Nitrates at Zero...help?

[Saluki2003]

Have a pretty new IM Nuvo 20 and was testing nitrates with an API kit and knew my nitrates had to be close to zero. So I picked up a Salifert kit and it came bad as zero Nitrates. So far I only have 2 clowns and a small frogspawn with a cleanup crew in the tank. I have been feeding every other day.

Right now my 2 media baskets look like this:
Floss/Purigen/Matrix
InTank Refugium w/ Chaeto
Floss/Chemipure nano/Carbon

Below is the parameters from my last testing (pre-WC). Am I overfiltering or underfeeding? Should I start feeding everyday now?

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

My guess would be your chaeto is sucking up all the nitrates. What is you light cycle for it?

 

[Saluki2003]

My guess would be your chaeto is sucking up all the nitrates. What is you light cycle for it?

I run it with the light on at night when the tank lights are off.

 

[Jekyl]

Switch to every other day or remove some of the chaeto if it has gotten large. I feed my fish once a day though. So you could go that direction also.

 

[Saluki2003]

Switch to every other day or remove some of the chaeto if it has gotten large. I feed my fish once a day though. So you could go that direction also.

I’ve been trimming out some Chaeto every week with water changes. I’ll bump the feeding to daily and see how that goes for this week.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

Any reason you want to run all that stuff? I would take it all out honestly.

 

[Saluki2003]

Any reason you want to run all that stuff? I would take it all out honestly.

I just copied what someone recommended on a Facebook group. What would you run in the media baskets?

 

[Jekyl]

Any reason you want to run all that stuff? I would take it all out honestly.

+1

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

I wouldn't rn anything but some floss. I would definitely not bother with a refugium on a tank that size. That is unless you just want the fun of growing macro. I would either run a small skimmer if there is one that fits or I would run floss to clean the water a bit. You don't need that stuff if you feed properly and do water changes... which you should do regularly for long term success .

 

[Saluki2003]

I wouldn't rn anything but some floss. I would definitely not bother with a refugium on a tank that size. That is unless you just want the fun of growing macro. I would either run a small skimmer if there is one that fits or I would run floss to clean the water a bit. You don't need that stuff if you feed properly and do water changes... which you should do regularly for long term success .

I’ve only been feeding as much as the fish can eat in about 45 seconds. I alternate between pellets and frozen mysis. And I do a 20% WC (3g) every week.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

yea... take all that stuff out with that level of feeding care and WC. 100%

 

[HB AL]

Your bioload is extremely light with so little fish and only thus feeding every other day so most of the stuff your implementing is the reason your nitrates are zero. Yes you are over doing it with chemical and biological filtration for the bioload in your tank.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

I feed a ton, but I have a big skimmer and I WC about 10-12% weekly... I run socks... thats it.... nitrates stay at 5 and po4 around .05. YMMV of course.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

I feed heavy... I do definitely believe in vacuuming the sand well at WC also for long term success. Especially in my case because of the feeding amount... I like nice clean sand... Its a marathon. Monitor your nutrients but don't obsess. take that stuff out and test in a week. See if you are creeping up.

 

[Saluki2003]

Thanks for all the feedback. Would you keep the Carbon and Matrix or remove them too? I put matrix in because I have a more minimalist aquascape and only have about 5 or 6 pounds of rock in the tank.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

I would only run carbon if I needed too... sometimes if my daughter is burning incense or something or if I am doing a bunch of work in the tank I'll run a touch of it for a day or 2. Probably doesn't do anything, but I keep some on hand for potential "toxins." That said I burn a candle in my fish room every night almost and nothing happens. I will also run some if we are having a party or something and I want the water extra super crystal clear to show it off, but then I take it out. It's just unnecessary IMO. The one exception I make is if I'm breaking in a new tank. I will run if for a week or so to grab any bad juju off the rocks I'm using (always live and pre-cycled BTW). I just run it for a week or 2 passively while the tank settles. This is all probably totally unnecessary. The 2 most successful tanks I have seen IRL run only a skimmer and socks, and to regular WC. These are folks who have very long term (decades) of success and sell high-end SPS. As far is the matrix... I'm not gonna lie, I don't even know what that is. I'm assuming its like marine pure spheres or something. You probably don't need it. I keep some spheres in my sump just to seed future projects or for emergency purposes, but I'm just putting usable rocks in there more so now. I dunno... maybe take some out? Dude, I don't test ammonia.... ever. I don't even test in the beginning. I let the tank run with mature live rock and throw in some water from an established tank and basically thats it... then I just add slowly until I know its good.
Your bacteria population is probably fine, but I'm not a marine biologist. I would take it out, run some floss and polishing pad, and keep some media handy for any creeping emergency... then, reevaluate. Good housekeeping is probably all you are going to need if you stock correctly.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

amendment .... I do test alk and cal. obsessively, as in daily..... but that's just because of my sps. I also do have an ammonia test kit for some emergency like if I had a massive livestock event for some unknown reason, but the box is still sealed...

 

[Saluki2003]

I would only run carbon if I needed too... sometimes if my daughter is burning incense or something or if I am doing a bunch of work in the tank I'll run a touch of it for a day or 2. Probably doesn't do anything, but I keep some on hand for potential "toxins." That said I burn a candle in my fish room every night almost and nothing happens. I will also run some if we are having a party or something and I want the water extra super crystal clear to show it off, but then I take it out. It's just unnecessary IMO. The one exception I make is if I'm breaking in a new tank. I will run if for a week or so to grab any bad juju off the rocks I'm using (always live and pre-cycled BTW). I just run it for a week or 2 passively while the tank settles. This is all probably totally unnecessary. The 2 most successful tanks I have seen IRL run only a skimmer and socks, and to regular WC. These are folks who have very long term (decades) of success and sell high-end SPS. As far is the matrix... I'm not gonna lie, I don't even know what that is. I'm assuming its like marine pure spheres or something. You probably don't need it. I keep some spheres in my sump just to seed future projects or for emergency purposes, but I'm just putting usable rocks in there more so now. I dunno... maybe take some out? Dude, I don't test ammonia.... ever. I don't even test in the beginning. I let the tank run with mature live rock and throw in some water from an established tank and basically thats it... then I just add slowly until I know its good.
Your bacteria population is probably fine, but I'm not a marine biologist. I would take it out, run some floss and polishing pad, and keep some media handy for any creeping emergency... then, reevaluate. Good housekeeping is probably all you are going to need if you stock correctly.

Yeah...matrix is just a porous bio-media. I took the Chemipure and Purigen out. I’ll leave the carbon for a few more days since we just had the cleaning lady come by yesterday and I’m not sure how careful she was with cleaning chemicals.

I’ll start feeding daily and I’ll update next week when I do my next testing and water change.

Thank you for the help!!

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

I think you will see an improvement.

 

[Daniel92481]

Keep it simple. Carbon is beneficial IMO. I run it 24/7 with chemipure nano packets. The most important thing here is for you to test, which you are already on top of. Go slow...don’t make too many drastic changes all at once. Maybe remove one thing at a time and test like a madman to see what helped vs. not.