Nitrites/Nitrates..

[Poolrad]

Had a reading of 10 for Nitrites and 40 for Nitrates last night.. I believe my bio-balls are turning into a breeding ground for them..

How dangerous are those levels? I know 0 should be optimal....

I believe I am going to convert my wet/dry with bio-balls into a refugium, I just need to figure out how to add a baffle into it so I can provide a well for sand/plants...

Anyone ever add baffles to a wet dry before?

 

[Jason]

I added a baffel to a 20h aguarium...... all I did was drain the water, dry it out with a towel, cut a a piece of glass and silicone it. I let it sit for 24 gours before I let the sump fill back up.


Do you have a pic of your wet dry?

 

[malkore]

10ppm nitrItes is toxic to fish. You need water changes NOW if there's livestock in that tank. It doesn't sound like your tank is even fully cycled yet.
NitrAtes can hit 20ppm in a FO tank before they should be considered 'bad'. In a reef tank, you want nitrates as close to 0ppm as possible.

 

[Poolrad]

It's 1ppm (10 is the reading from aquatest), Nitrates would be 4ppm...

So not that bad

Thanks for the quick concern though..

 

[lando]

How dangerous are those levels?

A NO2 reading of 10ppm is toxic to livestock. It will kill them if not corrected. NO3 of 40ppm is a bit high but many fish can adapt to that level (below 20 is acceptable for a FO tank, below 5 for a reef). YOu are correct, 0 is optimal. While bioballs have been known to produce high NO3, you may have something else going on with the NO2 reading.

 

[Poolrad]

Please read my follow-up reply. it is 1ppm & 4ppm respectively. I quoted how Aquatest presents the number, I did not convert them to ppm...

Sorry for the confusion..

 

[nsu7]

What are the acceptable nitrite/nitrate levels for LR?

 

[seaham358]

nsu what are you asking?? live rock?? live rock is rock so it will not matter what the levels are... If there are living corals, fish , inverts that is different..
You want 0 on both, any nitrite is not a good sign, it means the tank is not stable and is still in a cycle or something happened.
Nitrate you want 0 but from what I have read 40ppm is the max you want to go before your fish start to get stressed.