Nitrates in the tank will not drop bellow 40

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

just be glad your nitrates don't increase by 20 every 2 days when you have 0 fish and don't feed the tank

Does your nitrate rise that fast?

 

[Dave1993]

Does your nitrate rise that fast?

yepp i neglected doing water change for 1 week and nitrates are well over 75 now i did a 20% last night tested today and still blinking 75ppm on hanna tested with 3 packs of hanna regents

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I did a water change and it dropped to 37.8

What's your phosphate level? Nitrate at 40-ish is not necessarily a bad thing, and are not what I'd consider "high" (elevated, maybe...)
What kind of coral do you have?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

yepp i neglected doing water change for 1 week and nitrates are well over 75 now i did a 20% last night tested today and still blinking 75ppm on hanna tested with 3 packs of hanna regents

Is the tank cycled? Sounds more like nitrite interference than real accumulation of 10 ppm per day.

 

[Reagan2646]

what is your water source, tap or ro/di? did any of the fish die? is your life rock fresh cure rock or you got it from somebody? just asking those questions to try to find your high nitrates

I have an rodi system for my water and I haven’t lost any fish since the nitrates ran or coral and all my rock is live and has been cycled the tank has been running for almost 7 months

 

[Reagan2646]

What's your phosphate level? Nitrate at 40-ish is not necessarily a bad thing, and are not what I'd consider "high" (elevated, maybe...)
What kind of coral do you have?

Phosphates are about .03 but they drain rapidly and I have a mixed reef tank with euphilias an elegance mushroom zoas trumpets birds nest scans toadstool and micromusa

 

[Dave1993]

Is the tank cycled? Sounds more like nitrite interference than real accumulation of 10 ppm per day.

0 nitrite tank has been up for 6 months 0 nitrite tested with hanna that was my thoughts also

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Phosphates are about .03 but they drain rapidly and I have a mixed reef tank with euphilias an elegance mushroom zoas trumpets birds nest scans toadstool and micromusa

All those corals like "dirtier" water (maybe the birds nest a little cleaner). I would not sweat nitrates at 40, just monitor and track any trends higher. Raising phosphate seems like a better endeavor, to 0.1 - 0.4ppm

 

[chipchipbro]

I had to bring up po4 over 0.05 (and not dropping below again) well, 0.1 would be better… to reduce no3 by dosing carbon

If you want to reduce no3 you need po4 imo