nitrates high

paulydee67 · Oct 6, 2018

hello
i have nitrates at 32 ppm .my tank is 4 months old.i have a 40 gallon innovative marine tank with 5 damsels and bi color Gobie .it has dry rock in it.i tried refugium the cheto died .i tried nopox but end up with with white slime.i have done 30 gallon water changes but it still climes up . i feed my fish one pinch of flake once a day.
please help. i want coral.
tanks paul

GoPitt88 · Oct 6, 2018

What test kit are you using? 32 ppm seems quite specific for a color chart [emoji13] That being said, I don't think 30 ish is horrible. Do you have a lot of algae? I'm sitting somewhere between 10 and 20 ppm.....ish [emoji16]

Jason mack · Oct 6, 2018

32 ppm is not bad ... my tank has been running great for the last 4-5 months with 50 + ppm .. but everything Goes in context ..
So can you give us the rest of Your parameters and tell us which test kits you are using ?
But still its a new tank and Somewhat expected !

paulydee67 · Oct 6, 2018

i use the red sea pro for nitrate and phosphate test.the of parameters i api.i will get the rest of the testing done once my roommate gets back because i am partially color blind.how long does it take to get parameters under control .i really want coral.

thanks paul

Jason mack · Oct 6, 2018

(Edited)If your Parameters are good phos ,calc and alk mag , then I don’t see why you can’t add corals frogspawn , hammers , torches , zoas ... easy softies to begin with ...
Also you can look at Hanna checkers .. not so expensive... but then you don’t have too worry about checking colors (digital) !

paulydee67 · Oct 6, 2018

so my nitrates okay to add zoas .i am fighting red hairy algae.i have no clean up crew.thanks guys .

PDR · Oct 6, 2018

+1 your nitrate is a little high but nothing that would keep you from having some coral, especially softies. Double check your results with another kit if you can. I wouldn't worry so much about bringing it down as I would keeping things stable.

Jason mack · Oct 6, 2018

Nitrates 50+

Jason mack · Oct 6, 2018

Although I do test ... I try not too get caught up chasing numbers .. so if my tank looks happy then I’m happy ... I am working on getting my nitrates down .... but I don’t worry about it too much ..
Stability is more important !!!

paulydee67 · Oct 6, 2018

thanks guys kool i getting coral. that tank is awesome! suggestions for a clean up crew to get rid or algae.

Jason mack · Oct 6, 2018

Turbo snails ,for a start ..

Stanzo13 · Oct 9, 2018

I'd like to add an expirence of mine in hopes that it could help others. I had a brown algea problem for almost a year and people said it would just go away..... One day I was in a super hurry and just dumped some pellets in with no concern what's so ever.... I came home to a tank of algea.... Entire thing brown everywhere... Now I feed once every other day and like magic no more problems. I think it's safe to say always be cautious about everything, I got lucky because I didn't have any loss to my mistake.

paulydee67 · Oct 9, 2018

Stanzo13 said:
I'd like to add an expirence of mine in hopes that it could help others. I had a brown algea problem for almost a year and people said it would just go away..... One day I was in a super hurry and just dumped some pellets in with no concern what's so ever.... I came home to a tank of algea.... Entire thing brown everywhere... Now I feed once every other day and like magic no more problems. I think it's safe to say always be cautious about everything, I got lucky because I didn't have any loss to my mistake.

thanks for the input.i started feeding my fish every other day. instead of every day