Nitrate level

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Dragon5jt

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
24
I am trying to make my water reef worthy, my alk is 133, and my nitrates are 15 ppm. I am concerned about the nitrate level, I have seen information telling me I'm ok, and high. Looking for some input.


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You need to post all the details of your aquarium before anyone can give advice?


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Agree with istimpy have you got live rock or sump?


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Anything over like 5 is high in a reef tank. I would just do a few large water changes, get it under control and then going forward watch what you feed. Do you have a skimmer? How often do you do water changes and in what amount? And finally, what size tank and livestock? 5 little fish vs 5 big fish can make a HUGE difference.
 
I have a protein skimmer in sump, the tank is a 72 gal bow front. Is was thinking of using the sump as refugium? I know I don't do my water changes often enough. I have live sand bed, with approx 30lbs rock, 10lbs of live to seed the rest which has worked ok. Live stock, 1 fox face rabbit fish, 1 Clarke clown, 2 lawn mower bennies, 1 small hippo tang, 2 emerald crabs, and 2 hermit crabs.


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How long has it been set up?


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From your stocking level and what you have I would say I am not surprised by your nitrate reading. You have some BIG fish in there, ie: the tang. Messy eaters and big poopers. lol

If you want to keep what you have then you will def have to step up the water changes. I dont think even a nitrate reactor would make much of a dent so water changes are literally the only way to go to get those numbers down enough to keep corals successfully.
I will add however, and people may call me the tang police, lol, but a hippo really has no place in a 72g tank. Mine is in a 180g and I hate that its not bigger. hehe That being said, get some water changes under your belt and I bet you will do ok with corals. :)
 
Carey, thank you soon much for your advise, do you have any thoughts on adding an in tank refugium?


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I had one setup under my 125g and even though it was over a third of the entire sump I didnt realize any benefits. From my reading and research I discovered that you really need a decent sized refugium to see results. In my opinion, save the money and effort and just up the water change schedule. I know water changes are a major pain, I have a half dozen tanks so I can feel your pain lol....but that is the best way to get your tank in order for corals. i dont do water changes every week, generally every month but I do extremely large amounts. On my 180g I will do over 60g a pop. Makes it easier on you and it's actually just a few more minutes to get that larger amount over say the normal 10%. I have a separate pump just for water changes and pump the water out of the tank and then use the pump to fill the tank back up. If your water change system is setup right the changes dont take that long. Beats using a bucket which is what I used to use. lol
 
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