What are your nitrates?

[tebstan]

What are your nitrates? Be honest!

I hate test kits. The colors in the vial never look like what's on the cards, and it changes if you lean to the side or its after dusk.

According to a new salifert kit, my nitrates are somewhere between 10 and 25, but definitely not 10 or 25. I would *love* to have it read at 10 or lower. Am I being unrealistic?

What are your nitrates?
What kind of tank do you have? (SPS, softie, mixed?)
How often do you clean?

[Mr Cob]

You forgot the option that says...

[ ] ?

Seriously...I rarely test these days. That's me being honest. If the corals are thriving and the fish are swimming then things are good. I do regular water changes weekly, have a huge fuge with tons of macro and a DSB. There couldn't possibly be any nitrates or nitrites. :)

I have a light fish load too.

If you want people to be honest....ask how many people test on a regular basis. I wish I could test more frequently so I would feel more scientific, it's just a pain. The best was being new and busting out the countless test kits in front of my wife and pretending to look like I knew what I was doing, like their was some scientific equation I was calculating...lol!

[Europhyllia]

I test and then I write it down in my log book. That's how nerdy I am. lol
I like testing though and my little guy likes to assist so I call it 'homeschooling'.

I have a fairly high bioload 215 with mostly gorgonians, some LPS, some sponges and filter feeders. I like to feed things.
My last log book entry was Nitrate 5 (Salifert)
It's the day before water change and I am testing for you right now. It looks to be between 0 and 2 today.
I was afraid of that.
The ricordea are looking less happy.

Got to up the feeding to get ahead of the biopellets and the Prodibio.
I want o keep Nitrates at 5 and not lower because I like Macro algae.

The pellets seemed to be less effective so I've dosed some Prodibio BioDigest and that boosted it a little beyond of what I was hoping for.
My new Skimmer also seems to be a little overzealous too.
If things don't calm down I might have to take the pellets off line.

Got to find a balance there. Maybe I'll add some dry filter feeder food on a timer?

[txg8gxp]

Always at 0 or very close(at least what the test kit says), but I don't feed much and run biopellets on a low nutrient sps system....but you know that :)

[tebstan]

I keep an excel file with my test results, water changes, and stock list. :nerd:

I don't want the tank too clean; I've got macro, sponges, mollusks, gorgs, and NPS. But I don't like the nitrates riding too high either, I'd be happy with it around 10 so I could continue to feed heavy without worrying.

Some people don't test... but they have SPS or other sensitive corals that show how they "feel" about dirty water. When you have stuff that thrives in slightly dirty water, but crashes in too dirty water... it's stressful to find that balance.

[Mr Cob]

I'm big on stock lists! I enjoy that log book.

[Bill S]

We had a poll a few years ago when I had my big tank up. It was amazing how many big, successful tanks ran from 15-30. All the time. Mine was always in the 10-20 range. I fed well, though, and had a decent fish load and a HUGE coral load.

[RayAllen]

Im with Rob, ive never tested my 180 for nitrates. I rarely test for anything in any of my aquarium. Everything in the aquarium fish and coral are healthy, look great and growing.

Clean, Maintain, waterchange and you will be good.

If I kept SPS and clams I would be testing more often, im sure.

[Mr Cob]

^yeah, I tested pretty regularly when I had SPS...still less than I probably should have and regularly for me was once a month...but now that I don't have any...I just don't test.

[Gseclipse02]

im with rob im not big on testing i do my water changes and let stuff be but for fun ill test my water in the am

[wolff809]

I am pretty new to salt water so I test once a week. Mine are always around 20 and that's with a small bio load and I keep mainly zoas and lps

[Big_Pun]

i test twice a week since my addition of bio pellets, my tank is at very low levels, but ive been feeding coral ver heavy to get them to bounce back and i keep a lil of everything , SPS, LPS, Softies. and all are doing well in my vlean system. as for feeding i use "fuel" for amino acids every other day and coral frenzy inbetween, all coral has started to color back up and sps shows good polyp extension on pieces that where browned out.

[Kristy]

I'm the designated tester in our household since Mike feigns colorblindness to get out of it. ;)

Our 210g has a VERY heavy bioload so we have to be diligent about our water changes. It creeps up to the 20 range at water change time and then goes down to about 10 when everything is good and clean. Our other two tanks tend to stay closer to 10.

[kkiel02]

I am also a non tester nowadays. When I first got in I tested alot but now I just get the same results over and over. Mine are under 10 last time I tested. The only things I would like to test for now are mag, cal and kh. Oh and I test the copper in my little qt.

[allan]

I stopped testing ammonia and trites a long time ago. Once you've cycled, IMO, those two will stay at zero unless something is added or dies. Even left over food, if not substantial, will be only noted as a small mini cycle as your bacteria grows to compensate.

Then I stopped testing for trates. They never seemed to go up.

But I've started to do water changes regularly, five to ten a few times a week. Most of the reason I do this is to syphon off cyano.

[tebstan]

I've been trying to lower my nitrates down to the 10 range and a few of my corals seem unhappy about the clean water. I have nitrates of 15 to 20, a very light bioload, no (nuisance) algae growing... but I have NPS and macro. Trying to reduce the nitrates caused more harm than good. :[

Anyone else keep NPS? What are the nitrates in successful NPS tanks?

[ballardjr2000]

My tnak just got done cycling so of course i would be a below 10 now give me awhile and lets see where i end up lol

[copperband]

My tank is now between 0-10 after adding macro and all soft corals seem happy.