Need advice Nitrates!?!?.

[Clownfish25]

I did my first water change on Monday. I have a 38g I changed about 6.5 -7 gallons . Then at 12:45 this morning I checked all my levels. Ph is between 8.2 - 8.4 Ammonia is 0 Nitrite is 0 but my NITRATE is at 20 ppm. is this typical should I do a small change today and if so how much do u think I should change.



In the tank I have. 2 domino damsels, 6 snails and a peppermint shrimp.

I plan on getting a clownfish and a goby this weekend. Will they be ok with the current levels in my tank?

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Ya its ok for your levels to be at 20. 20 and under is totally safe, but you should try and keep them as low as possible. Dont worry about it

 

[spoonman]

I determine the amount of water change by my Nitrates. 50% will drop the nitrates by 50%....etc.

 

[sanchezkk]

Is that the way it works?

 

[Terrance]

There are a lot of factors used to determine amount and frequency of water changes.
- level of stocking
- use of skimmer
- live rocks and/or deep sand bed
- macroalgae
- shelf products

Even with all of the above, water should be changed at least once per month IMHO. Its better to do one big water change rather than several small changes.

Maybe your tap contains some nitrate.

 

[sanchezkk]

Is that at worst case scenario? The big wc once a month?

 

[Terrance]

No. One 10% water change every week is not as nearly effective as one 50% water change once per month.

 

[sanchezkk]

The reason I questioned was all I've ever read is weekly wc @50%.

 

[Terrance]

For freshwater, do as much water change as possible. 50% weekly is a good target for those guys. Water is cheap.

Salt is too expensive, so its not practical for the average hobbyist. All the stuff mentioned above helps postpone water changes by removing some waste. The freshwater tanks have better water quality since they do more water changes.

 

[FTMMWS]

You could build an algae scrubber to remove nitrates ..but like said in the first post ,20 is not really that high

 

[Clownfish25]

You could build an algae scrubber to remove nitrates ..but like said in the first post ,20 is not really that high

Please elaborate on building an algae scrubber? I plan on doing a water change tomorrow , I got two clowns and a yellow head sleeper goby(posting pictures soon) anyways we had to get the domino damsels out of the tank first, we moved our live rock and sand made things cloudy. Those guys are fast, it took us like 2 hours getting them out. Anyways I'm worried about the condition of the tank now so I'm gonna do a wc. Water should be clear by morning. and as long as nitrates aren't sitting at 40 or more I'm ok right ??

Thanks for all the help so far and for the advice yet to come.

 

[Terrance]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/algae-scrubber-basics-163817.html