Nitrates at 0, ok?

[Tyguy35]

Hey, so I am having some algae issues and determined it was my phosphates and nitrates. I had phosphates at 1ppm but has already begun to lower with rowa phos. I also added a nitrate remover and after a week I am seeing a reading of zero nitrates. Should I take the remover out of my sump now or am I ok to keep it at 0.
Thank you.

 

[Idoc]

I don't recommend running 0 nitrates and elevated phosphates. Id pull out the nitrate reducing stuff and let it build to around 5-10ppm and maintain that level. With the nitrates elevated, you'll probably see your phosphate reduce as well. Maybe try to keep your phosphates below 1ppm.

 

[Tyguy35]

I don't recommend running 0 nitrates and elevated phosphates. Id pull out the nitrate reducing stuff and let it build to around 5-10ppm and maintain that level. With the nitrates elevated, you'll probably see your phosphate reduce as well. Maybe try to keep your phosphates below 1ppm.

ok thank you. Ill pull it out but keep the rowaphos.

 

[SPR1968]

As said by @Idoc you don’t want zero nitrates or your potentially going to have issues and again as already said a good target is 5-10ppm

If you have algae issues, it could be using the phosphate as a food source, and giving a false low reading, so I would leave the rhowaphos in place and keep changing it. A good target is around 0.03 and certainly less than 0.1.

The easy way to get nitrates up is add some more fish and feed them

 

[NanoDJS]

I will say that when my nitrates are below 5 , they read 0 ( yellow) on API , I have to use the N03 Pro test from redsea in that range then its always like 3-4 or something.

 

[PatW]

Your desired nitrate levels depend on what you are trying to do.

First off, you want some nitrate and phosphate even in a fish only system. You want some algae growth so the grazers in your clean up crew will get enough to eat.

If you have corals, you want nitrates because most corals need nitrates. For acropora coral, many people like 1 to 2 ppm nitrates but some people like higher levels like 5 ppm.

For LPS corals most people want about 5 to 10 ppm nitrates.