socks, filter pads, or filter sponges? If so how often are you cleaning or rotating them out of the system? What is your filtration setup? How long has the tank been setup? Is your tank bare bottom or is there substrate?

 

[saltyhog]

I think one reason for the confusion is that the tide seems to have turned recently on what's best. It is true that you will see fantastic tanks at many ranges of NO3 levels. I don't think you'll see many SPS dominated tanks with nitrates above 20 though. Personally the color in my SPS is much better with NO3 levels in the 2-5 range but were still good up to almost 10. Like it was said above, find the sweet spot for your tank/corals and try to maintain stability there.

Agree with AllSignsPointToFish, don't run dKh much above 8 if your nitrate and phosphate are zero. I had big problems when I did that.

 

[Anirban]

You get 11 answer from 10 people because those 10 people have 10 or 20 different tanks and each one of them is a separate ecosystem on its own. Every tank handle different amount of nitrate differently. Nitrate alone dont decide outcome of a good or bad tank its the whole ecosystem which decide and possibly 1000 different factors. So, just stick to a level and maintain it, nothing beat stability in this hobby. If you still see its not there where you want the tank to be then change one parameter at a time to see how it affects.

 

[ahiggins]

hahahahaha yes, this is so true.
There REALLY needs to be a disclaimer on this because everyones tank is different.
I have:
25 gal with a few (easy) sps, 10 or so LPS, 5-10 softies and I keep the nitrates around 5
40 gal frag tank with zoas and a few blastos/acans/leathers that I keep at 10 or so. Im not worried about going over because my coral tell me when I need a water change.
10 gal rock nem breeder fluctuates between 5-20 depending on water change schedule and its never been an issue.

it also depends on what you want to keep. My sweet spot for the 25g display is around 5 ish. I start seeing unhappy sps if higher and unhappy lps if lower.

Hope that helps!!
ps, and we arent even getting into alk and cal levels!! haha

 

[ahiggins]

I think one reason for the confusion is that the tide seems to have turned recently on what's best. It is true that you will see fantastic tanks at many ranges of NO3 levels. I don't think you'll see many SPS dominated tanks with nitrates above 20 though. Personally the color in my SPS is much better with NO3 levels in the 2-5 range but were still good up to almost 10. Like it was said above, find the sweet spot for your tank/corals and try to maintain stability there.

Agree with AllSignsPointToFish, don't run dKh much above 8 if your nitrate and phosphate are zero. I had big problems when I did that.

also agree, when I first started I used coral pro salt which made up at 11 dkh...and I had no nitrates. first new batch of coral I bought bleached within about 6 hours. most came back but it was definitely a learning experience.

 

[hart24601]

Nitrate was once an easy troubleshooting guide for reef tanks years ago. Generally if someone had issues it was easy to ask what the nitrate levels are and if they were quite high it was an indication that tank maintenance was lacking (detritus build up or lack of WC) or overfeeding was occurring. This plus research showing very high levels can be harmful and the lack of nitrate on coral reefs made nitrate "bad" for a long period of time. With the rise of SPS focused reefing and carbon dosing, minimal displays and other modern nutrient export techniques everyone initially wanted 0 nitrate. Over the past several years it became more apparent that in our tanks we can't match the ocean reefs with their 0 nitrate or corals tend to pale and bleach (probably from lack of food compared to the reef).

That is why you get such different responses. Not only does it vary system to system, but also the attitude towards nitrates has changed over time in the hobby.

 

[beaslbob]

Ok so whats the deal? I'm relatively new to this, (one year in) and I can't seem to get a straight answer. Where do I want my nitrates? I've had people with excellent tanks say I want at or near zero, I've had others say around 10 and if it gets above that start changing water, and I've had the guy at my LFS (who I swear just makes up stuff on the fly) say I need to target around 20. What gives?? I've just spent the past 6 weeks lowering mine from 20 plus to near zero with NOPOX under the impression that sps would do better this way, but have I wasted my time?? I'm confused and I don't think it's my fault.

yep it's confusing.

find out what works for you.

IMHO using algae (macros in refugium, algae turf scrubber) is much better then using NOPOX or any other chemicals/dosing most especially to lower nitrates.

Algae will consume ammonia (if present) then nitrates, plus phosphates, and co2. And return oxygen and fish food.

I'm not aware of any chemicals that will do that.

But that's just me and my .02

 

[hart24601]

yep it's confusing.

find out what works for you.

IMHO using algae (macros in refugium, algae turf scrubber) is much better then using NOPOX or any other chemicals/dosing most especially to lower nitrates.

Algae will consume ammonia (if present) then nitrates, plus phosphates, and co2. And return oxygen and fish food.

I'm not aware of any chemicals that will do that.

But that's just me and my .02

And to confuse you even more I totally am the opposite. I much prefer feeding the tank carbon and not using algae!

 

[drawman]

I think keeping a little nitrate in the water makes things much more forgiving (especially for those that keep higher alk). Fish poop is great and nitrate dosing can help but keeping up on cleaning out detritus is very important too. I think keeping great water quality with some nitrates is an easy way to go.