Nitrate

[Rmckoy]

I recently finished a cycle on my 70 gal

So far I'm planning on slowly starting with FOWLR
I have 40 lbs of live sand
50-70 lbs of live rock
I haven't added any fish yet cause I'm using tap water .
I tested the tap water and the nitrate reads 0 ppm
But I am having trouble getting the nitrates below 20ppm
And suggestions besides RO/DI ?
Are fish and or some corals ok with these levels ?

 

[Bectan01]

For fish only 20ppm is acceptable, for corals not so. I would highly recommend using anything other than tap, it's not just the nitrates you should be concerned with its the DTS (total dissolved solids) also tap water is commonly treated with other chemicals. Obviously ro-di is best but if you have to distilled water would be better than tap...