Nitrates between 10 and 20 ppm, not going down, getting mixed advice

[Heidivee]

I have 30 gallon aio that is six months old. The nitrates won't budge, switched to feeding a little less food every other day, added a bunch of live bacteria. Lady at fish store says it's acceptable and not to do a water change, only do one every six weeks. Guy that sold me the tank says do a 50 percent water change or the fish will die. I have 2 clownfish, a chromus, a royal grammar and 3 gobies. They're all about half grown. Numbers were stable as I was stalking then hubby started overfeeding to get to the gobies. Cut back a week or two ago. When you poor water in the tank, you get some green brown floating. Is that good algea or should I take a vacuum to the rocks. Should the filter have something done to it. Guy I bought it from said not to touch it. It's possible two small fish died in the tank a month ago but no spikes of anything at the time. Trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do.

 

[blaxsun]

First and foremost, your fish aren't going to die and you don't need to perform a 50% water change. Second, you say this is an AIO - so what exactly are you running for filtration, ie: filter socks, filter floss, etc.? I see what i think is an overflow in the center and something off to the left in the image. Do you have a protein skimmer, refugium, etc.?

 

[reddevilant]

10-20 ppm for Nitrates definitely won't kill your fish or even inverts IME. In fact I intentionally keep nitrates at at least 10 ppm because I keep macro algae along with the fish and inverts.

 

[tharbin]

Your Nitrates are fine. 10-20ppm isn't going to hurt anything. I would suggest, to any newer saltwater hobbyist however, to do weekly or at least every other week water changes of around 10% if weekly, 20% if bi-weekly. It will help keep thing stabile while you are learning and it will help you to get to know your tank better.

We need to know more about your filter. If you have a filter sock it needs to be rinsed often, if filter floss it needs to be replaced at least weekly.

 

[Saltyreef]

You likely have sand and cryptic areas of the tank/aio insert that are harboring DOC/poop that is fueling the nitrate.
A water change may help in the short term but unless you get in there with some elbow grease and clean it wont correct itself.
What may be good for someone elses tank may not be good for yours. Its a constant balancing act.

 

[youcallmenny1]

I'd prefer 10-20ppm nitrate to be honest. Any lower and things start starving. I spent years thinking it needed to be < 10ppm but that caused nothing but problems. 10-30ppm these days and things thrive!

 

[Saltyreef]

I'd prefer 10-20ppm nitrate to be honest. Any lower and things start starving. I spent years thinking it needed to be < 10ppm but that caused nothing but problems. 10-30ppm these days and things thrive!

You should have seen my tank at < 1ppm nitrate and .01 phosphate....
And then at slightly elevated nitrate.

May work for some but not others

 

[youcallmenny1]

You should have seen my tank at < 1ppm nitrate and .01 phosphate....
And then at slightly elevated nitrate.

May work for some but not others

Yea I'm purely speaking from experience. I have no idea how anyone makes that work. It just murdered coral and CUC in mine for 3-4 years straight. I tried fixing literally everything else, nothing ever changed. I finally took my reactors offline, took my socks/roller out, turned the skimmer down and grew more chaeto and viola, everything sprang to life.

 

[sfin52]

10-20 is fine and is in normal range. The zooanthellae need to have nutrients to live and help grow the coral.

 

[Heidivee]

First and foremost, your fish aren't going to die and you don't need to perform a 50% water change. Second, you say this is an AIO - so what exactly are you running for filtration, ie: filter socks, filter floss, etc.? I see what i think is an overflow in the center and something off to the left in the image. Do you have a protein skimmer, refugium, etc.?

The filter is in the center and I think it has charcoal and seachem denigrate, I honestly don't even know how to open it but I did add some denitrate about a month ago. No refugium. A protein skimmer missing parts used for aeration. I bought used tank that was about 3 months old so I didn't set up filter I asked guy I bought it from how to open it and he said not to mess with it.

 

[Heidivee]

Your Nitrates are fine. 10-20ppm isn't going to hurt anything. I would suggest, to any newer saltwater hobbyist however, to do weekly or at least every other week water changes of around 10% if weekly, 20% if bi-weekly. It will help keep thing stabile while you are learning and it will help you to get to know your tank better.

We need to know more about your filter. If you have a filter sock it needs to be rinsed often, if filter floss it needs to be replaced at least weekly.

Sounds like I need to figure out how to open filter. Bought tank established and was told not to mess with it

 

[Heidivee]

You likely have sand and cryptic areas of the tank/aio insert that are harboring DOC/poop that is fueling the nitrate.
A water change may help in the short term but unless you get in there with some elbow grease and clean it wont correct itself.
What may be good for someone elses tank may not be good for yours. Its a constant balancing act.

I've got a fancy vacuum, I can get down in there and vacuum out any debris. I bought it and then never bothered to use it. You can even vacuum the bottom without sucking up water, I think. Might have to do that tonight. I don't want to mess with the rocks. Another concern is I have copepods for the mandarin, will those get sucked out?

 

[Ashish Patel]

If it makes you feel better i tested my Nitrates today and they where 60PPM. My Phosphates at 0.55 PPM. Its not toxic to fish and corals need it to survive. i find its more important to maximize you nutrient export to match nutrient imports with things like flow, refugium, and skimmer - which i have yet to do.

 

[Heidivee]

Wow.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Dont stress it, test it every few weeks and have an action plan. Say it keeps going up every time you check. Then you know you need to make adjustments somewhere. increase flow, wet skim, use chemipure carbon (Greatest carbon of all time), remove half the sand, etc. I personally would stay away from using water changes to adjust nutrients as a management tool. Something should be fixed first and water changes are good for just replacing water incase of metal build up, detrius removal, and replenish trace elements.

Dont listen to half the stuff on the forums, dont chase a number, Observe your tank, use your good judgement first. Best of luck.

 

[Heidivee]

Dont stress it, test it every few weeks and have an action plan. Say it keeps going up every time you check. Then you know you need to make adjustments somewhere. increase flow, wet skim, use chemipure carbon (Greatest carbon of all time), remove half the sand, etc. I personally would stay away from using water changes to adjust nutrients as a management tool. Something should be fixed first and water changes are good for just replacing water incase of metal build up, detrius removal, and replenish trace elements.

Dont listen to half the stuff on the forums, dont chase a number, Observe your tank, use your good judgement first. Best of luck.

Fish look happy, no signs of distress and the number has been constant for a couple of months now.

 

[jeffchapok]

Don't get hung up on chasing numbers. My tank has been fine up to 60 ppm NO3. If it's doing okay otherwise, just leave it be.

 

[Spare time]

Yea I'm purely speaking from experience. I have no idea how anyone makes that work. It just murdered coral and CUC in mine for 3-4 years straight. I tried fixing literally everything else, nothing ever changed. I finally took my reactors offline, took my socks/roller out, turned the skimmer down and grew more chaeto and viola, everything sprang to life.

You just have to have heavy import+export of nitrogen and phosphorus sources

 

[youcallmenny1]

You just have to have heavy import+export of nitrogen and phosphorus sources

I mean I get that but you could just not export as much, not essentially waste import by doing so and still give good advice to new people that this kind of approach isn't realistic for. It's definitely not the ideal solution for newcomers who have no sense of this balance.

 

[blaxsun]

If you have a chance, please take a snapshot inside/of your overflow/filter setup. We may have some suggestions for improvement, maintenance, etc.