What should Nitrate be at?

[superdave07]

My nitrate where at 40 yesterday I did a 25% water change in the morning and I test them right now and they where at about 30, I plane on adding some inverts and one fish tomorrow. My question is what should my trate are safe to add my inverts and one fish tomorrow if not what should they be at? What is a good starter fish to add?

 

[Flake]

Aim to keep your nitrates under 20

 

[superdave07]

Aim to keep your nitrates under 20

do i do anther water change, i did a 25% water change in the morning??

 

[Fishguy2727]

How old is the tank?
Are you going to have corals?
What lighting do you have?

For fish only 20ppm is fine, but if you are going to have corals (and the lighting to go with them) that will turn the tank into an algae farm, in which case you want it as low as possible (ideally undetectable, but 0-5 or 5-10ppm is more typical.

 

[superdave07]

How old is the tank?
Are you going to have corals?
What lighting do you have?

For fish only 20ppm is fine, but if you are going to have corals (and the lighting to go with them) that will turn the tank into an algae farm, in which case you want it as low as possible (ideally undetectable, but 0-5 or 5-10ppm is more typical.

Two weeks
Some corals not now
4x54w t5

Plane on adding inverts and one fish tomorrow

 

[Fishguy2727]

What size tank?
What water are you using for water changes (tap, RO, premade at the store, what)?

 

[superdave07]

What size tank?
What water are you using for water changes (tap, RO, premade at the store, what)?

21gallon 64"L 26"H 4"w it's a wall mounted tank, I used tape and added conditioner

 

[Fishguy2727]

Most likely the nitrate is coming from the tap. Test it to make sure, but you will probably want to switch to RO water. On that size tank you could buy distilled (it has 0 TDS) or buy RO water from the LFS and mix your own water at home. It may not be a big issue now, but I can guarantee that the tap water will feed algae in that tank.

Any pics? Those wall mounted tanks are a pain (to maintain and scape).

 

[superdave07]

Pics

 

[superdave07]

Most likely the nitrate is coming from the tap. Test it to make sure, but you will probably want to switch to RO water. On that size tank you could buy distilled (it has 0 TDS) or buy RO water from the LFS and mix your own water at home. It may not be a big issue now, but I can guarantee that the tap water will feed algae in that tank.

Any pics? Those wall mounted tanks are a pain (to maintain and scape).

I added pics, so what if I take out about 7gallons and use 7 gallons of distiller, would that help? Or just 5 gallons of RS

 

[superdave07]

My tap is at 20 trates

 

[Fishguy2727]

Start using distilled to mix saltwater. Remember that water from water changes needs salt, water for topping off does (to top off use just distilled). Do a few water changes with the distilled water saltwater and it should help get the nitrate down (and most likely phosphate and silicate too).

I am not sure how long you were planning on waiting to get corals, but IMe they are about as hardy as fish. If you stick to the hardier ones at first (zoanthids, mushrooms, etc.) you can start adding them soon too.

What fish are you planning on getting?